Chapter 7: Teacher Leadership and Instructional Improvement: Teachers’ Perspectives

Instructionally oriented teacher leadership roles—commonly known as coaches—aim at increasing students’ academic achievement by first improving teachers’ instruction through high quality professional development. This study explores the possible benefits and challenges of such teacher leadership by examining how 30 teachers from five school districts experienced the work of formal mathematics teacher leaders. Teachers reported that teacher leaders performed four primary activities: providing materials, assisting in the classroom, modeling lessons, and facilitating group sessions. These activities contributed differently and unequally to teachers’ instructional improvement as indicated by their degree of alignment with the characteristics of effective professional development. Moreover, particular combinations of activities appeared more likely to produce changes in teaching practice.