Facilitators can use a taxonomy of moves and strategies for acknowledging and exploring emotion to build a facilitation repertoire¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 5 claims (5 for) · 1 study (1 qualitative), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 5 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The editorial describes Vedder-Weiss, Trachtenberg-Masalton, and Sarfati-Shaulov's (2025) focus on the facilitation side of professional development, "mapping a taxonomy of moves and strategies for acknowledging and exploring emotion to build a repertoire for facilitators." This paper provides insight into how teachers' emotions can become a resource for continued learning. Relatedly, the editorial notes researchers have identified specific strategies facilitators use to elicit and/or respond to teachers' emotions in professional learning spaces.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Facilitators need a repertoire of moves and strategies for acknowledging and exploring emotion

Constraints¶

Target Learners¶

• professional development facilitators
• coaches
• pre-service teacher educators

Target Learning Goals¶

• Using teachers' emotions as a resource for continued learning

Claims¶

• Mitigating and normalizing the emotion recognizes it more than acknowledging-to-prevent but limits exploration to attributions that avoid critique of PD design [+W]
• Ignoring the emotion strategy neither recognizes nor explores the displayed emotion, closing the discursive space [+W]
• Acknowledging the emotion to prevent further discussing it recognizes the emotion but constrains exploration of the underlying pedagogical problem [+W]
• Quick transition from emotion to practice indirectly recognizes the emotion to a somewhat greater extent than ignoring it [+W]
• The three strategies highest in both recognizing and exploring emotions were all identified in the same 20-minute emotional event [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Avoiding or preventing discussion of teacher emotions may constitute emotional rules that exclude emotions from pedagogical discourse
• Integrating recognition and exploration of emotions to navigate the tension between relational and learning goals
• Narrated Emotional Storytelling in Professional Learning Communities

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Chen, G. A., Vedder-Weiss, D., & Marshall, S. A. (2026). Introduction: the role of affect in STEM teacher learning. Instructional Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-026-09777-4