A Model for Developing Coaches of Elementary Science and Mathematics Teachers

• In Event: 53.058 - Toward Powerful Coaching and Mentoring as Contexts for Teacher Learning

Abstract

Coaches play a critical role in teacher education (Sleeter, 2008). The knowledge and skills needed for teaching are complex and demanding (Ball & Bass, 2000; Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005; Richert, 2012). To know a subject well, does not guarantee that one can teach that subject well (Shulman, 1986). The work that coaches do requires skill and in-the-moment decisions; work that relies on carefully orchestrated opportunities to rehearse productive and supportive responses to teachers’ efforts to improve their teaching (Elliott et al., 2009). The purpose of this study is to examine one model for supporting the work of coaches that was developed as part of a professional development project to enhance the teaching of mathematics and science by elementary teachers.

Authors

• Juliet A. Baxter, University of Oregon

• Angie Ruzicka, Eugene 4J Schools