The instruction of six teachers in a private school for bright underachievers that is characterized by a strategic teaching initiative, strong instructional leadership, and collegiality was examined to characterize the nature of instructional dialogue. Lesson transcripts were coded for the presence and organization of eight instructional moves often found in good strategy instruction. Results demonstrated teachers' fidelity to a particular vision of instruction. Instructional moves designed to make strategic processing specific and explicit were found in all lessons, with the majority of the lessons containing at least seven of the eight strategy instruction moves. Instruction was found to be transactional and process-oriented. Interactive cycles of dialogue, during which teachers were responsive to students' strategic construction of knowledge, were prevalent. Student and teacher demographic variables were considered as they related to characteristics of instruction. The transactional strategy instruction found here is likened to instruction described by Duffy and Roehler (1987b) and is contrasted with a recitation model of instruction.Gaskins, Anderson, Pressley, Cunicelli, & Satlow SIX TEACHERS' DIALOGUE DURING COGNITIVE PROCESS INSTRUCTIONThe typical way to change education is to propose a new curriculum; instead, we propose looking at instruction. The instructional moves of teachers entail countless decisions about various classroom contingencies--decisions that no curriculum developer could be expected to envision. For this reason, a curriculum can only be an abstraction until it is realized in the instruction of a particular teacher in a particular classroom. Curriculum artifacts such as statements of purpose, scope and sequence charts, textbooks, teachers' manuals, and lesson guides are by themselves lifeless; they are brought to life when teachers collaborate with students.Teachers and students must, in fact, construct the curriculum. The use of construct that we intend parallels the use among reading educators when we say that readers construct the meaning of text. It is now generally agreed that meaning is not in texts but arises from transactions between readers and texts (Rosenblatt, 1978). Similarly, instruction arises from transactions of teachers and students with curriculum materials. The relationship between the teacher, students, and materials is a reciprocal one in which each influences the other and, in turn, the context influences the transactions--transactions that provide the opportunity for instruction that is dynamic and flexible.When implementing a curriculum, teachers must bring to bear subject-matter knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and curricular knowledge (Shulman, 1986, p. 26). However, teachers vary not only in terms of their knowledge but also in their values, training, and personal and professional experience. If anything, students are even more variegated. Therefore, it follows that, as teachers and students collaboratively construct the curriculum, the curriculum act...

Despite the vast amount of research on cognitive strategy instruction in recent years, few studies have focused on academic strategies taught in school settings over a long time. The interview study reported here tapped the understandings and beliefs about strategy instruction of 31 classroom teachers experienced in strategy instruction and 9 strategy researchers. Though the two groups were generally in agreement about the components of strategy instruction and when to include these components in teaching, significant differences were discovered that merit consideration as part of a comprehensive strategy instruction model.