Overview
In partnership with the XQ Super School Project, we provide coaching and design support for interdisciplinary project-based learning (PBL) for a growing cohort drawn from the Super School network. Selected teachers spend a week at MIT during the summer learning about interdisciplinary PBL by designing a project alongside MIT staff and researchers, while also participating in sessions and demonstration lessons that help teachers to explore and practice a variety of inquiry-based and contextually-relevant approaches that foster active and authentic student engagement. We framed our project work in terms of the XQ Learner Goals, which aim to map the holistic academic and social skills most relevant for success in the contemporary global economy. In addition to in-person meetings, our ongoing virtual coaching involves co-designing with teachers to personalize instruction for students by reflecting on several developmental bands that correlate to the Learner Goals.
Research
Click here for our latest PBL Coaching Abstract
While extant research advocates for the use of instructional coaching in helping teachers develop project based learning (PBL) related skills and materials, this literature largely overlooks the perspectives of the coaches themselves. In response, we present findings from an instrumental case study of a PBL-focused instructional coaching initiative centered on the practices and conceptualizations of two coaches engaged in a year-long professional development program with thirteen teachers from four US schools. Our findings reveal that the coaches positioned this work as collaborative and situated within the specific learning ecologies of teachers. Our analysis also produced a four-part framework (including design parameters, narrative mapping, prototyping, and meta-practice) that structured how the coaches engaged teachers. We conclude with a discussion of how instructional coaches (both within and outside of PBL-focused PD programs) can take up this framework to help facilitate professional development experiences centered on the collaborative development of curricular materials.
