Relational knowing and responsive instruction

Teachers make innumerable decisions in their classrooms, taking into account students’ readiness for a particular topic, their cultural background, and their learning profile. However, the teacher’s role—taking care of high numbers of individual students along with the classroom as a whole—can be stressful and discouraging. The current educational conversation leads teachers toward seeing students as test scores as opposed to individual human beings. I would argue that excellent teachers know their students—knowing that goes beyond grades from the previous year. I also argue for high quality, responsive teaching—teaching that acknowledges the needs of individuals and requires teachers to respond in some effective way. This project was a qualitative case study (Dyson & Genishi, 2005) of one fifth-grade classroom teacher as she strove to be responsive to her students. It documented how the relationships she built with her students affected and were affected by her responsive teaching.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Curriculum and Instruction

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2017

Author dc:creator

• Jones, Alexis Leah

Contributors dc:contributor

• Möller, Karla
• Parsons, Marilyn
• McCarthey, Sarah
• Higgins, Christopher

• Relationships
• Responsive instruction

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2017 Alexis Jones

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/97680

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/97680