The Boundaries of Think-Aloud as Practiced by Teacher Educators

Prof. Lea Kozminsky, Kaye Academic College of Education Beer Sheva and The MOFET Institute, Israel Thursday, December 18th, 2008 from 20:00-21:30, Israel time [GMT+2]

Prof. Tom Russell,Queen’s University, Canada

Dr. Amanda Berry,Monash University, Australia

Prof. Lea Kozminsky

The head of the graduate programs at the Kaye Academic College of Education in Beer Sheva

Serves as the head of the Research Authority at The MOFET Institute in Tel Aviv

Ph.D in 1992 from the University of Pittsburgh, U.S.A.

Her research interests are in the areas of: language (mainly semantic and pragmatic) competencies of students with learning disabilities, self advocacy of students with special needs, ICT implementation in teacher education & pedagogies in teacher education.

She has authored the book “Speaking for themselves”, on self advocacy of students with learning disabilities.

Prof. Lea Kozminsky

Prof. Tom Russell A Professor in the Faculty of Education at Queen’s University, where he has taught since 1977.

Holds a Queen’s University Chair in Teaching and Learning (2007-2010).

Most of his teaching is with pre-service teachers in secondary science and in the school practicum.

Co-editor, with John Loughran of Monash University, of Studying Teacher Education, a Routledge journal that began publication in 2005.

His research focuses on factors influencing how people learn to teach and how teachers improve their teaching during their careers

He is a co-editor of several books: Enacting a Pedagogy of Teaching Education (2007), International Handbook of Self-Study of Teaching

and Teacher Education Practices (2004),

Prof. Tom Russell

B.A. degree in physics from Cornell University

Master of Arts in Teaching from Harvard University

Ph.D. in Educational Theory from the University of Toronto

Prof. Tom Russell

Dr. Amanda Berry

A senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Monash University.

Taught high school science and biology before joining Monash University as a teacher educator.

Amanda’s research is located within the field of teacher education, the development of professional knowledge of

teachers (preservice, inservice, university) the ways in which this knowledge can be

articulated, examined and shared so that it may be accessible and useful for others, and ultimately, improve the quality of students’ learning.

Dr. Amanda Berry

contributed numerous publications to the field of science education and teacher research

A regular presenter at Australian and International conferences.

She has authored and edited several books related to teachers’ professional learning.

Dr. Amanda Berry

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The Boundaries of Think-Aloud as Practiced by

Teacher Educators

Lea Kosminsky, Kaye College of Education and The MOFET Institute, Israel

Tom Russell, Queen’s University, Canada

Amanda Berry, Monash University, Australia

Online presentation, 18 December, 2008

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Who are We?

We are three teacher educators from three different countries and continents:

Lea Kozminsky, Israel

Tom Russell, Canada

Amanda Berry, Australia

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Lea Kozminsky from Israel

I teach in a regional teacher education college’s 4-year program leading to a B.Ed degree.

My students are in a 3rd-year course on learning disabilities that is required for their special education specialization.

I have chosen to create ties between what is learnt in the course and what is experienced by my students in their school teaching

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Tom Russell from Canada

I am studying my teaching of 18 prospective physics teachers who have completed an undergraduate degree and are enrolled in an 8-month pre-service teacher education program.

Education classes occur in blocks of 3 to 5 weeks that alternate with practicum periods of 4 weeks.

My think-alouds focus on ways in which my teaching is perceived as a model for future practices.

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Amanda Berry from Australia

I teach prospective secondary science teachers completing a 4-year teacher education program.

I use think-alouds with my pre-service science students to stimulate thinking about teaching as a complex and responsive activity.

The think-alouds I have used include blogs and ‘in-the-moment’ commentaries on my teaching.

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A Shared Self-Study

We share a self-study on our pedagogy as teacher educators: Specifically, we are studying our use of think-alouds to promote our students’ learning-to-teach.

We act as critical friends for each other, sharing and commenting on protocols of think-aloud episodes from our classes.

Lea: my motivation to join a shared study

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Self-Study

A form of practitioner research “… intentional and systematic inquiry into one’s own practice …that yields

knowledge of practice” (Dinkelman, 2003: 8-9)

A conceptual frame for understanding practice

“Self-study is about the learning from experience that is embedded within teachers creating new experiences for themselves and for those whom they teach….” (Russell, 1998: 6)

A methodology for studying professional practice settings

“Self-study is… self-initiated and focused… improvement aimed…interactive…uses multiple, largely qualitative methods…and advances the field through the construction, testing, sharing and retesting of exemplars of teaching practice.” (LaBoskey, 2004: 820-821)

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Think-Aloud

Think-aloud is a metacognitive strategy in which we think publicly about our thinking processes as teacher educators and examine those processes with our student teachers.

