Practitioner inquiry is an approach to improving teaching that puts teachers in the agentic position to determine the process of their professional learning by addressing their problems of practice (Dana et al., 2025). While practitioner inquiry holds promise, its potential for transforming practice depends on teachers having competencies for progressing through the inquiry cycle and other professional learning activities in ways that are evidence informed and values driven, and that lead to changes in their practice. In this paper, we examine the sense-making journeys of four educators who took part in professional development experiences designed to develop teacher competencies for addressing problems of practice through inquiry. 

The research-based frame shifting approach (Kennedy & Murphy, 2024, described in more detail below) comprises two stages. The first stage helps teachers develop “habits of mind,” defined as skilled mindsets or efficacious dispositions. The second stage helps teachers examine their problem of practice using different domains of teaching as a lens. This study addresses the following research questions: 

1. How do teachers make sense of the frame shifting approach?  
a. Where and how do we see habits of mind emerging and developing?  b. Where do we see the discussion shifting between the three domains of teaching?  c. What is the nature of the interactions that precipitate teacher sense-making?  2. How does the frame shifting approach lead to the consideration of new teacher moves to address problems of practice? To what extent are these appropriate?  3. To what degree are teachers reaffirming existing beliefs vs questioning or adjusting current beliefs through their participation in the professional development activities? 

Conceptual Framework 

This study is focused on teacher learning of the frame shifting approach--which consists of two stages, developing habits of mind and shifting across the three domains of teaching--as supporting teacher inquiry (Kennedy & Murphy, 2024). Teacher sense-making of this approach, supported through coaching in the professional development activities, shapes their translation of the approach to their own problems of practice. 

Habits of Mind 

The first stage in the frame shifting approach addresses educators’ development of three habits of mind (Costa & Kallick, 2008): 

1. Habit of Deliberate Interpretation: Separating observation from interpretation in order to view a situation more clearly. 

2. Habit of Asset Identification: Combating deficit-thinking by identifying and focusing on students’ assets. 

3. Habit of Personal Attribution: Engaging self-efficacy and personal responsibility for solving the teaching dilemma. 

Frame Shifting and the Three Domains of Teaching 

The second stage in this approach supports teachers in considering their dilemma by relating it to all three domains of teaching (Kennedy-Lewis, 2012): 
 

1. Relationships: Sustained patterns of interaction among individuals in the class; 

2. Classroom management: Rules, routines, and teacher behaviors that structure teaching and learning;  

3. Curriculum and instruction: The content taught and activities used to support students’ learning. 

Teacher Sense-Making 

Sense-making allows teachers to progress from encountering new information and ideas to being able to act upon these new ideas in practice (Datnow et al., 2023). We adopt Naumer, Fisher, and Dervin’s (2008) definition of sense-making moments for this study. They stated: 

The sense-making moment is the point in time-space when a person experiences a gap while moving through time-space...The person bridges this gap by experiencing questions and muddles that lead them to construct bridges consisting of ideas, thoughts, emotions, feelings, hunches, and memories. (p. 3)  

Teacher sense-making in this study entails teachers encountering frame shifting concepts, processing these concepts based on their situated contexts of practice, and acting on this knowledge by identifying teacher moves that can better address their persistent dilemmas (Luttenberg et al., 2013). 

Context Discourse analysis as an analytical method in a case study approach was used to examine the sense-making journeys of six educators in one school district in central Scotland. Cases were identified from groups of educators who participated in professional development experiences designed to support their learning of the frame shifting approach. All participants provided written consent to participate as per the university ethics procedures. Two approaches to professional development were undertaken, each consisting of six meetings approximately one month apart. The first was a small group coaching approach (2-3 secondary teacher participants with 2 facilitators), run consecutively over two years with two different small groups. The second was a facilitated workshop for 25 school leaders from primary and secondary schools across the district. Sample and Data Collection Two participants from each of the three professional development experiences were selected as cases for analysis. Data sources included: audio recordings/transcripts from each two-hour group meeting, artifacts from each meeting such as presenter slides and participants’ final presentations, audio recordings/transcripts from 2 two-hour presentation meetings, and 30-minute follow-up interviews with all participants. Data Analysis All transcripts and artifacts pertaining to each case were compiled into case folders. All members of the research team individually analyzed all documents for one case. For each document, evidence of moments of learning that addressed each of the research questions were coded (e.g., using code 1a if a teacher was discussing their understanding of habits of mind or using code 1c if the interaction with the course facilitator was shaping teacher learning). We synthesized the nature and content of these sense-making moments to answer the research questions for that case. We then discussed similarities and differences in our thematic conclusions and came to consensus on the findings for this case. Next, we distributed the remaining cases among us for analysis. After thematic conclusions were determined for all cases, we conducted a cross-case analysis to identify findings that would account for the sense-making of the entire sample of teachers (Stake, 2006).

Participants made sense of the habits of mind and shifting across the three domains of teaching to to identify new teacher moves to address problems of practice. Facilitators spurred this sense-making through strategic questioning. Sense-Making: Habits of Mind Participants developed conceptual understanding of all three habits of mind, making sense of how and when they enabled participants to, as one participant explained, “take a step away from preconceived ideas.” This participant continued: [The habit of deliberate interpretation is] the one I feel I probably find hardest…[I am now starting to ask] what is actually going on here when they are sitting and they're refusing to get on with the task? That [habit] will help me unpick this. Gentle dissonance challenged current ways of thinking, which allowed for new approaches. Sense-Making: Domains of Teaching and Teacher Moves Moving across the domains of teaching positioned participants to select teacher moves not previously identified. One participant compared this to“moving a glass around…like a Ouija board, like zoning in on that bit and then zoning in on that bit.” By shifting from the domain of relationships to classroom management, she applied strategies to impact the dilemma rather than remaining “embedded in the emotional content of the relationships…locked into [a] ‘why won’t you learn’ mentality.” In this way, existing practices were challenged and adjusted. Nature of Interactions When Sense-Making is Evidenced Sense-making interactions were characterized by facilitators’ questions and fellow participants’ comments that clarified participants’ explanations of their learning processes and applications to practice. For example, the facilitator asked “How were you thinking about that before?” when a participant demonstrated new understanding, highlighting the new sense being made. The study demonstrates how teachers make sense of the frameshifting approach. Through participation in the professional development activities, teachers questioned and adjusted existing beliefs.

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