Teacher peer coaching in American and Turkish schools

Abstract

Purpose

Peer coaching has been described as an effective form of teacher professional development. Consequently, different aspects of the peer coaching process have been examined. However, no international comparative studies focusing on the differences between the applicability and adoptability of peer coaching in different educational systems were found. This paper seeks to address these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

This quantitative study examined cross‐national differences in educators’ beliefs about peer coaching by comparing survey responses of American and Turkish educators.

Findings

Data analysis showed that both American and Turkish educators found peer coaching adoptable at a high level in their school systems. However, on the applicability level there were statistically significant differences found at all subscales of peer coaching survey showing that American participants believed that peer coaching was much more applicable than did the Turkish participants.

Research limitations/implications

While limited by the small sample size not representative of the overall populations in the USA and Turkey, this study contributes to the international discourse on the different types of teacher professional development by examining cross‐national differences in educators’ beliefs about peer coaching.

Practical implications

The results of this study inform practitioners and researchers about the ways peer coaching is perceived by educators in different countries. Given the findings, school districts can examine more contextually and culturally appropriate ways inherent in the post‐observation conference to increase the effectiveness of the peer coaching process.

Originality/value

The findings of this study enrich the body of research on peer coaching, particularly focusing on the teachers’ and leaders’ beliefs and perceptions about the adoption and applicability of peer coaching as a form of teacher professional development and calls for further empirical research on teacher peer coaching in the national and international contexts.

Citation

Zepeda, S.J., Parylo, O. and Ilgan, A. (2013), "Teacher peer coaching in American and Turkish schools", International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, Vol. 2 No. 1, pp. 64-82. https://doi.org/10.1108/20466851311323096