Is Disciplined Improvisation Elicited by Specific Types of Teacher Noticing?

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 5:10 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Advancing Teacher Education Through Noticing, Boundary Learning, and Innovative Evaluation Practices (Table 12)

Abstract

This study explores disciplined improvisation (DI) and teacher noticing during augmented-reality (AR) teaching simulations. Ten secondary ELA teachers led three simulations that elicited noticing for: ELA disciplinary knowledge, classroom discourse, and equity, followed by retrospective think-alouds. Teachers focused on equity less than other factors, most often balancing noticing for ELA and for discourse. Disciplined improvisation was rare, with plans implemented as designed about half of the time or generally followed with some adaptation (16 percent). Teachers most often drew upon in-the-moment happenings and their own expertise during instruction. They less frequently relied on information about specific students or prior simulated lessons. However, knowledge of students was the information source most often used to notice for equity.

Authors

• Megan E. Welsh, University of California - Davis

• Kayce L. Mastrup, California State University - Monterey Bay

• Kristen Pilner Blair, Stanford University

• Ciara Thomas Murphy, University of California - Davis

• Sergio L. Sanchez, University of the Pacific