Teacher Decisions Under Uncertainty: How Teachers Move Discussions Toward Student Learning and Participation

• In Event: Promising Scholarship in Education: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research

Abstract

Authentic classroom discussions can impact student performance when students think critically about multiple perspectives and challenge peers’ propositions. Although teachers can foster authentic discussions through effective talk moves, these types of discussions are rare in practice, suggesting that moves promoting analysis and development of ideas are not well implemented. Changing instructional practice to advance authentic discussions will rely on a broadened understanding of how teachers make decisions while facilitating student dialogues.
Thus, I conducted a multiple-case study examining six teachers’ instructional decisions during whole class discussions on social studies or science issues. All teachers in my case study were learning to implement a new curriculum that required students to take a stance in a debate and support their arguments using evidence from text. I videotaped teachers facilitating these discussions over the course of the academic year and analyzed how they used talk moves to promote student learning, particularly when they encountered unexpected student responses. After each filming, I interviewed teachers using the video as a guide to elicit teacher reflections. Teachers were asked to describe what was happening during teacher-student and student-student interactions in the discussion and why teachers responded to the interactions with specific moves. Preliminary analysis of interview reflections show that teachers describe the experience of teaching through discussion as an ‘instructional problem space’ enriched by unexpected events, a sense of losing or gaining control, and a learning context where, at times, teachable moments can emerge. This study investigates teachers’ developing expertise in using academic discussions to elevate student performance and seeks to contribute toward a model of teacher change.

Author

• Ling Hsiao, Harvard University