Conferencing strategies

Robbins suggests six principles for successful conferencing in the peer coaching process. I like his quote from Little that says that discussing the observed teaching is like "unravelling a mystery together, not monitoring each other." He states that it is important to not put the inviting teacher's sense of competence or self-esteem at stake. We will have to stress that to new joiners of this process as we go. The principals that help to separate the practice from the person include three technical and three social principals.

The technical ones are:
1. Common language
2. Focus
3. Hard evidence

 The social principles are:
1. Interaction
2. Predictability
3. Reciprocity

 Three goals of conferencing are trust, learning, and autonomy. On pages 38-42, Robbins gives approaches to pre-conferencing, observing, and post conferencing by way of cognitive coaching (as a means to achieving these goals). We need to look over these as they are summed up in the charts in the book and we can us these as a road map to successful peer coaching. Which of the six principals do you think is the easiest, or most natural? Which do you think is the most difficult? What are some important things that jump out for you that should be emphasized to peer coaching participants when it comes to conferencing?