Preparing in Advance to Respond in-the-Moment: Investigating Parallel Changes in Planning and Enactment in Teacher Professional Development

Abstract

Despite warrants for classroom discussion, research consistently finds that discussions in K-12 classrooms remain rare. Our research investigates whether and in what ways practice-based teacher learning opportunities focused on discussion facilitation influence opportunities for student talk. Grounded in data from a job-embedded professional development program for fourth- to eighth-grade literacy teachers, we analyzed videos of teachers co-planning and co-facilitating discussions with students. Findings indicate that, across 1 year, during co-facilitated classroom discussions, teacher talk decreased, while student talk increased. In a parallel finding, our analysis of co-planning sessions revealed that the ways teachers planned for discussions also changed. Teachers went from engaging only in what we call proactive pedagogical reasoning to balancing that with what we have come to call responsive pedagogical reasoning.