A Self-Study of Side-Coaching: Applying the Pedagogy of Improvisational Theater to Teacher Education

• In Event: Roundtable Session 8
  In Roundtable Session: Discovering Tensions in Practice Through Self-Study

Abstract

Side-coaching – the practice of providing immediate, public, verbal feedback during a rehearsal – is common in theatre. Little is known, however, about how teacher educators use side-coaching to support teacher candidates during rehearsals of instructional practice. It is often not until student teaching that candidates are tasked with rehearsing instruction, and, even then, most supervisory feedback is deferred (post-lesson) rather than immediate (mid-lesson). The author designed a self-study to investigate side-coaching cues with the aim of developing theory about side-coaching as a teacher-education tool. From this study, the author developed a typology of side-coaching cues based on level of explicitness, and a framework for understanding the contextual factors that shape the delivery and reception of side-coaching feedback.

Author

• Lisa M. Barker, Towson University