The Promise and Pitfalls of Mathematics Coaching: New Evidence Regarding Coaching Practices and Their Impact

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Schools across the country are enlisting the help of instructional coaches to support teachers’ enactment of high quality mathematics instruction as envisioned by reformers. Despite the popularity of this professional development model, there is a lack of research describing how coaches can most effectively engage in their work with teachers. Specifically, additional research is needed that illustrates how coaches can work with teachers in one-on-one settings. This symposium brings together four groups of education scholars who will describe how coaches support individual teachers through coaching sessions, the coaching cycle, side-by-side coaching, and modeling, and what teachers and students gain from these experiences. Implications for practitioners, such as coaches and district administrators, as well as researchers will be discussed.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Research in Mathematics Education

Chair

• Sarah Theule Lubienski, Indiana University

Papers

• Purposeful Coaching of Middle School Teachers and the Positive Effect on Teacher and Student Learning - Aimee Ellington, Virginia Commonwealth University; Joy Wright Whitenack, Virginia Commonwealth University

• Relationship of Coach-Teacher Planning Sessions to Quality of Mathematics Lessons - Mary Kay Stein, University of Pittsburgh; Jennifer L. Russell, University of Pittsburgh; Richard James Correnti, University of Pittsburgh; Victoria Bill

• Learning Responsiveness: How Elementary Mathematics Teachers' Practice Changed Through Side-by-Side Coaching - Jen Munson, Stanford University

• Exploring the Content and Depth of Coach-Teacher Talk during Modeling and Co-Teaching - Stephanie Evthokia Saclarides, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Sarah Theule Lubienski, Indiana University

Discussant

• Lynsey K. Gibbons, Boston University