Abstract
A common way to situate professional learning in practice is to use representations of teaching, such as videos of classroom instruction or samples of student work. Using representations of teaching, however, does not automatically lead to teacher learning. Learning in and from practice also requires supports that make such practice studyable. The authors introduce and explore the work of “making practice studyable” by analyzing a case of practice-based professional development in which the professional development designers deliberately tried to mediate participants’ learning in and from practice. From this analysis, the authors identified five categories of work that can help make practice studyable: (1) engaging the content, (2) providing insight into student thinking, (3) orienting to the instructional context, (4) providing lenses for viewing, and (5) developing a disposition of inquiry. These categories are then applied to the use of a representation of mathematics teaching in a course for preservice elementary teachers.
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Notes
The episode is based on a lesson designed and taught by the Mathematics Methods Planning Group at the University of Michigan School of Education.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (grant #0227586 to the Center for Proficiency in Teaching Mathematics). The authors would like to thank the CPTM Summer Institute planners and participants, as well as the preservice teachers who participated in the laboratory class. We also thank Ed Silver, Jeremy Kilpatrick, Magdalene Lampert, Deborah Ball, and Francesca Forzani for their feedback on earlier drafts of the paper.
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The order of authorship is alphabetical; both authors contributed equally to the development of this paper.
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Ghousseini, H., Sleep, L. Making practice studyable. ZDM Mathematics Education 43, 147–160 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-010-0280-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-010-0280-7