Describing teacher educators' metatalk moves enacted for teaching how to teach concepts

Abstract

Higher education settings necessitate reflective decision-making through metacognitive thinking. As teacher educators prepare prospective teachers responsible for enhancing their students' metacognitive abilities, they must employ metacognitive prompts that encourage students to engage in metacognitive thinking. This study aims to analyse and exemplify the talk moves used by teacher educators to stimulate metacognitive thinking among their students. The research delved into 22 teacher educators, scrutinising 36 in-class teaching sessions totalling 4536 minutes using a multiple case study approach. Through classroom discourse analysis, the study reveals that participants employed 24 distinct types of moves organised around eight overarching themes (framing, wrapping up, consistent and contingent thinking, monitoring cognition, apparent and elicited oral communication, transferring understanding, experiencing, legitimating, and justifying thinking and reasoning) to foster metacognitive thinking among students. The study's implications emphasise how teacher educators can leverage talk moves to promote various metacognitive thinking processes in students. Notably, the research establishes a data-based coding framework facilitating examining educators' metacognitive moves, indispensable tools in university-level instruction. The findings underscore the significance of instructional noticing for teacher educators, particularly in cultivating metacognitive thinking.