Analysis of instructional coaching: what, why and how Available to Purchase

Dr Gwen Nugent is research professor in the Center for Research on Children, Youth, Family and Schools in the College of Education at the University of Nebraska. With a background in cognitive psychology and K-12 instruction, Dr Nugent has over 30 years’ experience coordinating implementation and research projects for the development and delivery of mediated instruction to improve student learning and teacher competencies. She was principal investigator of a US Department of Education-funded research project dealing with the impact of remotely-delivered coaching on rural middle/high school science teachers, and a follow-up National Science Foundation study coding 500 h of teacher coaching sessions to identify the active ingredients of coaching. She is currently principal investigator for an IES-funded replication study examining the efficacy of a socio-emotional learning intervention for K-1 and Co-Investigator for an NSF project developing instructional capacity for K-8 computer science education across diverse school districts. She has published widely in journals such as the Journal of Research on Technology Education, Journal of Science Teacher Education, Journal of Educational Psychology, and American Journal of Evaluation.

Dr James Houston is a professional educator who holds a PK-12 Nebraska Administrative and Supervisory Certificate in addition to a teaching certificate in secondary mathematics and science. In addition to teaching math and science classes for 15 years, Dr Houston has been a building level administrator involved with the development and monitoring of continuous school improvement goals, staff evaluation and development and North Central Accreditation processes. He participated in higher education research as Project Manager for Coaching Science Inquiry in Rural Schools (CSI) funded by the US Department of Education grant that funded the National Center for Research on Rural Education at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He was also a Co-PI and Project Manager for a follow-up study Analysis of Instructional Coaching: What, Why and How funded by the National Science Foundation to better understand instructional coaching sessions. Dr Houston's interests are centered on teacher professional development with coaching and enhancing the inter-relationship between K-12 classroom teachers and higher education researchers by making study findings readily available to the teachers in a way that promotes integration into teacher instructional practices.

Dr Gina Kunz is a licensed psychologist and independent consultant. She received her PhD in psychology at Louisiana State University with school psychology as her program of study. She has held faculty positions in university colleges of education and medical centers. Her areas of expertise include behavior management for children and adolescents with behavioral and social-emotional challenges and attention deficits, academic assessment and intervention for children and adolescents with academic challenges, professional development and instructional coaching for adults who teach and support children and strengthening home-school partnerships. She also has provided behavioral health services as a licensed psychologist through private practice. As an independent consultant, she provides consultation for faculty development in grantsmanship. She also provides academic intervention and enrichment supports through private services for students with a wide range of needs from challenged to gifted and from early grade levels through college. She is project co-director for two current grant-funded projects housed in the University of South Carolina: the Carolina Family Engagement Center (CFEC), a 5-year, $5mn grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education, and The South Carolina Teacher Education Advancement Consortium through Higher Education Research (SC-TEACHER), funded through the South Carolina Commission on Higher Education.

Dr Donna Chen is a postdoctoral research associate in the Center for Research on Children, Youth, Family and Schools in the College of Education at the University of Nebraska (UNL). She holds a PhD in Quantitative, Qualitative and Psychometric Methods from UNL. Her research interests include mediation, structural equation modeling, latent growth modeling, longitudinal studies and quasi-experimental methods.