Review of Existing Research on Coaching in Inclusive, Secondary Classrooms

Coaching has been identified as an essential feature of effective professional development that supports teachers’ abilities to translate knowledge and skills into classroom practice, which is particularly important in inclusive classrooms to address the support needs of all students. To describe how coaching intervention supports have been used in inclusive, secondary classrooms, this paper reviews existing empirical studies that have examined the impact of coaching supports in inclusive, secondary contexts on implementer (e.g., general and special education teachers) and student outcomes. The results of this review demonstrated a critical need to expand the quality and quantity of intervention research on coaching supports provided in inclusive, secondary classrooms, including (a) a need for more studies that examine coaching interventions in inclusive, secondary classrooms, (b) improved reporting on the intervention context and associated outcomes, and (c) enhanced rigor in reporting the outcomes of coaching interventions on implementers (e.g., general and special education teachers) and students. As the research base grows on coaching interventions used in inclusive, secondary classrooms, further analyses can address gaps in the knowledge base related to characteristics of effective coaching interventions that lead to enhanced student and implementer outcomes.