How to Elaborate What Teachers Should Learn? Five Steps for Content Specification of Professional Development Programs, Exemplified By “Moves Supporting Participation in Classroom Discussions”

Abstract

This paper aims at widening the discussion on the research-based design of professional development (PD) programs: from the prevailing “how-questions” (with their focus on the pedagogy and didactical principles for PD) to the “what-questions.” What-questions focus on the specification of the content in the PD program that should surmount deficit-oriented views on teachers’ perspectives. The presentation of a five-step program for the theoretically and empirically grounded process of content specification of a PD program is exemplified by the content “moves supporting participation in classroom discussions.”