An Analysis of Evaluative Comments in Teachers’ Online Discussions of Representations of Practice

Abstract

It has been common to use video records of instruction in teacher professional development, but participants have rarely been encouraged to evaluate teachers and students' actions in those records, allegedly because evaluation deters from the development of a professional discourse. In this study, we inspected teachers' online discussions of animations of classroom episodes realized with cartoon characters, looking at the difference in the content of conversation turns when members made evaluative comments and when they did not make evaluative comments. We were interested in finding out whether making evaluative comments correlated with participants' reflection on their professional practice and proposal of alternative teaching actions; for that purpose we used systemic functional linguistics to develop a coding scheme that attended to evaluation, alternatives, and reflection in forum discussions. We found statistically significant evidence that the more the participants actively evaluated the teaching in the animations the more they proposed alternative teaching actions and reflected on instructional practice. We relate these findings to the notion of social presence in online discussions.

Sentence Stems to Foster Dialogue: Uses of “I Notice” and “I Wonder” in Online Teacher Professional Development

“…Certainly, support is important, especially for early career teachers and those working in under-resourced schools where teaching is particularly stressful (DeWert et al, 2003; Hur & Brush, 2009; Shernoff et al, 2011). At the same time, to address persistent opportunity gaps for students, teachers need social support paired with opportunities to critically reflect, question, and be questioned (Behizadeh et al, 2019; Chieu et al, 2015; Lord, 1994; Louie, 2016; Whipp, 2003). Indeed, a culture of “niceness,” or avoiding discussions of topics that might make others uncomfortable, arguably serves to maintain racial inequities in schooling (Castagno, 2014; Liera, 2020).…”

Characterizing teacher attention to student thinking: A role for epistemological messages

“…The larger project used a new digital video capture technology to combine the affordances of methods used in other studies of attention (e.g., Chieu, Kosko, & Herbst, 2015;Levin et al, 2009;Rosean, Lundeberg, Cooper, Fritzen, & Terpstra, 2008;Santagata & Angelici, 2010;, namely classroom observations and video-based interviews. To document their attention, teachers wore a wearable video camera featuring "selective archiving" capability while they were teaching.…”

Facilitating Teacher Learning When Using Different Representations of Practice

“…The result that there is not a significant difference in facilitation moves for animations and video also has implications for the training of facilitators when leading discussions of animations or in a combined professional development, as in our case. In addition, considering the development of online platforms for teachers to analyze animations (e.g., Chieu et al, 2011; Chieu, Kosko, & Herbst, 2015), the facilitation framework developed by van Es et al (2014) can support the creation of scaffolds for teachers to notice student thinking. However, it will be important that these scaffolds, especially if automatized, consider the context of the discussion and how the facilitation moves draw upon an assessment and an understanding of teachers’ attention to student thinking in the representation of teaching shown.…”