Data Team Conversations: The Multiple Dimensions of Teacher Sense-Making

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Leading and Implementing Data Use Practices in Schools

Abstract

The ability to use different types of data about students and their learning is central to current school improvement efforts and a standard expectation of classroom teachers. Educators engage in different forms of inquiry cycles to learn from data to make instructional and school improvements. Central to these efforts is how educators make sense of data to guide their responses. The sensemaking literature is theoretical and focused on single dimensions. This paper extends this work by examining the complex process of collaborative sensemaking. Using data from 24 observations of data-focused team meetings, several dimensions of sensemaking emerged. The findings reveal sources of data, student attributions and characteristics, integrated instructional responses, and collaborative co-construction of knowledge were core and intersecting components.

Authors

• Lisa M. Abrams, Virginia Commonwealth University

• Zoey Lu

• Yingying Jiang, Virginia Commonwealth University