Using Curriculum as a Key Lever for Coaching Conversations (Poster 2)

• In Event: Exploring the Influence of Organizational and Leadership Contexts on the Work of Coaching

Abstract

Objectives
Curriculum has been identified as a lever for helping teachers to teach ambitiously (e.g., see Authors 2008a; 2008b). Curriculum could also be thought of as a key lever for coaching ambitiously, in which coaches interact with teachers around worthwhile content and teaching practices. This paper examines how coaches can utilize unpacking lessons within reform-inspired curricula to engage in deep, content-focused coaching conversations (Stein et al., 2021).

Perspectives
Recent literature on coaching points to the potential of deep, specific conversations about teaching to impact teachers’ instructional practices (Correnti et al., 2021). Coaching cycles can be a productive structure to support these deep, specific conversations because coaches and teachers interact about teaching during the planning and after the enactment of lessons (Stein et al, 2021). These conversations can be important sites for teacher learning because they can focus on teaching a particular task that integrates attention to mathematical concepts, student thinking, and pedagogical moves (Stein et al., 2021).

Methods and Data
We examined pre-lesson co-planning conversations of mathematics lessons between coaches and groups of elementary and middle grade teachers that aim to support deep learning for students. We sampled three coaches from a larger project and the nine teachers with whom they worked (three teachers with each coach). We observed three coaching cycles for each coaching triad. Data included observations of 27 events: planning conversations, brief post-enactment check-ins, and reflection conversations after each enactment that included examining video from the enactment. After every observation, the authors interviewed the coach to further discuss the observed event. We used qualitative methods to look for patterns of how the coaches leveraged curriculum conversations to support opportunities for teacher learning (Horn & Little, 2010).

Results
We found that coaches consistently drew on two routines in the pre-planning conversations that helped sustain a focus on mathematics, students’ thinking, and teaching: 1) identifying precisely the lesson goals and 2) identifying the key moments in the lesson when students would engage with the big mathematical idea. Conversations focused on what teachers wanted students to understand about the big mathematical idea and on pedagogical techniques to support grappling with those ideas. Each group created a record of their commitments for teaching the lesson, a record returned to when reviewing the video and reflecting on whether and how their expectations were realized during enactment. In the poster, we will provide examples of how the pre-planning conversations impacted the debriefing conversations, and highlight the learning opportunities these curriculum-based conversations afforded.

Significance of the Study
Understanding the conditions under which coaching can support teachers’ learning is a pressing issue for coaching research. Rigorous curriculum that provides high-quality learning opportunities for students can also be a productive lever for coaches’ work with teachers. Better understanding how coaches can leverage curriculum materials during coaching processes can support the field’s understanding of how coaches can support teachers’ development.

Authors

• Lynsey K. Gibbons, University of Delaware

• James Hiebert, University of Delaware

• Kelly A. McKie, University of Delaware