Conceptualizing Content-Specifically Important Pedagogical Opportunities

• In Event: Roundtable Session 25
  In Roundtable Session: What Did I Read? Multiple Literacies in STEM Teacher Education

Abstract

The education community values using student thinking to develop concepts, but the nuances of this practice are not clearly understood. We conceptualize an important group of instances in classroom lessons that occur at the intersection of important content, student thinking, and pedagogical opportunities—what we call Content-specifically Important Pedagogical Opportunities (CIPOs). CIPOs are instances when evidence of student engagement with ideas related to content-specific goals of the class provides an opening for pursuing those goals. In this paper, we elaborate the CIPO construct and discuss how it can contribute to facilitating and researching teachers’ use of student thinking in productive, content-specific ways through providing a lens and generating a common language for recognizing and agreeing upon high-leverage student thinking.

Authors

• Shari L. Stockero, Michigan Technological University

• Laura R. Van Zoest, Western Michigan University

• Keith R. Leatham, Brigham Young University

• Blake E. Peterson, Brigham Young University