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Poll of Participants

Are you using some type of think-alouds in your teaching?

Please respond:

YES or NO

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Using Think-Alouds: Why and How

The goal: Help our student teachers to understand how teaching and learning interact

How do we do it?

Overtly presenting aspects of our pedagogical decision-making

Putting our thoughts forward for discussion, analysis and critique

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Example: Alone and Together

The Context

I often combine in class individual and group learning. When studying about causal attributions, each student was engaged in three learning activities:

(1) She wrote down to herself notes about a teacher-student dialogue that we presented

(2) She discussed her notes with a classmate

(3) She participated in an entire-class discussion.

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My Think-Aloud at the End of Class: Alone and Together

I planned the three activities believing that each had its own merit.

The "alone" phase, enabled each of you in her own pace to think and understand, as others did not hasten her to finish, and "the first to finish" was not setting the pace for others.

The second phase enabled dialogue and more intimate clarifications with a colleague, describing aloud your thoughts and reasoning.

The third phase in the general assembly brought into the open the knowledge of the entire group. This way I have used a systematic “alone and together process.” However, I have some hesitations about this process. It looked systematic, but it might have been too long and tiresome. I wonder: Do you perceive these steps that I have used as reducing your enthusiasm to learn?

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Studying Three Perspectives

Our own perspectives: what, when, how to think-aloud

Our students' perspectives: the contribution to their learning to teach

Ecological perspective: the environment that enables think-aloud

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Data collection24 episodes

transcription

Adding a postto the blog

Student’s comments on the blog

T-A&

Real-time recording

www.takaye.blogspot.com

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Teacher Educators’ Perspectives

Understanding the reasoning behind our think-alouds,

The topics for think-aloud,

Considerations of when, how and what to think-aloud.

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Parts of the Think-Aloud

Rehearsing: describing the events in detail, including the reasoning

Focusing Raising tensions/hesitations Suggesting alternatives/

offering different perspectives Inviting dialogue:

students' comments/reactions

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“Examples from others”

(Rehearsing) I have showed you today examples of other students' applications of the learning/teaching strategies.

(Focusing) However, showing these examples may direct you to apply the strategies to the very certain directions that are shown in the examples and thus to fixate your thoughts.

(Tension/Hesitation) If I were not presenting the applications used by other students I might have enabled you to create your new and fascinating applications.

(Alternatives/Perspectives) Indeed, when I do so I present a variety and not a sole example, and this way I hope to encourage the diversity. Sometimes I even present you with examples in which the strategy is not applied appropriately, and we try to learn from it.

(Inviting dialogue) I am wondering: Does presenting application examples, before you have a chance to apply the strategy in your classes, direct you to closed routes? What do you think?

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Categories of Think-AloudCategoryReasoning toExamples#Timing

ContentInclude certain contents in lesson

Syllabus

Teaching journal

Teacher-researcher

5prior

Teaching method

Use certain teaching methods

Telling and growth

Explicit instruction

Planning & flexibility

12prior,

H&N or

after

Values

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Actions representing values

Safe environment

Individual & group needs

The complexity of sharing

7H&N

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Students' Perspectives

How do student-teachers see our think-alouds as important in the process of learning to teach, and how they start practicing think-alouds in their own classrooms?

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Students speak up for themselves As learners

“to describe my learning preferences and feelings”

Learning style: "I want to think-aloud as a learner. You asked us to collaborate in pairs but I know that I do better when I work first on my own. I was hesitant to talk about it as my peers can look at me as uncooperative. I decided to use think-aloud to explain my preference and how it influences my learning.“ (November, 22, 2007, in class)

Vulnerability as learner (the need for a positive feedback): "I want to think-aloud about my feelings as a student in regard to your feedback. Usually, you mention in class the comments written to your blog. After some trials I finally put a comment and was hoping that you would refer to it in class. Alas, in this session you went on without referring to my comments on the blog. I know that I am supposed to study for my own benefit but here I could identify with the children who do not receive positive feedback following an effort that they made.“ (January, 24, 2008, in class,)L

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Students speak up for themselves As learners

