https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7796-130X
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Abstract
A critical but understudied skill within teacher education is how to create productive book discussions with robust interactions between students and teachers. In the present study, avatar rehearsals were used as a practice-based technique to teach the skills of leading book discussions that elicit student thinking. The use of avatars is fairly new to the field of teacher education and understudied when paired with high-leverage practices like productive discussions. Findings showed that the avatar rehearsal enabled PSTs to demonstrate emerging, but unstable, progress in eliciting. Implications suggest that more rehearsals are needed, within both pre- and in-service teacher education.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Stephanie M. Moody
Stephanie M. Moody is an Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education at Towson University in Towson, MD. She obtained her Ph.D. in Literacy and ESL Instruction from Texas A&M University. Stephanie formerly spent 10 years as an elementary ESL educator in a large urban district in Texas. Her research interests include preservice teacher preparation, writing instruction, children’s literature, and translanguaging. Her work has been published in multiple journals including The Reading Teacher, The New Educator, and Literacy Research and Instruction.
Carla Finkelstein
Carla Finkelstein is an Associate Professor and Department Head of the Department of Instructional Leadership and Professional Development at Towson University in Towson, MD. She obtained her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland after spending two decades as an elementary and secondary teacher, staff developer, and literacy coach. Her research interests include professional development, instructional coaching, urban school reform, and inquiry-based instruction.