(Toward) Developing a Common Language for Describing Instructional Practices of Responding: A Teacher-Generated Framework

In this article we examine an analytical framework generated by secondary mathematics teachers for tracking changes to their own instructional practices across time. We describe the journey of this group of teachers through professional development focused on improving instructional practice. In the midst of that experience, teachers struggled to find an analytical tool to examine one another’s practices of responding to students’ mathematical ideas and ultimately overcame this problem by considering the practitioner literature and their own experiences. We also describe how we adapted the framework to investigate its use for detecting shifts in teachers’ practices, sharing findings obtained from its use. Lastly, we argue for this type of collaborative work with teachers as a means to develop common language for instructional practice.