Understanding Coaches and Data Teams as Capacity-Building Interventions: A Sociocultural Learning Approach

• In Event: Roundtable Session 116
  In Roundtable Session: Interventions to Support Data-Driven Decision Making and Instructional Improvement: Frameworks and Findings

Abstract

Most of the empirical research on data-driven decision making (DDDM) to date has been atheoretical in nature (e.g., Dembosky, et al., 2005; Heritage & Chen, 2005; Lachat & Smith, 2004; Zavadsky, 2009). Researchers are left with a list of potential variables that enable or constrain the use of data, without a representation of DDDM that orders and relates the concepts to one another or to prior conceptualizations of educators, schools, or school systems (Kezar, 2006; Marsh, Forthcoming).

This conceptual paper begins to fill this gap in the literature. We draw on sociocultural learning theory to frame a discussion of how capacity-building interventions such as data coaches, literacy coaches, and data teams help teachers use data to inform instruction. Sociocultural learning theory offers a framework that highlights the interactions of interpersonal (social), cultural-historical, and individual factors. Thus, capacity-building is not conceived of as the transmittal of a set of skills and body of knowledge, but instead a learning process in which individuals make sense of information and construct new knowledge based on prior knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and experiences, and through activity and social interactions (Gredler, 2009; Schunk, 2000; Vygotsky, 1934/1978).

In this paper, we first provide an overview of sociocultural theory, comparing it to other learning theories. We utilize a range of theories from the sociocultural tradition, beginning with ideas drawn from original Vygotsky scholarship to more recent theories of situated cognition and authentic activity (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989); cognitive apprenticeship (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989; Collins, Brown, & Holum, 1991); communities of practice and legitimate peripheral participation (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Rogoff, 1993; Wenger, 1998;); and professional learning communities (McLaughlin & Talbert, 2006; Stoll, Bolam, McMahon, Wallace, & Thomas, 2006).

Collectively, this literature suggests a range of domains of support that may help develop teachers’ use of data, including assessing and targeting the Zone of Proximal development; modeling; scaffolding; observing; providing feedback; dialoguing; brokering; using tools; and establishing norms. The theoretical literature also predicts an array of conditions that are likely to mediate how teachers engage with these interventions to interpret and act on data and, subsequently, how they develop the knowledge, skills, and practices that allow them to engage in this process without facilitation. These conditions range from the interpersonal (e.g., trust) to organizational (e.g., the school culture) and external, environmental conditions (e.g., history of prior reforms). Finally, we discuss potential limitations of sociocultural learning theory in understanding how to best build teacher capacity for data use and offer directions for future research. This paper promises to add a strong theoretical grounding not only to this particular symposium, but also to the broader field of research on DDDM.

Authors

• Julie A. Marsh, University of Southern California

• Jennifer Sloan McCombs, RAND Corporation

• Caitlin Farrell, University of California - Berkeley