ABSTRACT
Investigations into exemplary practices in literacy development attempt to capture the many dimensions of expert performance to describe teaching excellence. With this type of research, investigators examine real-life situations in which many variables are successfully integrated. When observing and discussing literacy instruction, it seems that effective teachers are aware of the elements of their teaching because their teaching is a result of careful decisions about what works in their classrooms and what doesn’t work (Chi, Glaser, & Farr, 1988; Ericsson & Smith, 1991; Hoffmann, 1992).
