SOCIAL-STUDIES TEACHERS CONCEPTIONS OF DISCUSSION - A GROUNDED THEORYSTUDY

The purpose of this paper is to develop an initial theory of teachers' conceptions of classroom discussion. Six high school social studies t eachers participated in this study, and were purposively selected to p ermit data collection from a diverse and theoretically interesting sam ple. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and a think-aloud task, and were analyzed using grounded theory's constant-comparative technique. During data analysis, six conceptions of discussion emerged . Teachers thought of discussion as recitation, teacher-directed conve rsation, open-ended conversation, a series of challenging questions, g uided transfer of knowledge to the world outside the classroom and pra ctice at verbal interaction. In addition, five factors emerged that se emed to influence the teachers' use of discussion. Explanations and ex cerpts from the data are provided to illustrate each of the conception s. These hypothetical categories contribute to previous research on di scussion by revealing the complexity of teachers' conceptions of discu ssion. Implications of these findings for teachers, teacher educators, and researchers interested in classroom discussion are examined.