Coaches and teachers shift noticing across coaching cycles: analysis of video-based annotations

Abstract

We share results of a study on coaches’ and teachers’ noticing as they annotated key moments from classroom video of the teachers’ lessons over multiple online coaching cycles. Coaches and teachers engaged in mathematics coaching cycles that included a pre-lesson meeting, a video-recorded lesson, an annotation process, and a post-lesson meeting. We analysed 554 annotations from coaches and teachers across 22 coaching cycles, with an emphasis on the subject, analytic stance, and content of the coaches’ and teachers’ annotations. Findings indicate that as teachers participated in multiple coaching cycles, their annotations progressively focused on students and they increased the frequency of connections between student thinking and aspects of instructional practice. Across the coaching cycles, coaches provided fewer interpretations and included more questions with a shift toward focusing on instructional practice goals. We emphasise the possible benefits of coaching with respect to noticing and provide actionable recommendations for coaching and research.