Effects of Online Content‐Focused Coaching on Discussion Quality and Reading Achievement: Building Theory for How Coaching Develops Teachers’ Adaptive Expertise

Abstract

The authors conducted a small‐scale randomized control trial (n = 31 teachers) of Online Content‐Focused Coaching, an intervention consisting of an online workshop followed by multiple cycles of remote video‐based coaching, to support dialogic text discussions. Findings demonstrate the efficacy of Online Content‐Focused Coaching in three different ways. First, the authors’ analyses, after accounting for differential attrition among groups, demonstrate an existence proof for effects of the intervention on both classroom text discussion quality and student achievement. Second, the authors examined and demonstrated an association between the magnitude of changes in discussion quality and the magnitude of achievement gains. Finally, the authors propose and examine evidence to support a theory for how teachers develop adaptive expertise for facilitating dialogic text discussions. Results show that teachers’ use of transitional and some aspirational discussion moves grew from baseline to the end of the workshop, with limited growth in the quality of students’ contributions. Over the coaching phase of the intervention, teachers’ facilitation moves grew substantively, and so did students’ strong contributions. The authors interpret the results to suggest that the workshop was critical for developing teachers’ knowledge of the features of dialogism and that coach‐guided reflection was essential for developing teachers’ expertise at using facilitation moves to elicit student thinking. Findings contribute to a validity argument for the efficacy of Online Content‐Focused Coaching. More importantly, investigating and describing the process of teaching change is the study’s main theoretical contribution.

Scoping the field of literacy research: how might a range of research be valuable to primary teachers?

“…Pacheco et al (2019), for instance, investigated the significance of teachers' participation in translingual practices in learners' engagement with texts. Two other studies explored aspects of coaching: Correnti et al (2021) evaluate the impact of online content-focused coaching on dialogic text discussions while Robertson et al (2020) draw on a meta-synthesis of studies of literacy coaching to identify obstacles to and enhancers of co-construction. Rowe (2019) emphasises that child/teacher interactions are multimodal through her analysis of the role of gesture when children are writing with adults.…”

“…Several articles included here contribute to the 'what works' agenda (e.g. Colenbrander et al, 2021;Correnti et al, 2021) and may well provide useful direction to educational leaders and teachers in making decisions about future literacy policy. However attention to social, cultural, material and embodied dimensions of literacy suggests that understanding what works for particular children in specific settings is highly complex given the multiple factors and actors at play.…”

Opening Texts for Discussion: Developing Dialogic Reading Stances

“…These processes are facilitated by, among other features, open‐ended, authentic questions; teacher and student uptake of one another’s ideas; and participants making connections among texts, the discussion, and prior experiences (e.g., Nystrand, Wu, Gamoran, Zeiser, & Long, 2003; Wilkinson, Murphy, & Binici, 2015). Dialogic pedagogy in the language arts has proven beneficial for promoting literacy skills, especially reading comprehension (e.g., Correnti et al, 2020; Kucan, 2009; Murphy et al, 2009; Nystrand, 2006; Wolf et al, 2006).…”

“…Teaching that treats texts as univocal, that is, as presenting a definitive, unequivocal version of what is true and right, can constrain opportunities for fruitful discussion. In contrast, a dialogic language arts pedagogy, in which students and teachers voice diverse thoughts, share interpretive authority, co‐construct meanings, and generate multiple interpretations of texts, can lead to productive discussions that promote literacy skills, reading comprehension, and higher order thinking (e.g., Alexander, 2020; Correnti et al, 2020; Kucan, 2009; McKeown & Beck, 2015; Murphy, Wilkinson, Soter, Hennessy, & Alexander, 2009; Nystrand, 2006; Reznitskaya et al, 2008; Wolf, Crosson, & Resnick, 2006). Yet, teaching dialogically is challenging and requires, among other changes, for teachers to adopt dialogic dispositions and epistemologies (e.g., Alexander, 2015; Boyd & Markarian, 2015; Hennessy, Mercer, & Warwick, 2011; Lefstein & Snell, 2014; Wilkinson et al, 2017).…”

OLJ December 2021 25(4)

“…The use of video feedback as part of coaching has been used to improve the performance of athletes in sports such as gymnastics and swimming (Boyer et al, 2009;Wilson, 2008). Correnti et al (2021) studied an online coaching model consisting of an online workshop followed by online content-focused (literacy) coaching cycles. In this study, teachers first engaged in an online course focused on developing and introducing teachers with models for enacting dialogic text discussions in their classrooms.…”