Teacher Leaders Providing Classroom Support to Teachers through Lesson Planning

Research on Teacher Leaders Engaging in Lesson Planning

In education reform efforts, teacher leaders are often asked to provide instructional support to improve the practice of classroom teachers. One strategy employed by teacher leaders is to work with classroom teachers to design or review lessons that address particular content and/or instructional methods, in order to support teachers in improving their practice. In a review of the empirical literature on teacher leadership, nine studies were identified that included findings related to teacher leaders providing instructional support through lesson planning.

Subject

Instructional Support Strategies

Name of Study (Click on the name of each study to read a description of the intervention involving teacher leaders' strategy of demonstration lesson or modeling.) [PDF 96K]

The implementation and impact of evidence-based mathematics reforms in high-poverty middle schools: A multi-site, multi-year study (Balfanz et al., 2006)

5-8

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Teacher leaders: Middle school mathematics classrooms (Cruz, 2003)

6-8

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Administrative support and teacher leadership in schools implementing reform (Gigante & Firestone, 2007)

K-8

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The professional development of high school chemistry coordinators (Hofstein et al., 2004)

8-12

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Facilitating elementary principals' support for instructional teacher leadership (Mangin, 2007)

K-5

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The role of the science coordinator in primary schools. A survey of headteachers' views (Moore, 1992)

K-5

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Attributes of content-focused professional learning communities that lead to meaningful reflection and collaboration among math and science teachers (Oehrtman et al., 2009)

9-12

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Improving science achievement at high-poverty urban middle schools (Ruby, 2006)

4-7

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Oregon Mathematics Leadership Institute project: Evaluation results on teacher content knowledge, implementation fidelity, and student achievement (Weaver & Dick, 2009)

K-12

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What Research Says

The MSP-Knowledge Management and Dissemination project conducted an extensive review of the empirical literature on teacher leadership. The review was based on a rigorous process developed by the MSP-KMD project (read a detailed description of the process) that applied standards of evidence to the findings of each study. In the studies in which lesson planning was present, other strategies, such as co-teaching classes with teachers or leading teacher work groups, were also identified as teacher leader practice. None of these studies examined the unique contribution of lesson planning. Moreover, in these studies, different aspects of lesson planning were considered:

1. Teacher leader engagement in lesson planning as a form of instruction support to classroom teachers.
2. The impact of teacher leader practice, including lesson planning, on student outcomes.
3. Interventions impacting teacher leader practice, including engagement in lesson planning.

Teacher leader engagement in lesson planning as a form of instruction support to classroom teachers

Four studies that examined different types of strategies used by teacher leaders documented that lesson planning is an instructional support practice employed by teacher leaders (Cruz, 2003; Gigante & Firestone, 2007; Mangin, 2007; Moore, 1992). Teacher leader practice was described from several different perspectives: the supervisors of teacher leaders (Mangin, 2007; Moore, 1992), the teachers with whom teacher leaders work (Cruz, 2003; Gigante & Firestone, 2007), and the teacher leaders themselves (Cruz, 2003; Gigante & Firestone, 2007).

Gigante and Firestone (2007) also reported that teacher leaders in mathematics and science who engaged in lesson planning improved teachers’ understanding of content and ability to adopt new pedagogical techniques. However, among these teacher leaders, what was perceived as lesson planning varied from informal conversations about lessons to designing assessments to gauge the degree to which a lesson achieved its instructional goals. Findings from this one study suggest that lesson planning, as one instructional support practice of teacher leaders, may be effective as a strategy for influencing classroom instruction, although more research is warranted.

The impact of teacher leader practice, including lesson planning, on student learning

None of the studies that were reviewed isolated the effect of teacher leader practice, including lesson planning, on student learning. Three studies reported that instructional support by teacher leaders, including lesson planning, was linked to improved student learning on annual state standardized tests in mathematics (Balfanz et al., 2006; Weaver & Dick, 2009) and science (Ruby, 2006). However, as noted, these studies did not focus solely on the effect of lesson planning. In addition, the studies examined the effects of extensive interventions, in which teacher leaders were one component of a complex school reform strategy (combined with new curriculum, infusion of additional resources and professional development). Therefore, in these studies, the effect of the practice of lesson planning was combined into other teacher leader practices as well as other school reform strategies. The validity of the finding that instructional support by teacher leaders, including lesson planning, positively impacted student learning was supported by the use of control groups (Balfanz et al., 2006; Ruby, 2006; Weaver & Dick, 2009), the use of multiple sources of data (Balfanz et al., 2006; Ruby, 2006) and the inclusion of detailed description of data collection and analysis procedures (Balfanz et al., 2006; Ruby, 2006; Weaver & Dick, 2009). Additional research is needed to investigate the link between particular forms or combinations of forms of teacher leader practice on student outcomes.

Interventions impacting teacher leader practice, including engagement in lesson planning

Studies that examined a program to train teacher leaders to provide instructional support to classroom teachers offered few findings specific to teacher leader engagement in lesson planning as one such support strategy. Hofstein et al. (2004) and Oehrtman et al. (2009) found that the interventions impacted teacher leader practice, including lesson planning, although impact was reported differently in each study. Hofstein et al. (2004) examined the activities of teacher leaders and the rate of their occurrence following participation in an intervention to develop their disciplinary knowledge, pedagogy and leadership. Hofstein et al. (2004) found that a portion of the participating science coordinators worked primarily with new teachers through lesson planning and preparing tests. Oehrtman et al. (2009) examined the effects of an intervention to develop mathematics and science teacher leaders’ facilitation skills. Oehrtman et al. (2009) found that participants improved their ability to provide instruction support to teachers, including lesson planning, over the course of their training. Oehrtman et al. (2009) and Hofstein et al. (2004) relied one a single source of data and did not include descriptions of the data analysis strategies. Thus, while these studies suggest that there may be different approaches for preparing teacher leaders to provide support, including lesson planning, to classroom teachers, these findings should be viewed with caution due to methodological concerns in these studies.

Summary Conclusion

This set of studies provides evidence that teacher leaders engage in lesson planning as a form of instructional support across grades K-12 and subject areas. Evidence was less clear around the impact of this teacher leader practice and factors that influence teacher leader engagement in lesson planning. As lesson planning is commonly a responsibility of teacher leaders who support classroom teachers, additional research is warranted to examine how to prepare teacher leaders to provide lesson planning and its effects on classroom teachers.

Additional information on these studies

For a bibliography for the research on lesson planning, click here. [PDF 24K]

The nine studies described above were part of a more inclusive review of research on teacher leaders' practices designed to provide instructional support to teachers. For a summary of research on teacher leaders' instructional support practice, click here. [PDF 272K]