How to improve teaching practice? Experimental comparison of centralized training and in-classroom coaching

Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP15/2018
 
Publication date: August 2018
 
Author(s):
[protected email address] (McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University)
[protected email address] (University of Witwatersrand’s School of Education, South Africa)
[protected email address] (University of Witwatersrand’s School of Education, South Africa)
[protected email address] (Department of Basic Education, Government of South Africa and Research Associate of the Department of Economics, University of Stellenbosch)
 
Abstract:

We experimentally compare two modes of in-service professional development for South African public primary school teachers. In both programs teachers received the same learning material and daily lesson plans, aligned to the official home language literacy curriculum. Pupils exposed to two years of the program improved their reading proficiency by 0.12 standard deviations if their teachers received centralized training, compared to 0.24 if their teachers received in-class coaching. Classroom observations reveal that teachers were more likely to split pupils into smaller reading groups, which enabled individualized attention and more opportunities to practice reading. Results vary by class size and baseline pupil reading proficiency.

 
JEL Classification:

I20, I21, I28

Keywords:

South African Education, Randomised Experiment, Teacher coaching and training, Early Grade Reading Study

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