How Pre-service Teachers Use Knowledge of the Learner to Make in the Moment and Planned Teaching Decisions Interview with Allison Davis
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Interviews with TCU Students About their Research
Our research team examined pre-service teachers’ (undergraduate students studying education) case study projects to determine what types of decisions teachers make during guided reading instruction. We coded each teacher decision as either a “planning” or “in-the-moment” decision. Our research team then looked at what each teacher decision was related to: did the decision help a child with comprehension, solving for unknown words, etc. The findings revealed that pre-service teachers are able to make complex decisions that often lead to a focus on meaning-making and comprehension.
Comments from Mentors
“Allison Davis is wise beyond her years. She worked diligently on this research project for over a year, never wavering in her commitment to excellence. She was hungry for knowledge so when she needed to know more about qualitative data analysis, she read about it. When she needed to learn more about the development of teacher knowledge, she dove into the literature. Her dedication to ferreting out trends in the data and to making sense of why the findings mattered made this a highly successful and well-regarded research study of pre-service teachers’ use of knowledge of students to guide teaching decisions in reading instruction. Allison’s work will soon be published in the highly regarded, peer-reviewed Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education. Not only is Allison a scholar, but she is a practicing classroom teacher who makes a difference in the lives of 7 and 8-year olds on a daily basis!”
“Allison has been a joy to work with as one of our most talented, dynamic students in the College of Education. Her strengths as a young scholar are evident in this project. Allison’s attention to detail, ability to synthesize information, and skill as a reflective, critical thinker led to a final product that makes a legitimate contribution to teacher education research. I am exceedingly proud of Allison’s work, and I am confident that she will continue to excel in her academic and professional pursuits.”