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Talk That Teaches

How to promote professional dialogue and growth

By Learning Forward
June 2015
Imagine having opportunities for teams of educators to come together regularly to engage in rich conversations about teaching — conversations so rich that they address problems of practice and support educators to learn on the job (Little, 2002). The instructional leadership team — principals, coaches, and other school leaders — works together to transform instruction by developing schoolwide professional communities that help teachers learn alongside their colleagues. What types of talk promote teachers’ professional growth? In the following vignettes, 4th-grade teachers and instructional leaders examine student work and observe classroom instruction. These learning designs encourage teachers to talk in ways that develop a shared understanding of teaching, which is instrumental to their professional growth (Lampert et al., 2013). A close look at these vignettes shows

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Authors

Lynsey Gibbons and Melinda Knapp

Lynsey Gibbons (lgibbons@bu.edu) is an assistant professor of mathematics education at Boston University. Melinda Knapp (melinda.c.knapp@gmail.com) is an instructor for Oregon State University-Cascades and a mathematics coach in Bend, Oregon.

References

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Bryk, A.S. & Schneider, B. (2003). Trust in schools: A core resource for school reform. Educational leadership, 60(6), 40-45.

City, E.A., Elmore, R.F., Fiarman, S.E., & Teitel, L. (2009). Instructional rounds in education: A network approach to improving teaching and learning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.

Desimone, L.M. (2011). A primer on effective professional development. Phi Delta Kappan, 92(6), 68-71.

Gibbons, L.K. & Cobb, P.A. (2015). Identifying potentially productive coaching activities. Manuscript submitted for publication.

Fernandez, C. & Yoshida, M. (2004). Lesson study: A Japanese approach to improving mathematics teaching and learning. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Fullan, M. (2010). All systems go: The change imperative for whole system reform. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Higgins, K.M. (2013). Building a team of learners. Teaching Children Mathematics, 19(8), 490-496.

Lampert, M., Franke, M.L., Kazemi, E., Ghousseini, H., Turrou, A.C., Beasley, H., Cunard, A., & Crowe, K. (2013). Keeping it complex: Using rehearsals to support novice teacher learning of ambitious teaching. Journal of Teacher Education, 64(3), 226-243.

Little, J.W. (2002). Locating learning in teachers’ communities of practice: Opening up problems of analysis in records of everyday work. Teaching and Teacher Education, 18(8), 917-946.

Little, J.W., Gearhart, M., Curry, M., & Kafka, J. (2003). Looking at student work for teacher learning, teacher community, and school reform. Phi Delta Kappan, 85(3), 184-192.

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (2000). Principles and standards for school mathematics. Reston, VA: Author.

National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers (2010). Common Core State Standards. Washington, DC: Author.

NGSS Lead States (2013). Next Generation Science Standards: For states, by states. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Sherin, M.G. & van Es, E.A. (2003). A new lens on teaching: Learning to notice. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 9(2), 92-95.

Smith, M.S., Bill, V., & Hughes, E.K. (2008). Thinking through a lesson: Successfully implementing high-level tasks. Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School, 14(3), 132-138.

Stoll, L., Bolam, R., McMahon, A., Wallace, M., & Thomas, S. (2006). Professional learning communities: A review of the literature. Journal of Educational Change, 7(4), 221-258.

West, L. & Cameron, A. (2013). Agents of change: How content coaching transforms teaching and learning. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

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