Unpacking productive coaching interactions: identifying coaching approaches that support instructional uptake

This multiple-case study utilised inductive and deductive analyses of interactions of five coach-teacher dyads at two university-based literacy clinics to investigate procedural knowledge–what coaches say and do–to guide teachers toward greater instructional expertise. Using theories of situated cognition and positioning and framed within social constructivism, we examined videos of coaching and tutoring and identified predominant coaching interaction discourse and three facilitative coaching approaches associated with teachers’ uptake of instructional ideas: (1) joint problem identification; (2) redirection and reinterpretation; (3) ‘flipped’ IRE framework. We conclude by arguing how coaches’ talk creates agentive space for teachers to initiate intentional instruction.