Engagement/Disengagement in English Class Discussions: Preservice Teachers Noticing, Theorizing, and Planning for Meaningful Talk

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 3
  In Roundtable Session: Discussion, Discourse, and Collaboration in the English Language Arts Classroom

Abstract

Classroom discussion is beneficial for students’ learning across disciplines (Kavanagh & Rainey, 2017). Discussion is hard to enact in classrooms, especially for novice teachers. Through teacher noticing and self-reflection in TE, PSTs can identify student moves that distill levels of student dis/engagement, crucial for successful classroom discussion. From a dataset (N=83), we analyzed 33 PSTs’ (39%) reflections after first attempts to go dialogic. We present illustrative examples of PSTs attending to students’ behavioral markers (Nystrand & Gamoran, 1991); reasoning why some markers lead to dis/engagement; and deciding ways to incorporate this challenging pedagogical approach in future instruction.

Authors

• Sergio L. Sanchez, University of California - Davis

• Steven Z. Athanases, University of California - Davis

• Leslie C. Banes, University of California - Davis

• Julia Houk, University of California - Davis