What’s the best way to improve teaching quality?

Which is the most cost-effective way to improve teaching through in-service professional development? Intensive coaching? Or light-touch regular training?In a new paper for the Journal of Human Resources – which is featured in this month’s CfEE Monthly Research Digest – researchers Jacobus Cilliers, Brahm Fleisch, Cas Prinsloo, and Stephen Taylor offer a head-to-head comparison of the two approaches, as explored through a randomised trial among primary government-school teachers in South Africa. In both the coaching and training interventions, teachers received the same materials, including detailed daily lesson plans, student reading booklets, flashcards and posters.The experiment ran in 180 government primary schools, with the two treatment conditions assigned to 50 schools each. In these schools, all teachers received either short, intensive training carried out at a central venue or visits by reading coaches on a monthly basis, who observed their teaching practices and provided feedback.