Teachers' Learning Progressions to Acquire Discourse Practices to Facilitate Quality Argumentation

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: Division K Roundtable Session 2

Abstract

We discuss the findings from a research and professional development program designed to help elementary school teachers learn to facilitate student argumentation during inquiry dialogue, a type of talk aimed at collaboratively finding the most reasonable answer to a contestable question. During professional development, teachers were expected to learn how to help their students adhere to the four criteria of quality argumentation through the use of eleven facilitation practices. We analyzed teacher pre- and post-intervention performance to better understand which criteria and practices were more and less difficult to adopt for teachers. The results provide new insights into teacher learning progressions, thus informing future implementations of professional development designed to help teachers learn how to facilitate argumentation.

Authors

• Alina Reznitskaya, Montclair State University

• Ian A. G. Wilkinson, Ohio State University