Making Thinking Explicit: A Skill Continuum of Preservice Teacher Use of Strategic Think-Alouds in Literacy Instruction

ABSTRACTTeachers understand the importance of think-alouds, yet research shows that think-alouds may be used ineffectively in practice. Often, this results from the difficulty of explicitly sharing the inner thought processes of competent readers and writers in transferable ways for students. To our knowledge, a tool for helping preservice teachers develop their competencies in rehearsing think-alouds for future instruction does not exist. Thus, the present study presents a Skill Continuum of Literacy Think-Aloud Practice demonstrated in preservice teachers’ (PSTs) articulation of metacognitive processes in modeled think-alouds during reading and writing instruction. Using qualitative content analysis, we explored how 55 PSTs applied metacognitive processes within online discussion forums for rehearsed think-alouds of reading and writing to create a skill continuum. This Skill Continuum of Literacy Think-Aloud Practice illustrates novice to more expert articulation of metacognitive processes within literacy think-alouds. Our findings reveal that integrating the metacognitive elements, rather than presenting them as discrete elements, reflects a more refined use of think-alouds in literacy instruction. Additionally, our findings highlight that integration of literacy strategies and skills shows a more refined level of implementation of modeling and explaining one’s thinking during reading and writing.KEYWORDS: Think-aloudsmetacognitionpreservice teacherscognitive apprenticeshipreadingwriting Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).