Teacher Knowledge as Context

Abstract

Research has shown that teachers bring into the classroom multiple domains of knowledge, including disciplinary knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge (i.e., the process of relaying disciplinary knowledge to students), knowledge of how learning occurs, knowledge of students’ learning styles, knowledge of curricular and contextual demands, their own personal practical knowledge (e.g., experiences in the classroom as a student; cultural norms surrounding the role of a teacher), and knowledge of how to reflect on all of these domains in order to adapt one’s teaching accordingly 1 . This piece will briefly explain and demonstrate the importance in examining teacher knowledge as context within classroom discourse analysis in order to enrich the understanding of what is happening in classroom interaction and explain why it is so. The fields of discourse analysis and teacher education have attempted to understand the manner in which classroom interaction is constructed within specific teaching contexts. In fact, Freeman and Johnson (1998) state that there is a connection between these two disciplines, as the actual activity/interaction of teaching stems from the knowledge that a teacher brings to a classroom. Unfortunately, as Lazaraton and Ishihara (2005) attest, the two fields have rarely converged to complement their findings in an attempt to further understand how teacher/student interactions within classrooms are constructed. Of the few studies that bridge these two areas of research, Carlsen (1993) found that the amount of disciplinary knowledge novice science teachers had was negatively correlated with the amount of teacher talk time. In the field of English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching, Lazaraton (2003) saw that non-native English speaking ESL teachers would restrict the amount of student interaction via question types (e.g., closed questions) when the discourse veered towards cultural topics unfamiliar to the teachers. These studies have initiated the discussion of bridging teacher knowledge and classroom discourse research to more fully understand classroom interactions; however, the types of data gathered have only generated findings that exemplify single teacher knowledge domains being actualized in and influencing classroom discourse. This does not coincide with findings in teacher education research that demonstrate multiple knowledge domains interacting simultaneously during teaching. It is therefore necessary to investigate how the multiple teacher knowledge domains are both actualized in and influence teacher/student discourse. The following excerpt demonstrates how incorporating an understanding of teacher knowledge domains within the context of classroom interaction enhances our understanding of the construction of this discourse. This excerpt comes from an advanced-level adult ESL integrated skills classroom, where a student teacher from a post-baccalaureate TESOL program is conducting her second class for the semester. The students have just concluded an individual letter writing activity and are about to exchange their papers to begin a peer review exercise. The student teacher, Lily 2 , has just asked the class what they thought of the writing activity. One student, Miki, provides an answer.