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

Abstract

In this article, we examine the promise of a popular set of sentence stems, “I notice” and “I wonder,” for fostering productive discussion in an online course for teachers. Drawing on teachers’ responses to one another’s classroom reflections, we look for evidence regarding how course prompts encouraging teachers to use these stems influence the types of contributions teachers offer. We analyze teachers’ responses at the module, response, and sentence level, situating our inquiry in the context of common challenges related to discourse in teacher professional learning contexts. Our findings suggest that prompting teachers to report what they “notice” and what they “wonder” may support the development of teachers’ professional vision and exposure to diverse perspectives.

Investigating Teacher–Teacher Feedback: Uncovering Useful Socio-pedagogical Norms for Reform-Based Chemistry Instruction

“…On the other, VCI-2 programming and the feedback instructions may not have elicited teacher critique as we had intended. Prior studies have identified that teacher–teacher feedback avoids critique and tends toward positive sentiments due to lack of certain sentence stems (e.g., “I notice” or “I wonder”) and/or social protocols. , Our findings build upon the notion that feedback is certainly a business of affects. , Supported by other literature corroborating with politeness acting as a barrier, we speculate that the emotional response to feedback, if not productively managed, could interfere with the conveyed information and act as a hindrance to PD success …”

“…First, our coding was primarily deductive. We used a previously established coding scheme to characterize the conversational functions (CFs) of segments within teachers’ feedback. The term “conversational function” encompasses both the teacher’s stance and the type of message conveyed through teacher discourse .…”

“…Our findings offer specific, accessible, and practical guidelines to identify, design, and facilitate transformative socio-pedagogical norms. On specificity, although studies have previously affirmed social protocols (e.g., enabling the presenter to hear feedback without being on the defensive, owning the work collectively, and ensuring equitable opportunities for all voices) and specific sentence stems (e.g., “I notice” and “I wonder”) to enhance teacher–teacher feedback, much of this work lacked chemistry specificity. We propose an alternative, low-cost supplement that does not require a significant input of time or attention.…”