Saturate, situate, synthesize: Fostering preservice teachers' conceptual and practical knowledge for learning to lead class discussion. (February 2020) - Athanases, Steven Z.
Abstract: To develop preservice teachers' (PSTs') knowledge and practice for complex teaching, a pedagogical innovation featured a design of saturate, situate, and synthesize. Small-group inquiry into English teaching challenges was guided by a course saturated with diverse resources, situated in K-12 classrooms, and supported by visualization tools and reflection for synthesis. A case of one diverse group analyzes how they developed knowledge and practice for facilitating discussion to support critical response to text. Supported by diverse resources and synthesizing tools, discourse analysis into their culturally and linguistically diverse students' interactions, social dynamics, and perspectives shaped PSTs' conceptions of students co-constructing discussion. Highlights: Inquiry situated in K-12, supported by education course saturated with diverse resources, fostered teacher learning. Teacher inquiry tools fostered rigorous engagement with K-12 students' interactions and learning. Diverse PST group's figure-making synthesized and displayed developing conceptions of discussion as student-mediated.