Instructional Coaching for Literacy: The Latest from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Other Cases Targeting the Long Game

• In Event: Problematizing Instructional Coaching for Early Grade Reading: An Open Space Deep-Dive on Issues of Sustaining it at Scale in Low-Resource Contexts

Proposal

After several years of initial attempts introducing instructional coaching for improved reading instruction and other learning outcomes, many countries are now in second or third phases of donor-supported initiatives to institute coaching systems. Early experiences in places like the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Nigeria, Kenya, and Liberia showed positive effects of coaching teachers to correctly use new skills and materials in the classroom. But these experiences were often costly and complicated. Paid, external actors sometimes did not have instructional experience themselves; even when all transport costs were covered, they often made teacher visits inconsistently; data collection sometimes overshadowed a focus on better teacher practice; and even extensively trained coaches struggled to provide support rather than supervise.
Now, countries and their financial and technical partners are seeking to craft coaching models that are of lower cost; make the most of system resources; are supported by cost-effective information and communication technologies; and have an exit strategy for national education systems and/or decentralized governments to fully integrate these systems in the long-run. This presentation shares data from cases attempting to do this.
In the DRC, the 2016-2017 school year has seen the introduction of a new model for coaching for reading instruction. After nearly a year of consultations at multiple levels, the Ministry of Education (Ministère de l'Enseignement Primaire, Secondaire et Initiation à La Nouvelle Citoyenneté, or MEPS-INC) and its partners in the USAID/UKAID ACCELERE! project settled on an experimental model using a combination of school directors, head teachers, and inspectors to serve as coaches to teachers in target zones implementing new early grade reading instructional approaches and materials. Per MEPS-INC policy, classroom-based observation and coaching sessions are combined with teacher learning circles and less frequent school cluster meetings to reinforce new practices. Project-hired “reading mobilizers” are supporting the initiation of this system. Initial operations research using quantitative and qualitative data from their visits to school directors, combined with early tablet-based data on teachers’ fidelity of implementation of the supported reading program, give an early look at how this new model is working at inception.
In another case, data from USAID's Georgia Primary Education Project (G-PriEd) shows positive effects of a school-based continuous professional development program pilot using the teacher learning circle (TLC) model. This model has been shown to allow teachers to help each other address challenges and share best practices, discuss classroom diagnostic assessments, and informally hold each other accountable for keeping up with reforms. More recently, the project has been working to formalize the role of the circle facilitator as a mentor and coach. Early results suggest that the facilitated TLC model has enabled teachers not only to acquire new knowledge and skills, but to examine and change instructional beliefs and behavior to effect real improvements. The model is designed to be cost-effective for resource-strapped environments.
These cases and others suggest that further problematizing coaching models will be necessary for finding solutions that are suitable to particular local contexts and sustainable at scale in the long-run.

Author

• Anne-Marie Nzumba, Direction of Programs and Teaching and Learning Materials, MEPS-INC DRC