Developing Concepts in Teacher Work Groups

• In Event: 58.050 - Teacher Discussions of Problems of Practice: Conceptualizing and Investigating "Productive" Pedagogical Discourse

Abstract

Objectives
Teacher collaboration is a common strategy for supporting professional learning, yet the mechanisms for that learning are not well understood. In this paper, we classify workgroup meetings according to their learning opportunities and attend to the nature of what is being learned.

Theoretical framework
Using sociocultural learning theory, this study investigates learning opportunities in teachers’ workgroup interactions, identifying how activities and environments stand to support new forms of practice and understanding (Greeno & Gresalfi, 2009). Emphasizing “opportunities” foregrounds group processes over real impacts on individuals’ understanding. Drawing on Vygotsky (1986/1934), we conceptualize concept development as arising through the interplay between formal (scientific) concepts and lived (spontaneous) concepts (Kane, 2015; Smagorinsky, Cook & Johnson, 2003), emphasizing the importance of dialogic interaction for concept development.

Data sources
Data were collected from a five-year research-practice partnership with two urban U.S. school districts aimed at improving middle grades math instruction. Both districts invested in teacher collaboration to support improvement efforts. We identified “best case” workgroups over a four-year period, following 24 workgroups and videotaping 111 meetings.

Methods
Using video data of the meetings, we examined (1) how teachers’ conversations offered professional learning opportunities, and (2) the extent to which those learning opportunities supported instructional improvement. Aligned with our sociocultural approach, we focused on participants’ meanings within their contexts (Garfinkel, 1967) along with fine-grained discourse analysis techniques from the ethnography of communication (Saville-Troike, 2009).
For the first analysis, we classified the meetings into 6 categories of conversational types: conflicting goals, pacing, logistics, tips and tricks, collective interpretation separate from future work, and collective interpretation linked to future work. The last two categories are marked by dialogic interactions that afford the richest learning opportunities. Meetings were double-coded until interrater reliability exceeded 85%.
For the second analysis, we probed into the content of the dialogic meetings, as these supported the greatest concept development by allowing interplay between formal and lived concepts. We analyzed conversational resources (activity structures, problem framings, epistemic stances, and representations of practice) in each meeting (Horn, Kane, & Wilson, 2015).

Results
Across our sample of meetings, categories of learning opportunities were distributed according to Table 1 [eliminated for upload].

The last two categories supported the greatest concept development through dialogic interactions, yet they accounted for only 31% of meetings, indicating limited learning opportunities within most participating workgroups. Given our best-case sampling logic, this suggests limited learning opportunities in workgroups across our participating districts.
In our second analysis about what concepts were developed, we found that only a subset of collective interpretation meetings centered on concepts that would support instructional improvement. The remaining meetings centered on concepts that preserve traditional instruction. This distinction suggests that collectively investigating problems of practice is insufficient for workgroups to support instructional change; mathematical and pedagogical expertise are consequential for professional learning

Significance
This paper illuminates the interactional processes that shape teachers’ learning opportunities in collaborative workgroups. Given the investment of time and resources these groups require, it is imperative to understand the ways they do (and do not) support professional learning.

Authors

• Ilana S. Horn, Vanderbilt University

• Brette Garner, Vanderbilt University - Peabody College