Developing Teachers’ Adaptive Expertise for Ambitious Instruction and Disciplinary Learning

Abstract

Since the introduction of the adaptive expertise construct many decades ago, there has been a resurgence in recent learning sciences scholarship with respect to how to support K12 teachers in adopting ambitious instruction, i.e., the discipline-specific knowledge and strategies for real-world inquiry. Such shifts require a consideration of learning theories about what teachers need to know in relation to real-world disciplinary inquiry, how this knowledge can be translated into practice, and how both kinds of knowledge engage diverse classroom communities. This symposium highlights six teams of researchers who work with in-service and prospective K12 teachers focused on understanding how best to develop their adaptive expertise for ambitious instruction. In conversation with each other and the audience, we aim to understand how adaptive expertise is conceptualized in its myriad disciplines and how it is developed through theory and practice. Of particular interest are the mechanisms that support teacher learning.