Expert design and implementation of effective classroom discussions for formative assessment.

We present the first results of a long-term study aimed at characterizing an expert design and implementation of effective classroom discussions for formative assessment. For the analysis of the data collected in this study we combine the use of three different theoretical constructs concerning: the expert teacher’s roles during classroom discussions; shared attention; formative assessment key- strategies. The presented results concern, on one side, the expert’s use of a specific digital technology (an interactive whiteboard) to empower specific teacher’s roles to promote shared attention and, on the other side, the effects of the empowered teacher’s roles in the activation of specific formative assessment strategies.