Teacher Time-Out: Supporting Collective Experimentation Inside Practice

• In Event: 21.051 - Mathematics Coaching for Sense-Making: Shifting the Lens to Teachers in the Coaching Relationship

Abstract

Objectives
In this paper, we present an analysis of how a coaching routine emerged and was established, which transformed the interactions between coaches and teachers by allowing them to learn in and from practice.
Perspectives
Ambitious mathematics teaching is both socially and intellectually demanding because it “places multiple, competing, and often ambiguous demands on the teacher who must manage complex instructional interactions” (Ghousseini, 2017, p. 189). The numerous in-the-moment decisions in teaching require teachers to act in principled and responsive ways in the face of uncertainty (Lampert, 2001). The knowledge that teachers call on to guide their moment-to-moment decision-making is critical (Kennedy, 2016). Recent shifts in professional learning for teachers have been toward identifying approaches to support teachers to use knowledge in action and develop the interactive work of teaching (Lampert et al., 2013).
In this analysis, we examined a coaching routine established during a school-wide improvement effort, where an elementary mathematics coach supported teachers across the system to develop ambitious instructional practices, resulting in greater learning gains for students. The professional learning design provided opportunities for teachers to collectively work with the coach to plan instructional activities and try the activity out in classrooms so they can continue to talk about teaching as instruction unfolded. Teachers and the coach had opportunities to take a “Teacher Time Out” (TTO) – a mechanism by which one could signal that they wished to pause the instruction – to puzzle through students’ responses and emergent questions about their decision-making.
Methods and Data Sources
We examined over 25 hours of video-tapes of coach and teachers’ co-enacted lessons during full-day, job-embedded professional development sessions (Author, 2018c), from across three years in order to analyze the TTO interactions. We aimed to understand how the routine was established, the opportunities for teacher learning during the interactions, and how the content of interactions changed over time. We devised an analytic plan to capture the interactions and look for how the teachers collectively examined skills, knowledge, and judgment and how to use them interactively. We also examined field notes that captured teachers’ reflections of the TTO interactions, and interviews with a sample of teachers and the instructional leaders.
Results
We found that the routine gave opportunities for teachers to teach collaboratively, making aspects of their practice public to allow for problem-solving alongside each other and the coach. TTOs allowed for opportunities for teachers to develop their mathematical knowledge for teaching, knowledge of student reasoning across mathematical domains, knowledge of curriculum, and opportunities to develop the pedagogical skills to enact rich learning opportunities for students (e.g., positioning students competently). The routine also supported teachers’ opportunities to develop a shared vision for ambitious instruction, on which they continued to refine in their own classrooms.
Study Significance
The TTO was adopted as a norm in this school, creating opportunities for all educators involved to co-problem solve matters of teaching and learning, further refining their understanding of students’ reasoning and pedagogical techniques that support students’ learning.

Authors

• Lynsey K. Gibbons, Boston University

• Ada Okun, Boston University