Central research projects at t​he Laboratory for the Study of Pedagogy include:​

Inside Israeli Pedagogy: Analysis of teaching and learning practices, as well as teachers' discourse about those practices, in language classes in Israeli primary schools.​

  • Meaningful Learning through Academically Productive Dialogue: An experimental study examining the interrelationship between classroom discourse, cognitive skills, learning motivation, and academic achievement. The study is funded by the Israel Science Foundation, as a Center for Excellence, in collaboration with researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv University.

  • Developing Pedagogical Leadership and Discourse: The study examines teacher discourse in teacher team meetings in schools and ways to improve that discourse. The study is conducted in collaboration with teachers, principals, coaches, and supervisors in two school districts, as part of a national movement for teacher leadership (hashkafa). ​

Research Question
  
Researcher/s
  
How does leading teachers’ agency manifest in the structuring of their role and the coach’s role?Adam Lefstein, Dana Vedder-Weiss, Iris Tabak, Aliza Segal
How are face-work and motivation reflected in teacher discourse?Adi Mendler (Advisor: Dana Vedder-Weiss)
What are the similarities and differences between multi-disciplinary teacher learning communities and disciplinary learning communities?Adi Mendler, Aliza Segal, Dana Vedder Weiss
How do teachers talk about specific children as a problem of practice in consultations? How is the agency and responsibility of the consulting teacher constructed in the discourse?Aliza Segal
What are the functions of the narratives teachers tell in team meetings?Aliza Segal
How do teacher teams appropriate conversational protocols?Aliza Segal, Dana Vedder-Weiss, Adam Lefstein
What characterizes the division of professional jurisdiction between leading teachers and educational counsellors in learning communities? What relationships between pedagogical and psychological discourses are expressed in this division? Ayelet Becher, Adam Lefstein
How does the paradox of cultivating leadership and agency manifest in academia-field collaboration: expressions, dilemmas, and implications?Dana Vedder-Weiss, Adam Lefstein, Aliza Segal, Itay Pollack
Face-work during a discussion of a classroom teaching clip: How common? In what ways? What are the implications?Dana Vedder-Weiss, Aliza Segal, Adam Lefstein
What is the connection between supporting the psychological needs of teachers in learning communities and reflectivity, motivation, and a sense of self-realization in teaching?Dana Vedder-Weiss, Guy Roth, Yael Mishali
What supports and what hinders productive framing of discussions of problems of practice?Dana Vedder-Weiss, Nadav Ehrenfeld, Michal Ram, Itay Pollack
What are teachers' perceptions of professional communities on social networks as a context for learning and professional development? To what extent are these professional communities effective, and in what ways are they perceived as enabling change in prDiklah Baum-Feldman (Advisors: Adam Lefstein, Gideon Dishon)
How do representations of practice develop, and how do they effect professional development of leading teachers?Einav Aizikovitsh-Udi
How is a systemic effect created in the transition from a disciplinary coaching model to a school coaching model?Einav Aizikovitsh-Udi
What are the characteristics of particularly lengthy check-in activities in pedagogic meetings?Eran Hakim
How do teachers talk about student motivation in their everyday workplace discourse? How do teachers’ conceptions of motivation manifest and how are they constructed in teacher discourse? Hasia Yakobov (Advisor: Dana Vedder-Weiss)Hasia Yakobov (Advisor: Dana Vedder-Weiss)
How is the Teacher Leadership reform implemented at the district level? What tensions and meanings are produced in the attempt to implement a top-down reform that is based on empowering the field?Hemy Ramiel, Adam Lefstein
How is uncertainty in teaching manifested, and how does it impact productive pedagogic talk?Ido Gideon
What and how do teachers learn when their discourse centers on planning?Ido Gideon, Dana Vedder-Weiss
What is teachers’ professional pedagogical discourse in schools in the Arab education stream in Israel?Islam Abu Asaad, Adam Lefstein, Aliza Segal
What emotions arise in teacher discourse as a factor that supports or hinders learning?Karin Sarfati-Shaulov (Advisor: Dana Vedder-Weiss)
What characterizes the participation of veteran teachers in comparison to novices’ participation in team meetings? How does their participation impact the productivity and inquisitiveness of the discourse?Livat Eshchar Netz (Advisors: Dana Vedder-Weiss, Adam Lefstein)
What are the challenges and limitations of teacher professional development for dialogic pedagogy? A study of changes in the contexts that surround classroom dialogue as stimulating change in discourse patterns.Matan Barak (Advisor: Adam Lefstein)
How do different activities in team meetings support (or not support) collaborative inquiry of practice?Miriam Babichenko (Advisor: Christa Asterhan)
How does the teacher discourse in a team meeting about a video-clip of one of the team members differ from the discourse about a video-clip of a teacher they do not know? How do these differences support (or not support) collaborative learning?Miriam Babichenko (Advisor: Christa Asterhan)
How can productive discourse in teacher team meetings be systematically/methodically coded?Miriam Babichenko (Advisor: Christa Asterhan)
How does distributed leadership manifest in teacher team meetings? How does the principal’s participation in team meetings impact the cultivation of distributed leadership in the school?Mirit Israeli (Advisors: Adam Lefstein, Yariv Feniger)
What is the connection between achievement goals in teacher team meetings and cooperation within the team?Rinat Cohen, Dana Vedder-Weiss, Yariv Feniger
What are the organizational climate, role of the administration, and cooperation practices among teachers?Rinat Cohen, Dana Vedder-Weiss, Yariv Feniger
What are the beliefs and practices of teachers regarding work in teams?Rinat Cohen, Dana Vedder-Weiss, Yariv Feniger
What characterizes teacher disagreements on assessment as compared to disagreements on other subjects?Rotem Trachtenberg-Maslaton, Dana Vedder-Weiss, Adam Lefstein, Mirit Israeli
What are the mechanisms that facilitate the expansion of the Teacher Leadership reform to unplanned contexts? How does this expansion advance or hinder the reform? Tali Aderet-German, Adam Lefstein, Dana Vedder-WeissTali Aderet-German, Adam Lefstein, Dana Vedder-Weiss
What is the relationship between constructing leading teachers’ professional identity and the development of the Teacher Leadership reform?Tali Aderet-German, Aliza Segal, Dana Vedder-Weiss
How is the Teacher Leadership reform realized in the field? What factors impact how the reform is implemented?Tali Aderet-German, Hilla Tal, Adam Lefstein, Noga Knoller
How do teachers talk about learning disabilities?Tamar Kenner Forman, Adam Lefstein
Cross-cultural comparison of teacher discourse about student motivation: How can teachers' discussions of problems of practice from their classrooms help them acquire knowledge and strategies for increasing students’ autonomous motivation in different culWisam Sedawi, Dana Vedder-Weiss
How much and in what ways to teachers talk about the standardized achievement tests?Yariv Feniger, Dana Vedder-Weiss, Noy Sabag, Nadwa Assaf