Uncertainty over purpose: Today Mandi stopped the class and explained why she was doing something and how she thought it would work. I really liked this but I wonder if there were some students who thought, ‘I really don’t care’…What I am trying to get at is: Do we need to know we are meant to be learning something to learn it?” (2nd April, email to Mandi)

Need for confidence as a learner: “I think it was important for us to trust that you would be able to teach us well…opening up your vulnerability and uncertainty about things was unsettling for many [student teachers]…It was like like ‘whoa! She doesn’t know what she is doing all the time - what hope have we got?” (15th March, 2001, email to Mandi)

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As prospective teachers

Using think-alouds in their practicing classes proved to be problematic. A few used think-alouds successfully in their teaching, but others felt reluctant.

We perceived it as a challenge and decided to explore this further.

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Some students: “to learn how to think like a teacher”

“The idea of thinking aloud has received an upgrade since the beginning of this school-year. I have never thought of think-aloud as a teaching method, but rather as an act that one uses in personal topics and situations. Teaching is so complex and this year I have realized that think-aloud can assist me in solving dilemmas during my teachings… my students feel like my partners and once they share my hesitations and decision makings they feel morally obliged to the proper ongoing of the lesson, …I have used it in my practicum and will continue using it as a teacher.” ( July, 17, 2008, comment on the blog)

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Some students: “not something I would do…”

“I think the reflection within [university] class allows us to know what’s going on and so that it’s a kind of process of “Would I do that or would I say that?”…it actually gives us some insight into the way you’re thinking…[But] It’s not something I would do in [senior high school] class because I think students really need to know that the person out the front has some confidence in what they’re doing and they make a decision for a particular reason, so I am not sure how [senior high school] students …would find that, but for me, it’s good because I can say, now would I be thinking that at this particular time?…Would I be thinking the same thing that you’re thinking?” (Student teacher interview, October, 2000)

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Ecological perspective

What are the characteristics of the environment that enable thinking aloud to become open and safe despite possible risks (such as vulnerability to criticism) for the teacher?

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Think-Alouds Sharing thoughts, deliberations and

reasoning for teaching actions

Pre-requisites to using Think-Alouds:

Basic curiosity about self as a teacher and about teaching as a profession

Readiness to share thoughts and hesitations

Think-Alouds create the atmosphere:

Think-alouds can create an intimate classroom atmosphere. This encourages me and my students to be more sharing, trustful, and cooperative.L

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Tool and Context

Tool: Think-aloud is an important tool for talking about teaching and learning

Also

Context: Think-alouds create the classroom context and atmosphere for learning about

teaching

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Challenges with Think-Alouds

Selecting what to make explicit and when: being able to distinguish between my (teacher educator) needs for students’ learning and students’ needs for their own learning,

Being seen as somehow different from the ‘real’ world of practice: think-aloud may be perceived as an unnecessary academic exercise,

Portraying confidence in uncertainty: how to make the complex, problematic aspects of teaching explicit without undermining students’ or the teacher educator’s confidence.

Trust is crucial in developing new approaches to practice.

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Challenges with Think-Alouds

Much as Tom believes in the importance and value of Think-Alouds, he does not always find them easy to introduce. His students in a Physics Methods class seem puzzled when he tries to get them to talk about our teaching and learning. Some seem genuinely uncomfortable, while others seem to question the need. In an 8-month program, it takes time for the potential of Think-Alouds to be recognized.

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Other students are hesitant (Lea)

Using Think-Aloud depends on the sense of teaching ownership

means

enables

influences depends on

if if if

Teacher's use of Think-Alouds (TA)

Engaging pupils/student-teachers in

pedagogical reasoning and decision making of

teachers

(1)

Sense of Teaching Ownership (TO)

Changes inteacher's attitudes

(2) (3)

Role of the teacher

(4)

Examples

Recognize the complexity of

teaching

Identify with the teacher's

role

(2a) (2b)

Tension between

stating and doing

Advantages and

disadvantages of a teaching

method

Teacher's vulnarability:

can make mistakes

Based on

Holding own class

Confidence with lesson

plan

Compentency using teaching

methods Teacher educator

Practicing teacher

Student teacher

Perceived as having Teaching Ownership

Percieved positive feasibility to use TA

Perceived as not having

Teaching Ownership

(3a) (3b)

(3c)

(4a) (4b) (4c)

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Challenges (2)

Last year Tom found that his students were much more comfortable responding on paper. This may be related to the fact that at the end of every class they write a comment about what big ideas they are taking away from the class. They may have come to associate the kind of discussion Think-Alouds require with the sorts of thinking they do on paper at the end of each class.

