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This collective case study investigated the ways in which coaching supports teacher change. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to consider what types of feedback are best at what times in the coaching process and how coaching supports teachers’ application of learning to differing contexts.

The study was conducted over an 18-month period in three settings: a university reading clinic and two schools. Participants were a coach and two in-service teachers enrolled in a literacy specialist master’s degree program. This qualitative study included observational field notes, interviews, lesson plans, and teacher reflections as primary data sources.

Findings suggest a model for coaching that acknowledges the learner’s previous knowledge and experience and continuously gauges support to stay within the ever-escalating zone of proximal development. Specific coaching moves that vary by degree of scaffolding are identified, namely: modeling, recommending, asking questions, affirming, and praising.

This study clarifies the varying roles that coaches may play and how these roles change over time. Additionally, the model has implications for how coaching might change based on variability among those being coached.

The Gradual Increase of Responsibility Model has potential to guide coaches as they engage with mentees to improve instruction.

Purpose – To provide a model for mentoring teachers through the process of improving instruction and intervention.

Design/methodology/approach – The chapter describes the Gradual Increase of Responsibility model for coaching, an adaptation of Pearson and Gallagher's (1983) Gradual Release of Responsibility model that can be used by coaches as they support teachers in a clinic or school setting.

Findings – Content describes stages of the coaching model that provide less scaffolding as teachers gain confidence and competence. These stages include modeling, recommending, questioning, affirming, and praising.

Research limitations/implications – The Gradual Increase of Responsibility (GIR) model provides a process that coaches can follow to support instructional improvement. GIR requires that coaches have instructional expertise; it provides them with a guide for their work with teachers to incorporate effective practices.

Practical implications – The GIR model can be applied by coaches in both clinical and school settings, with teachers who instruct students at both elementary and secondary levels.

Originality/value of paper – This chapter provides examples for each stage of the GIR process, clearing indicating how coaches can guide teachers to take on increased responsibility for strong, intentional instruction and intervention.

The purpose of this paper is to describe an approach to analyzing qualitative data that uses Bakhtin’s concepts of dialogue as a framework.

Polyphonic Analysis (PA) is proposed as a critical approach to qualitative data analysis that emphasizes creating virtual dialogues of participants’ voices, bringing together views that typically do not interplay in order to escalate voices that might otherwise be silenced, reduced, or objectified.

PA, with its emphases on revoicing and dialoguing participants’ words, seeking understanding in the tensions between voices, and striving for hegemony in the development of themes, heightens researchers’ awareness of key principles of qualitative research, suggesting its use as a pedagogical approach for teaching qualitative research as an interpretive paradigm. The authors reference their study on the impact of the No Child Left Behind legislation in the USA to draw examples that illustrate the utility of this research design for pedagogy and practice.

PA creates meaning by recognizing multivocality and dialogism. The authors propose and describe this novel application of a literary analysis tool for use as a tool for pedagogy and research methodology.

This study aims to consider how lesson study (LS) supports international graduate assistants (IGAs) teaching in settings that are culturally different from their own prior experiences as learners.

The authors used a single-case design to understand LS, including two IGAs and a domestic GA teaching at a US university. Data sources include audio recordings and field notes from LS sessions and lesson observations, data collected from online interactions, and individual interviews.

Qualitative analysis indicates IGAs felt their instruction improved as a result of participation, and they incorporated instructional practices aligned with norms in their new context. Through practical work with a narrow focus, IGAs collaborated with one another and with a more-experienced other. This created a context that reduced IGAs' cognitive dissonance, resulting in transformative teacher learning.

The findings suggest LS might provide supports for transformative learning for IGAs and other teachers, especially when they experience cognitive dissonance, such as that caused by culturally different classroom expectations.

This paper speaks to the identified need for supporting IGAs' understanding of values and norms undergirding pedagogy in their new contexts.

The purpose of this study was to better understand how lesson study (LS) impacts the pedagogy and attitudes of teachers in varied sociocultural contexts. The authors investigated responses of teachers in Kenya and the USA who were new to LS.

Teacher interviews after LS were qualitatively and inductively analyzed with Teacher Education and Development Study: Learning to Teach Mathematics as a conceptual/analytical framework.

Results varied between Kenyan and US teachers. Kenyan teachers reported increases in content and pedagogical content knowledge. They suggested participating in LS was an enjoyable, productive struggle and emphasized the value of planning for lessons and the role of the outside expert. US teachers described consideration of students' needs, abilities, and learning strategies. They described LS as a positive experience, even though making time for the process was challenging. Procedurally, US teachers valued research and collaboration. Although both the process and responses differed, US and Kenyan teachers' reflections highlight affordances of LS.

This study is a small-scale, comparative case study. Future research could ask similar research questions in other contexts and with greater numbers of participants.

Views of teaching and learning and typical structures for teachers' professional learning vary by context; these factors should be considered when planning and implementing LS.

The study responds to an identified need to learn more about how LS contributes to teachers’ different views of teaching and learning, which are embedded in various sociocultural settings.

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