Making Subject Matter Part of the Conversation in Learning to Teach

Abstract

Conversations between four mentor and four novice teachers were analyzed to discover how they discussed issues about the teaching and learning of content. The four cases were drawn from a larger set of conversations that were part of the data gathered in a study of two different first- year teacher programs—an induction program and an alternative certification program. Analy sis of the conversations revealed a range of ways that mentors dealt with novices' understanding of subject matter, including presenting subject matter directly, indirectly, assuming adequate subject-matter knowledge, and ignoring it. The conversations are discussed in relation to four aspects of learning to teach academic content: (a) deepening one's understanding of subject matter, (b) learning to think about academic content from the students' perspective, (c) learning to represent subject matter in appropriate and engaging ways, and (d) learning to organize students for teaching and learning academic content.