Teaching content in practice: Investigating rehearsals of social studies discussions

• Published in: Teaching and teacher education 2019-11, Vol.86, p.102863-102863, Article 102863
• Main Authors: Kavanagh, Sarah Schneider, Monte-Sano, Chauncey, Reisman, Abby, Fogo, Brad, McGrew, Sarah, Cipparone, Peter
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0742-051X; 1879-2480
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tate.2019.06.017

Despite evidence of its benefits, discussion remains rare in history/social science classrooms. To address this problem, communities of teacher educators (TEs) have begun supporting novices to approximate discussion facilitation. Some scholars are concerned that this turn to practice will come at the cost of content preparation. Focusing specifically on rehearsals of discussion facilitation in three history/social science methods courses, our analysis investigates whether, how, and in what ways TEs worked on content while engaging novice teachers in practicing discussion facilitation. We found that TEs found ways to work simultaneously on content and practice during rehearsals of discussion facilitation. •Debates exist about whether focusing on practice in teacher education requires reduced focus on content.•It is possible to work on developing novice teachers' content knowledge and practical skill simultaneously.•Rehearsals can focus on supporting students to attend to the structure of the discipline.•Rehearsals can focus on supporting students to construct and verify knowledge in disciplinarily appropriate ways.•Rehearsals can focus on making content accessible and anticipating how students will think about content.