Press for Pedagogical Reasoning: Decomposition of a High-Leverage Practice in Facilitating Professional Development for Teachers

• In Event: Facilitating Teachers’ Learning: Practices That Support Math Teachers in Developing Ambitious Practice

Abstract

As research on teacher learning continues to elaborate important characteristics of professional learning opportunities for teachers (Ball & Cohen, 1999; Borko, 2004), it is becoming clear that orchestrating these learning opportunities requires the leadership of a skilled facilitator (Elliott et al., 2009; Even, 2008). Research on high quality instructional practices of teachers provide useful, but not straightforward, parallels for considering strategies for the effective facilitation of teacher professional development (PD). Kazemi and Stipek (2001) elaborate how specific kinds of teacher questioning can elicit students’ reasoning in mathematics, thus pressing them to connect their ideas to underlying ideas in mathematics. Emergent research by Horn and Kane (2012) builds on this concept, as they demonstrate how some forms of facilitator questioning supports teachers to connect teaching practices to underlying principles of learning. By pressing for teachers’ pedagogical reasoning, facilitators can foster opportunities for teachers to learn ambitious practice. This paper takes Horn and Kane’s (2012) reasoning to a deeper level of specificity by investigating the following question: What are the defining features of expert facilitator press for pedagogical reasoning?

An important form of scaffolding for novices is the explicit labeling of components of complex practice, or “decomposition” of practice (Grossman et al., 2007; Lampert, 2010). I will respond to my research question by building on methodological approaches that aim to decompose expert practice, such as Sleep’s analysis of the work of steering instruction towards the instructional point (2012). I analyze video data from a longitudinal study that examines what it takes to support mathematics teachers’ development of ambitious and equitable instructional practices at scale. I examine a subsample of data from facilitators who are identified as being “highly effective” based on a rubric generated from a literature review which synthesizes the best practices in supporting teacher learning in both teacher education and PD (Webster, 2013). I build from the preliminary categories of analysis established in the literature by focusing on the form and function of specific facilitator moves within the category of press for pedagogical reasoning. Focused coding (Charmaz, 2006) allows me to decompose the practice into its constituent parts as I articulate a more specific anatomy of the practice. My analysis includes examples of each aspect of press for pedagogical reasoning, and connects the examples to rationales for why those aspects are likely to support teacher learning.

Preliminary findings reveal that PD leaders who press teachers for pedagogical reasoning press teachers to: a) rationalize their decisions in light of understandings about how students learn; b) link instructional plans to specific evidence of student learning; c) explain decisions in light of conceptual understandings about mathematics; c) develop more productive views of students’ mathematical capabilities (Jackson & Gibbons, 2013); and d) explicate decisions in light of students’ affective experiences and identity in school.

This work reveals that facilitator practices marked by a high press for pedagogical reasoning generate important opportunities for teachers to learn. Findings can inform professional development, teacher education, and research on teaching.

Author

• Megan Elizabeth Webster, McGill University