Coaching Conversations About Teaching and Student Learning: How Professional Development Provides Resources to Enhance Teacher Learning

• In Event: Roundtable Session 45
  In Roundtable Session: Moving and Shifting Coaching Conversations to Deepen the Impact on Student Learning

Abstract

This paper examines the role Content-Focused coaching (CFC), a widely-used professional development model, can play in providing resources that encourage coaching conversations focused on improving teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge, teaching practice, and student achievement. Findings suggest that what resources were accessed and how they were used significantly influenced how much coaching conversations centered on teaching and student learning. We detail how the CFC framework and its conceptual tools were used by coaches and teachers to structure and facilitate conversations about designing and implementing rigorous writing lessons and to reflect on issues relevant to student learning. Our study adds to empirical work exploring how instructional coaching, as a form of professional development, can improve teacher knowledge and instructional practice.

Authors

• Robyn A. Carlson, Michigan State University

• Marjorie A. Terpstra, Calvin College

• Robert E. Floden, Michigan State University

• Robin Harris, Michigan State University

• Eric Dickens, Michigan State University