Situational subject teaching—towards understanding the details of teachers' subject-specific didactic competence

Abstract The aim is to contribute to a characterisation of teachers' situational subject teaching , i.e. how teachers take into account the contributions from students in situ and how they create communication grounded in students' understanding of the topic, and thus facilitate topical progression. Observations from three classroom settings in social studies, science and Swedish are analysed. The results show two main types of teacher follow-up moves , these are re-phrasing what the students say in different ways and bridging between different parts that complement one another, thus giving the student opportunities to expand their understanding of the phenomenon. The results illustrate how situational subject teaching is constructed in different classroom settings, and how these interactions might impact both teachers' teaching and students' opportunities for learning. We suggest that more knowledge about the nature of situational teaching in different school subjects is of importance for developing theory and practice applicable in teacher education.