The Professional Development and Coaching of School Teachers: Real-Time Feedback

Teachers face many problems which directly impact student achievement. Some of these problems include lack of resources, high teacher attrition, and an overwhelming ratio of below grade level students. This study examines in-the-moment feedback as a form of professional development and coaching. The study seeks to understand if teachers deem this form of coaching and development as beneficial and high leverage in regard to positively affecting student achievement. Exploratory case study was used as the research design for this study. The population of this study was school teachers in urban school settings. The sample population entailed 11 school teachers currently working at an urban charter school district. An inductive analysis approach was employed using the nine steps of inductive analysis as identified and described by Hatch (2002). The findings revealed that, according to teachers, real-time feedback may positively impact student achievement when considering ten key tenets as outlined in this paper. Implications of this study suggest that real-time coaching and feedback—when received and implemented effectively—can and should be used to improve teachers’ instructional practices and have a positive impact on student outcomes. It is also implied that a shift in practice by teachers and leaders away from traditional coaching and feedback, to real-time coaching, could improve possibly improve teacher practices and student outcomes noticeably faster.