story by Claire Miller
Georgia State University’s College of Education & Human Development has endorsement programs in K-5 mathematics education and teacher support and coaching that help educators deepen their knowledge and improve their practice.
These endorsement programs use a combination of coursework, mentoring and Professional Learning Communities – small groups of educators who meet regularly to address and find solutions to educational issues – to ensure teachers get the expertise and support they need.
Carla Tanguay, CEHD assistant dean for educator preparation and accreditation, and Gary Bingham, the Hettie Floyd Lee Professor of Young Learners in Urban Settings, worked with colleagues at the University of Alabama and Brigham Young University on a five-year professional development project supporting 27 elementary teachers training to become elementary mathematics specialists (EMSs) through these endorsements.
As the 27 teachers went through their first year enrolled in both endorsement programs simultaneously, Tanguay, Bingham and their colleagues collected and analyzed qualitative and quantitative data to determine how the participants’ beliefs about their teaching and coaching effectiveness and mathematics teaching practices changed over time.
The qualitative data came from four research-backed surveys taken at the beginning and end of the teachers’ first year. Participants responded to questions about their coaching practices, beliefs about teaching and learning mathematics, and their perceived effectiveness as coaches and mathematics teachers.
The research team also collected qualitative data on participants’ teacher leadership and coaching experiences through individual interviews with eight teachers and focus group sessions with the remaining 19 teachers.
Their findings, published in the Journal of Mathematics Teacher Education, showed that by the end of the first year, participants showed increased confidence in supporting student-centered learning, building coaching relationships with teachers and their effectiveness in coaching mathematics content.
In reviewing the most- and least-used mathematics coaching practices, about 70 percent of participants used strategies that supported educators’ teaching skills and content knowledge. The least-used practices centered on communication with principals and school administrators on coaching policies and needs, which could be due to how early they were in their development as EMSs, the authors noted.
The interviews and focus group conversations helped the research team identify four key themes around participants’ teacher leadership and coaching:
- A growing confidence for the uncomfortable: Using the content, skills and support they received in the endorsement programs, participants’ confidence levels grew and they began “moving beyond their comfortable spaces focused on classroom teaching and shifting into new, unfamiliar spaces of teacher leadership.”
- Creating and finding spaces for stepping up: With their newfound confidence, participating teachers sought out or created leadership opportunities, such as leading professional development sessions for other teachers.
- Advocating for learned mathematics pedagogy: Participants shared the effective mathematics teaching practices they were learning in the endorsements with other teachers and families.
- Building teacher capacity through interactions: Participating teachers shifted from a more direct, “telling others what to do” coaching approach to more facilitative approaches, such as active listening and asking reflective questions.
These findings give researchers and teacher preparation programs more insight into what EMSs need to be successful in coaching teachers.
“An important outcome of our professional development program is the development of elementary mathematics specialists as teacher leaders,” Tanguay said. “They are positioned to build both pre-service and in-service teacher capacity by utilizing cognitive coaching strategies and productive coaching activities.”