Professional Development in Dialogic Teaching: Impact on Teacher Beliefs and Practices and Student Argument Literacy

• In Event: 42.051 - Collaboration, Agency, and Equity in Literacy Professional Development

Abstract

We report findings from the third yearlong iteration of a professional development program in dialogic teaching to promote students’ argument literacy. Twenty-six fifth-grade language arts teachers, 14 in the experimental condition (PD) and 12 in the control condition, and their students at two sites participated. The PD was delivered using workshops, study groups, and coaching. Using a pretest-posttest experimental design, we collected feedback from teachers, examined evidence of growth in their epistemological beliefs and enactment of discussions, and collected data on students’ argument literacy and reading comprehension. Though there was little apparent change in epistemic beliefs, teachers made substantial shifts in their discourse practices and in the quality of argumentation. Some evidence of transfer to individual learning outcomes was observed.

Authors

• Ian A. G. Wilkinson, Ohio State University

• Alina Reznitskaya, Montclair State University

• Joe Oyler, Montclair State University

• Kristin Bourdage Reninger, Otterbein College

• Ariel Sykes

• Min-Young Kim, The Ohio State University

• Robert S. Drewry, The Ohio State University - Marion

• Monica B. Glina, Montclair State University