In their book, The Collaborative Analysis of Student Learning: Professional Learning That Promotes Success for All (Corwin Press & Learning Forward, 2015), authors Amy B. Colton, Georgea M. Langer, and Loretta S. Goff outline a professional learning design that emphasizes collaborative inquiry with a focus on cultural diversity and equity. This article, which is adapted from the book, provides an in-depth look at one of the communication skills essential to the collaborative inquiry process.

Probing For Clarity

Listener asks the speaker to elaborate upon or add specific detail about what was said.

Purpose (intent)

Moves beyond vague language or generalizations.

Prompts the speaker to dig more deeply into his or her own thinking.

Helps the speaker to become more conscious of his or her thought processes.

Examples

Presenting teacher: “My students really struggle with writing.”

Group member: “What have you seen that tells you that they are struggling?”

Group member: “What specifically would you like to see in their writing that would represent improvement?”

Group member: “You mentioned that your students never show their work. How true is this for your entire class? Which ones do show their work?”

Group member: “You said you wanted to move your students from using manipulatives in mathematics to paper-and-pencil tasks. Tell me more about how you plan to do that.”

Group member: “So, we think that peer editing might be a helpful strategy for Joe. What might that look like, specifically? What do we need to think about to make it most effective?”

What is the Collaborative Analysis of Student Learning?

The Collaborative Analysis of Student Learning is a professional learning design in which teacher groups analyze student work samples and assessments to learn how to effectively support students’ learning of complex academic standards.

Teachers’ engagement in the process is driven by their relentless pursuit to discover and apply responsive approaches for learning so that every student reaches standards of excellence. This inquiry extends over a period of months “because deep learning rarely results from a single experience, and teachers need time to conduct longitudinal studies in which they test and reconstruct their current theories of what works” (Putnam & Borko, 2000). Through collaborative inquiry, teachers move away from using uniform best practices toward tailoring culturally and linguistically responsive approaches that meet all students’ needs.

Teacher self-awareness is an important part of developing culturally responsive approaches and positive attitudes about teaching and learning. Through structured and facilitated processes, teachers examine their beliefs and practices about teaching and learning. During study group sessions, teachers actively move beyond polite conversations of simply sharing practices toward more in-depth conversations, known as dialogue, about students whom teachers feel challenged to reach and teach (Little, Gearhart, Curry, & Kafka, 1999).

The process reveals assumptions that may limit teachers’ capacity to give full attention to students’ needs. A systematic inquiry process identifies, tests, analyzes, and refines potential solutions, allowing teachers to find equitable ways for all students to reach standards of excellence.