Learning to Teach English Language Arts: The Use of Rehearsals Across Teacher Education Contexts

• In Event: 32.039 - Approximations of Practice Across Teacher Education Contexts

Abstract

Objectives/Framework
Facilitating text-based discussions is to ELA teachers’ practice, but is difficult for novice teachers to learn. Rehearsals provide structured opportunities to practice facilitating discussions while getting immediate and actionable feedback (Kazemi, et al., 2009; Lampert et al., 2013, Scott, 2009). We know little, however, about how programmatic features influence how teacher educators organize rehearsals. This study analyzes rehearsals for text-based discussions from three teacher preparation programs involved in the Core Practices Consortium, a group of teacher educators developing common specifications of K-12 practices and teacher educator pedagogies. We answer the following research questions:
1. What is the role of the teacher educator and teacher candidates during rehearsals?
2. To what extent do rehearsals in different sites/courses map onto a common specification of a rehearsal?
3. What factors contribute to divergence from a common specification?

Data / Methods
We analyzed rehearsals from three programs: an undergraduate methods course situated at a local elementary school, a literacy methods course for practicing teachers in an accelerated certification program, and a secondary English language arts methods course.

We conducted cross-case analyses drawing upon varied data: syllabi and lesson plans, video of rehearsals, and teacher educator interviews. Codes were developed based on common specifications of rehearsal (e.g. “teacher educator role: evaluative/directive/participatory”) and facilitating discussions (e.g. “launching a discussion”, “creating opportunities for student talk”). Codes were refined based on iterative passes through these data, and synthesized into memos (Miles & Huberman, 1994). The memos allowed researchers to organize the findings thematically, to compare findings across cases, and to analyze for confirming and disconfirming evidence (Dyson & Genishi, 2005).

Findings
Findings show variation in the role of the teacher educator, use of texts by candidates, and the structure of rehearsals. For example, in the school-based site, rehearsals were conducted in small groups using teacher candidates’ personal narratives as as a basis for discussion. Teacher educators provided periodic coaching while other groups relied on peers for feedback. The rehearsals emphasized practicing in preparation for immediate teaching. In the university-based, secondary methods course, the teacher educator first modeled facilitating a discussion and had multiple candidates rehearse the entire lesson for the whole group. The teacher educator was present throughout. In the alternative certification program course, the teacher educator facilitated all rehearsals with the entire group. Unlike the lessons taught in the other sites, the candidates (practicing teachers) had selected their own texts and rehearsed lesson plans they would enact in their own classrooms the following day. Findings show that teacher educators’ use of rehearsals veered from the common specification of the pedagogy, suggesting that a further developed trajectory of approximation of practice is necessary as teacher educators incorporate more pedagogies of enactment in coursework.

Significance
This study provides helpful descriptive evidence around potential affordances and constraints to using rehearsals in these different contexts for learning to facilitate text-based discussions. As we develop a common language for specifying both teacher practice and teacher educator pedagogy, we need more robust empirical evidence of various instantiations of these practices and pedagogies.

Authors

• Kristine Marie Schutz, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Katie Danielson, New York University

• Julie Jackson Cohen, University of Virginia