The responses on paper named most of the major themes Tom was trying to develop. When thinking-aloud is a challenge, try writing-aloud!

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Challenges (3)

Just the day before entering these comments, Tom asked his students to respond anonymously online to two prompts:

(1) How would they describe the main teaching strategy I am using?

(2) What questions do you have? The responses so far suggest that it takes time for

them to start thinking in the ways that Think-Alouds require.

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Two Illustrative Responses

The teaching approach so far seems to include plenty of time for asking questions and (most importantly) having questions asked of us. We have been asked to put ourselves in the learners’ shoes and feel what it is like to share that perspective at a time when so much emphasis is put on how to teach.

I don’t have any questions at the moment.

* Use of engaging activities (Predict-Observe-Explain) * Effective classroom discussion * Sufficient thinking and questioning time * Excellent experience

No questions. Everything's perfect so far!

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Challenges (4)

These comments are very different but illustrate what Think-Aloud (or Write-Aloud) can contribute. Once others respond, we can and will discuss as a class.

I recently did an exercise with 35 of our students asking them to write (individually) their sense of Program Strengths, Weaknesses, Suggestions and Question. In groups of 6 they then compiled ideas and posted them on the board for other groups to see. The ensuing discussion was a kind of Think-Aloud, as I “thought out loud” about their concerns, sharing my many experiences of hearing such comments over many years. (The challenges and frustrations of pre-service teacher education never seem to go away.)

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Importance of Think-Alouds

In any class, it is all too easy to lose sight of the BIG PICTURE. Nowhere is the Big Picture more important than in a teacher education program. Future teachers ALWAYS ask why their professors do not teach them in the ways they talk about.

We simply cannot fulfill our responsibilities as teacher educators if we do not step into Think-Aloud mode (or Write-Aloud, followed by Think-Aloud) when the time is right, particularly near the end of courses and programs.

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Powerful Questions from those Learning to Teach

Why do we have so many ‘busy work’ assignments?

Why is there so much reflection?

What are we supposed to be learning?

Why are we told to teach one way and then taught in another?

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Think-Alouds as Response

Think-Alouds have critical potential in responding to questions such as those on the previous slide. If those learning to teach are asking such questions early in their program, then their further progress is in jeopardy unless they can hear responses that take their questions as important and significant!

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Our upcoming webinars

The Online Learning and Teaching (Environments (OLE

The MOFET Institute in Israel

http://mofetitec.macam.ac.il/calendar/Pages/ole.aspx

Self-construction in computer-mediated discourse:

Theoretical and methodological perspectives

Prof. Kupferberg is a professor of discourse analysis at Levinsky College of Education, Tel Aviv, Israel, where she founded the Shahak Institute for Language, Society and Communication

Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 19:00– 20:30, Israel time [GMT+2]

The bilingual brain: Lexical organization and cognitive consequences

Dr. Gal Ben-Yehuda, Post-doctoral Scholar University of Pittsburgh and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition

Wednesday, March 4, 2009 from 20:00-21:30, Israel time [GMT+2]

Multimedia Authoring: A Shared Workshop in AutoPlay Media Studio

The workshop will be held in three sessions of 3 (academic) hours each: Part I: February 3, 2009, 17:00 – 19:30 - Israel time [GMT+2] Part II: February 10, 2009, 17:00 – 19:30 - Israel time [GMT+2] Part III: February 17, 2009, 17:00 – 19:30 - Israel time [GMT+2]

Mr. Yossi Klein,Jerusalem College of Education, Israel NewMedia consultant to hi-tech companies and was a member of the Israel Ministry of Education Committee that developed the Digital Video Curriculum

http://mofetitec.macam.ac.il/calendar/Pages/ole.aspx

The Boundaries of Think-Aloud as Practiced by Teacher Educators

Prof. Lea Kozminsky, Kaye Academic College of Education Beer Sheva and The MOFET Institute, Israel

Prof. Tom Russell,Queen’s University, Canada

Dr. Amanda Berry,Monash University, Australia

Our team

Olzan GoldsteinEinat Rozner

Wafa Zidan

Ziva Deutsch

Sarah PeerEleanor Adika

Rachel Krupel

Nitsa Waldman

Jay Hurvitz

We look forward to meeting you online!