Engaging Teachers in Investigating Their Teaching as a Linguistic Enterprise: The Case of Comprehension Instruction in the Context of Discussion

Abstract

Although text-based discussions are considered by many literacy researchers and educators to be optimal contexts for teaching students how to comprehend text, a discussion is an ill-structured instructional space with complicated demands. A challenge for teacher educators is to acknowledge this complexity and provide ways for teachers to learn how to manage it. In the present study, a group of teachers in a master's-level methods course was supported in learning about comprehension instruction through analyzing transcripts of their classroom discussions, a form of practical inquiry.