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Instructional coaching has emerged as a promising form of professional development for teachers. However, little is known about the background, contexts, professional responsibilities, and beliefs of instructional coaches who work with science teachers. This mixed-methods study focused on instructional coaches in secondary schools across the United States to understand the experiences these coaches bring to the role and what activities they participate in that support science teaching. Coaches' goals for their work and tensions with the institution's goals were also explored, as well as their beliefs about science teaching. Results suggest that three types of coaches may support science teaching, depending on the content expertise of the coach (science or not) and the focus of their role (content-specific or general). Teacher support by instructional coaches with science backgrounds is evident through their support of effective science teaching strategies. However, this support may not extend to pushing teachers to develop reform-based science teaching practices, as the results showed that most of these instructional coaches did not hold reform-based views of science teaching. The goal of relationship building and the coaches' work as trust-builders emerged as a critical factor in the coaches' abilities to support teachers' pedagogical development. Implications for the field are discussed.

Although teachers' instruction has been extensively studied, there is a dearth of research investigating how teachers design lessons and integrate new information into their existing lessons. This study utilized a case study approach to examine how teachers engaged in a nanoscale science professional development experience integrated new science content into their lesson plans. Five experienced science teachers were tracked as they conducted science research and developed new lessons that integrated their research into their science instruction. The findings showed that these teachers had to cross borders between science and education to design lessons, and three priorities framed their lesson planning processes: understandability, engaging students, and relevant real-world applications. For teachers whose students were assessed with end-of-grade high-takes testing, fitting the new information into the tested material was essential. The study provides insight into this border-crossing process and has implications for the design of programs that implement research experiences for teachers.