How Talk About Student Learning Can Promote Professional Growth Among Teacher Educators

• In Event: 61.048 - Discourse Communities and Professional Development

Abstract

Professional development of teacher educators deals mainly with innovative teaching methods, with less attention to student learning. Talk about student learning (TASL) shifts the focus from teaching to learning. This study examines characteristics of TASL among teacher educators in a communal context and its enhancement of the teaching-learning process. The study was conducted on a professional development endeavor within a communal framework at an Israeli college. Teacher educators’ discourse was analyzed to generate categories of TASL and to understand the benefits of TASL for professional growth. The discourse was characterized by three genres: managing understanding, advisory talk and meta-analytic talk. This process supported an inquiry stance and the adaptation of higher order thinking of teacher educators about their students’ learning.

Authors

• Linor Lea Hadar, University of Haifa

• David L Brody, Efrata College of Education