ABSTRACT
The main goal of instructional coaching is to improve pedagogical practice in teachers and thus student learning, growth, and achievement. Like all school-improvement strategies, instructional coaching should be aligned to the organization’s goals. Dialogical coaching requires the coach to act as a thought partner for the teacher. In this modality, the coach has two main jobs. The first is to use inquiry to engage the teacher in conversations about their practice and to draw out the knowledge and expertise the teacher already possesses. The second is to use advocacy to provide strategies, content knowledge, and constructive feedback to the teacher. Instructional coaches employ many different tools when they are coaching teachers. These include classroom observation, lesson modeling, videotaping of instruction, goal setting, data collection and analysis, and one-on-one conversations. The types of tools a coach chooses to use depend greatly on the approach being employed and the assessment of the teacher’s understanding of the pedagogy in question.
