Challenges for Preservice Teachers in Learning to Lead Discussions: Inquiry in Diverse Classrooms

Abstract

While research documents learning and academic affordances of discussion, less is known about how novice teachers learn to enact discussion and how teacher education supports such learning, especially for culturally and linguistically diverse classes. Our study features an innovation to guide and learn from 81 preservice teachers over four years about their first attempts at class discussion and the challenges they report in this work. Analyzing data from teachers' classroom-based inquiry reflections and analyses, we identified themes in dialogic first-attempts and student-focused and teacher preparation related challenges in realizing the potential of dialogic instruction.