Making common sense : exploring the challenges of text-based discussion in secondary English class

This dissertation is comprised of three free-standing papers, each of which addresses a different aspect of teacher learning about the practice of text-based discussion facilitation during a professional development program for early-career high school English teachers. The first paper explored challenges that arose for teachers in the act of discussion facilitation by examining teachers' facilitation in the context of professional development. Specifically, this study explored moments when teachers paused facilitation in order to ask a question or request feedback from peers. The study participants were 32 early-career high school English teachers engaged in a summer PD institute focusing on discussion. Facilitator-initiated timeouts related to challenges of facilitation were identified and emergent coding was used to identify themes within those timeouts. Challenges that emerged during facilitation were compared with challenges teachers described in both interview. Analysis indicated that teachers experienced tension when they attempted to control the direction of student talk via open-ended questions and when they were unsure of what role to play during discussion. Implications for the design of teacher learning experiences as well as the methodological affordances of timeouts are discussed. The second paper examined the same practice-based professional development program. PD design principles were informed by research about decomposition of professional practice for professional learning (Grossman et al., 2009) and a cycle of collaborative learning through practice adapted from the cycle described by McDonald, Kazemi, and Kavanagh (2013). This study describes the PD program under study and discusses shifts in teachers' participation in discussion from pre- to post PD. Findings indicate that one group of teachers moved from primarily closed questions in a recitation pattern to open-ended questioning and facilitative talk during text-based discussion. A second group of teachers asked open-ended questions in pre-PD discussion and added unique ways of participating in discussion based upon their individual goals. These shifts included shared facilitation with students, equity of voice and authentic questioning. Implications for PD design and future research on PD to support the use of classroom discussion are discussed. The third and final paper is a single case study, which followed a teacher across one full year of her participation in the PD program, including an in-person summer institute as well as a series of virtual coaching meetings during which teachers reflected on videos of discussion captured in their classrooms. This study takes a sociocultural perspective on teacher learning, drawing connections between classroom video, teacher reflections on that video, and subsequent changes to practice in an effort to explore the arc of learning related to a complex teaching practice. Findings suggest that the focal teacher worked on balancing a desire to control student interpretations of text with her intention to encourage more open-ended discussion in the classroom. Findings highlight the value of sustained support for professional learning in order to foster deep change in practice. Implications for future research and design of professional learning. Taken together, these three studies provide a multi-faceted view on teacher learning of a complex teaching practice.

Keywords: Education.
Advisor: Levine Sarah L. (Sarah Loewenberg)
Wineburg Samuel S. 
Carlson Janet (Associate research professor of education)