Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Spring 2020
Abstract
This classroom action research project compares the impact of instructional coaching with the focus on effective mathematics teaching strategies as outlined by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in the text Principles to Action. Two 3rd grade classrooms were studied with one being a control classroom and the other whose teacher enrolled in a 6-week coaching cycle focusing on student centered goals around two effective mathematics teaching practices. Those effective mathematics teaching practices are posing purposeful questions and facilitating meaningful mathematics discourse. A pretest and posttest from FastBridge’s MCAP was used to determine the growth over the 6-week study period and were also compared to a control group in a classroom where the teacher chose not to enroll in a 6-week instructional coaching cycle. Data from this study indicated students in the class whose teacher participated in the coaching cycle around implementing effective mathematics teaching practices made more instructional gains as compared to the students in the class whose teacher did not participate in any professional development in mathematics instruction.