Missed Opportunities, Misunderstandings, and Misgivings: A Case Study Analysis of Three Beginning English Teachers’ Attempts at Authentic Discussion With Adolescents in a Synchronous CMC Environment
Source: Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 18(3), 387-414. (2010).
The current article described the Web Pen Pals project which provided an opportunity for beginning English teachers to practice authentic discussion about literature in a synchronous CMC environment with adolescents.
The researcher employed case study analysis of three beginning teachers to answer the following question:
How do preservice English teachers discuss literature online with middle school students?
Of particular interest was topic management; researchers suggest characteristics of the synchronous chat medium support topic negotiation rather than control by any one user.
Findings revealed that beginning teachers may bring traditional discourse expectations about teacher-student roles in discussion to CMC tasks, which may work against the development of authentic discussion in a CMC environment.