Advancing pedagogy: using collaborative dialogue to improve students' literacy instruction.

• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2047/D20383707

Researchers have identified that the teacher's competency and perceived self-efficacy is paramount in the development of students' understanding in the area of literacy development. However, professional development experiences do not always lead to the establishment of teaching competency or prepare teachers to acquire a complex understanding of the multifaceted layers intertwined within the reading process. The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) study was to identify teachers' perceptions of changes in their self-efficacy and student performance in literacy after participating in communities of practice that promote professional development. The theory of situated cognition was used as a theoretical lens to investigate the connections between situated learning experiences and teachers' classroom decision making. It provided the framework to answer the question: How does participation in a community of practice affect teachers' self-efficacy and decision making when making literacy instructional decisions for all students?