How to improve teaching practice?: an experimental comparison of centralized training and in-classroom coaching
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: We experimentally compare two modes of in-service professional development for South African public primary school teachers. In both modes teachers received the same learning materials and daily lesson plans, aligned to the official 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.
DOI: 10.14749/32380656
Author: Human Sciences Research Council
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
Funder: Human Sciences Research Council
OpenAlex ID: W7162184710
FWCI:
Cites:
Cited by:
Related to: