Can AI Effectively Coach Teachers? (Via EdWeek)
In the news
Can artificial intelligence effectively coach teachers? That’s the question explored in the recent Education Week article, “Can AI Effectively Coach Teachers?”
The piece explores how AI-powered coaching tools, like the AI Coach platform by Edthena, are reshaping professional development by making coaching more accessible, scalable, and efficient.
According to EdWeek, AI is transforming instructional coaching by:
- Enhancing teacher feedback and reflection
- Expanding coaching access
- Supporting scalable, data-driven coaching
Enhancing teacher feedback and reflection
Through AI-powered observations, teachers can receive targeted feedback on their instructional practices. Patty Hagan, a teaching and learning coach at St. Vrain Valley Schools, one of Edthena’s partners, shared that AI Coach helps enhance the coaching process for teachers, coaches, and administrators.
“The AI experience is just one tool in coaches’ arsenals—it’s meant to reinforce reflection and goal-setting done with human coaches,” she said. “It enables teachers to still have that reflective process and presence, and even for our administrators, it takes some of that heavy weight of evaluating off their plates.”
Expanding coaching access
AI-driven coaching allows teachers to engage in self-reflection, set professional goals, and receive feedback more frequently than traditional coaching models allow. Sarah Johnson, CEO of Teaching Lab, highlights that AI has the potential to supplement human coaches by handling administrative tasks, thereby freeing up time for deeper, high-impact interactions.
Supporting scalable, data-driven coaching
AI tools provide insights that help coaches and educators analyze teaching practices at scale. Melinda George, Chief Policy Officer for Learning Forward, emphasizes that AI can be a major time-saver by automating routine tasks, allowing human coaches to focus on meaningful, individualized support for teachers.
Augmenting, not replacing, human coaches
While AI-powered coaching enhances accessibility and efficiency, experts agree that AI is not a replacement for human coaches.
Instead, AI serves as a powerful tool to augment coaching efforts, making professional development more dynamic and effective for educators, and for Patty, that’s the goal. “The AI is not evaluating the teacher—you’re evaluating yourself,” she said. “This is driven by you, because that’s what we want to create: We want to create teachers who are self-reflective and build their own goals.”
To learn more about how AI is being integrated into instructional coaching, read the full article from Education Week.
Interested in exploring how AI-powered coaching can benefit your educators? We’ll show you how Edthena’s AI Coach platform can help. Click here to get in touch!
