Three forms of noticing required for learning to facilitate productive discussion

Design · All designs
Evidence · 3 claims (2 for, 1 mixed) · 1 study (1 causal), q2 · 1 of 1 report an effect size · 3 claims rest on one study

Description

Building on Gibson's perceptual learning theory, the article proposes three forms of noticing for teachers developing discussion facilitation. "First is increased differentiation with respect to the structure and features of student talk, including both what is present and what is missing." Second, differentiation of the features and dimensions of teachers' response moves; third, identification and refinement of one's values and commitments and of alignment between a discussion and those values. The intervention was designed around these three areas.

Design Implications

Context

Requirements

• Requires teachers to encounter varied discussion examples that make features of student talk, teacher moves, and values contrasts salient

Constraints

• The matching-problem analogy is acknowledged as a simplification; discussion also occurs in social and cultural contexts shaped by values and relational histories the analogy does not capture

Target Learners

• preservice teachers
• prospective teachers (undergraduates interested in teaching)

Learning Goals

• noticing features of productive classroom discussion
• differentiating talk moves such as revoicing
• refining values and commitments about discussion

Claims

• Preservice teachers became more likely to notice the absence of students building on each other's ideas and marginally more likely to notice open-ended questions [+M]
• Student-focused noticing marginally increased (Cohen's d = 0.43) while teacher-focused codes showed no change (d = 0.06) [~M]
• All participant pairs ranked the fully student-led Dialog E best, and disagreement about the elaborative-revoicing Dialog B reflected differences in values rather than in noticing [+W] — supports treating values as a distinct third form of noticing

Patterns Used

• Contrasting Cases: varied discussion transcripts are set side by side so the three forms of noticing (student talk, teacher moves, values) become perceptually salient

Related Designs

• Contrasting cases with a synthesis task to develop perceptual differentiation of discussion features — the intervention built on these three forms of noticing

Examples

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Key Sources

• Blair, K. P., Banes, L. C., & Martin, L. (2024). Fostering noticing of classroom discussion features through analysis of contrasting cases. Instructional Science, 52:417–452. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-024-09661-z

Page metadata

Field	Value
type	design
id	blair2024-three-forms-discussion-noticing
title	Three forms of noticing required for learning to facilitate productive discussion
description	Building on Gibson's perceptual learning theory, the article proposes three forms of noticing for teachers developing discussion facilitation.
status	review
generated	by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-18
trust	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources	1 — blair-2024

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