Seeing Myself through Someone Else's Eyes
Jane Margolis, Jean J. Ryoo, Joanna Goode · ACM Transactions on Computing Education · 2017
This article describes the impact of in-classroom coaching for computer science (CS) educators. Coaching is a way to support teachers in their classroom while teachers master new curricula or educational approaches and is not evaluative in purpose. Using qualitative methods to analyze computer science classroom observations, teacher surveys, teacher interviews, coaching logs, and coach interviews, this research answers the following question: How does in-classroom coaching support inquiry and equity-based teaching practices? This study of Exploring Computer Science classrooms illustrates the importance of having in-classroom coaches who can collaborate and reflect with teachers about current practices and who can help support new inquiry and equity-based instructional skills. Teachers note that in-classroom coaching helped (1) positively impact changes in pedagogy, (2) enrich teachers’ CS content knowledge, and (3) break CS teacher isolation at schools. Three case studies from computer science classrooms served by different coaches are shared to illustrate the ways teacher instructional practice can be strengthened over time through coaching.