Student engagement in high-level cognitive demand instruction is pivotal for student learning. However, many teachers are unable to maintain such instruction, especially in instances of non-responsive students. This case study of three middle school teachers explores prompts that aim to move classroom discussions past student silence. Prompt sequences were categorized into progressing, focusing, and redirecting actions, and then analyzed for maintenance of cognitive demand. Results indicate that prompts that raise cognitive demand typically start out as procedural or concrete and progress to include students’ thoughts or ideas about mathematical concepts. This presentation aims to discuss implications on how teachers can use prompting techniques to effectively maintain high levels of cognitive demand during student silence.
Session Type: Brief Research Report