Date of Award
8-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (EdD)
Department
Education Systems Improvement Science
Committee Chair/Advisor
Noelle Paufler
Committee Member
Shanita Anderson
Committee Member
Parker Andreoli
Committee Member
Phillip Grant
Abstract
Educators are constantly faced with balancing the demands of teaching and professional learning expectations from their districts. Concurrently, administrators are routinely prevented from providing adequate feedback for classroom instructional practices with observations instead focused upon generic and formulaic checks for classroom activities. This results in a gap of intentional professional learning and growth for educators.
The idea of instructional rounds sought to provide teacher-to-teacher feedback for educators to grow their practice together. The original theory focused on groups of teachers operating under a school or district goal of improvement. Instructional rounds have shown positive effects for teacher happiness and student achievement; however, in certain educational situations, the need for individualization exists with teachers having the freedom to construct and examine their own work through plan, do, study, and act cycles of observation and feedback.
Through a semester long study, the implementation of an independent instructional rounds collective, built on collegial partnerships and individualized problems of practice, showed the positive effects of teacher feedback, collaboration, and professional learning. Teachers reported increased happiness and satisfaction with correlated evidence showing the connection of feedback and excitement to engage new strategies in their own classrooms. Furthermore, teachers did not see the added demands of peer-to-peer observations to be an undue burden on their schedules.
Recommendations include using individualized instructional round methodology when teachers are properly trained and eager to take part in the peer-to-peer observations, However, educational leadership must be cognizant of the time demands on teachers and the barriers time can cause on some teachers.
Recommended Citation
Greene, Logan, "Growing Our Own Garden: The Implementation of Cross Curricular and Cross Grade Level Teacher Rounds to Increase Professional Learning Individualization and Feedback" (2026). All Dissertations. 4380.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/4380