R2 – Regulation of Teaching Development Routines. Improving Teaching Together Through Training and Coaching

Duration of the study: 2023 – 2027

To the R2 project page

Teaching development routines are central to improving teaching quality and student learning. Teachers and teaching teams need routines to develop their teaching and adapt to changing conditions. However, what do teachers and teaching teams do when these routines are no longer appropriate or unsatisfactory? To what extent are their routines questioned, and what strategies are used to improve these routines?

Previous research shows that teachers can change their routines. However, studies are lacking for school contexts showing which strategies teachers can best use to change their routines. Therefore, the study aims to use professional development and coaching to support teachers in identifying, analysing and adapting teaching development routines that no longer fit and to improve teaching quality in the process.

The following research questions are examined:

1. What teaching development routines do teachers and teaching teams have?
2. What strategies do teachers and teaching teams use to change routines that no longer fit?
3. To what extent can training and coaching be used to promote these strategies for changing routines that no longer work?
4. Does this improve teaching quality?

About 60 teaching teams in primary schools (cycle 2) and their pupils will participate in the study. The planned study is highly relevant because it can provide a deeper understanding of the extent to which teachers can change teaching development routines when needed, where difficulties arise in the regulation process and how teachers' competencies can be promoted.

These findings lead to schools and teachers receiving guidance on how best to design teaching development processes and how to make teaching development more effective.

We thank the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) for its financial support.