Presentation 2: Lessons learned from the development of digital coaching support tools for low-resource environments

• In Event: The Present and Future of Technology-Supported Teacher Coaching

Proposal

Taking a look at the global education-technology landscape, there is no shortage of digital tools and software targeted at all levels of education systems. While many of these tools are very valuable within their intended contexts, they often fall short when applied within resource-constrained environments. The most common shortcomings include cost-effectiveness, contextual localization, and reliance on Internet connectivity. Research suggests that, within these environments, the most cost-effective target for the use of technology to improve learning outcomes are interventions at the instructional coach-level (Piper, Zuilkowski, Strigel, & Kwayumba, 2016).

In this scenario trained coaches have a mandate to regularly visits a set of schools, usually within a geographic region. During their school visit, coaches might collect some general data on the school or classroom, observe a lessons and have a reflection session with the teacher about the lesson. At national scale, supporting thousands of teachers, the quality and the consistency of these conversations and the feedback teachers receive are critical to effect improvement in teaching. Tangerine:Coach provides a tool that facilitates these school visits. As described in other presentations on this panel, the software uses data from classroom observations and student assessments to provide specific coaching advice based on observation tools that aligned with the subject, grade, and lesson plan the teacher was using at the time of the coaching.

In a new version, however, the software can be customized to the level of the teacher’s progress in relation to levels of demonstrated teaching skills. While coaches still access observation tools based on the grade and subject of the lesson, the classroom observation tool also adjusts to one of three levels of instructional practice adoption. Based on a teacher’s consistency in employing targeted instructional skills, observation tools adjust to a level 1, 2, or 3. This provides coaches the opportunity to focus on different instructional skills over consecutive visits to the same classroom and transforms the coaching from just looking at lesson content to also considering teacher growth.

This presentation will discuss the pedagogical foundations and technical lessons learned during the development and deployment of Tangerine:Coach. The presentation will share the successes and challenges that we experienced while turning a proven data collection and assessment software into a valuable support tool for instructional coaching at national scale.

Author

• Matt Finholt-Daniel, RTI International / University of Minnesota