The Role of Situation Perception in Teaching

Abstract

Background/Context Rich classroom discussions are thought to provide several benefits to students, including improved connections to course content and general literacy development, and they provide a rich evidence stream from which teachers can make inferences about student learning to contribute to decisions about next teaching and learning steps. However, the way in which teachers perceive complex social situations characterized by student behaviors and aspects of the learning environment varies. Research has shown that expert teachers are better than novice teachers at identifying information that is important in complex social situations and that this expertise translates into improved teaching decisions. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This study examined whether situation perception is related to teachers’ performance when they lead classroom discussions. Research Design A total of 126 elementary school teacher candidates completed video-based situation perception and personality measures; scores were used to predict performance in simulations of facilitated classroom discussions. Findings/Results Situation perception was associated with candidates’ performance in discussions (r = .20, p < .05), and agreeableness was associated with situation perception (r = .21, p < .05) and performance in leading discussions (r = .19, p < .05). Conclusions/Recommendations Findings provide preliminary evidence to suggest that situation perception may be an important skill for teachers in leading discussions.