Teacher Knowledge and Questioning in Classroom Talk about Text

Open discussion of text promotes students’ reading achievement, yet classroom discussion is rare. The present study investigates whether teachers’ knowledge for literacy teaching relates to their enactment of class discussion in the context of a high-quality literacy curriculum. Two sixth grade teachers (one who demonstrated high levels of knowledge for teaching literacy, and one who demonstrated low knowledge) were audio recorded teaching the same reading lesson. Lesson transcripts were analyzed with a focus on the questions teachers asked. Questions were coded as high – or low-level, and as authentic or display questions. Function of questions and quality of instruction were also explored. The teacher whose knowledge was higher asked more high-level questions, while the teacher with lower knowledge asked more low-level questions. Although both teachers asked more display than authentic questions, a higher proportion of questions asked by the teacher with high knowledge were authentic. The higher-knowledge teacher’s enactment of the lesson also included more student voice, more topical coherence, and a richer understanding of the material. These findings emphasize the importance of teacher knowledge. This work also underscores the importance of developing more robust constructs for knowledge for literacy teaching, and quality of literacy instruction.