Using changes in framing to account for differences in a teacher's classroom behavior

Abstract

In this paper we account for how a 5th grade teacher changes in how she attends and responds to student thinking in terms of differences in her framing of the instructional situation. Coordinating verbal (i.e. speech, voice inflection, and word emphasis) and non-verbal (i.e. body orientation, eye gaze, and gesturing) behavioral data, we characterize three patterns that reappeared with stability throughout a fourteen-day, inquiry-based instructional module on the water cycle. We argue that each of these behavior patterns suggests a distinctive way the teacher frames her instruction. We label these frames as: (A) moving towards content objectives; (B) promoting a student-centered discussion; and (C) making sense of students' ideas. The episodic manner in which these frame shifts occur in the classroom suggests a way of conceptualizing a learning progression in teachers' ability to attend and respond to student thinking.