Dialogue in the Classroom (original) (raw)
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1 Coding classroom dialogue : Methodological considerations for researchers
2020
Systematic analysis or coding of classroom dialogue is useful for assessing the role of high-quality interaction in supporting learning. However, although coding is an immensely complex and cognitively demanding activity that has taxed researchers over decades, the methodological challenges are often not discussed or problematised in empirical reports. Accordingly, this paper aims to help researchers make sense of the challenges, strengths and practical applications of using systematic coding schemes for analysing classroom dialogue. It presents an in-depth analysis of the pros and cons of contrasting approaches and the key methodological considerations, including scope, grain size, reliability and validity. It goes on to provide a worked example, illustrating how one team tackled the challenges in adapting for a new research objective an earlier coding scheme developed for use across diverse contexts. Two original, theory-informed analytic tools created to study the relationship be...
Developing research methodologies to both understand and describe instructional communication has been a major topic in the educational research literature. A key area of studies is classroom discourse analysis or classroom interactional analysis. This area covers a wide range of studies which focus on different aspects of classroom phenomena depending on the researcher's interest: e.g., language socialization, negotiation and discursive construction of identities, social construction of knowledge, and so on. Interesting as they are the discourse analysis methods employed in these studies tend to focus more on micro-analysis of teacher-student communication / student-student interactions and relationships than on the holistic description and understanding of pedagogical practices and why they are difficult to change. Other quantitative tools (e.g., various classroom behaviour coding systems) also tend to be piecemeal (or fragmented) in nature and might not help teachers to capture the dynamics or a holistic view of their pedagogical practices. In this paper the analytical tools offered by activity theory (AT) and conversation analysis (CA) will be drawn upon to develop some practical research tools for conducting analysis of pedagogical practices. Examples from Hong Kong classroom contexts will be used to illustrate how some of the AT and CA analytical tools can help educational researchers and teachers to both gain a deeper understanding of their pedagogical practices and to analyse for any inherent contradictions and tensions in their practices which could serve as an entry point for initiating pedagogical change to better achieve the educational goals in specific contexts.
Toward dialogue in the classroom: Learning and Teaching through Inquiry
There is increasing agreement among those who study classrooms that learning is likely to be most effective when students are actively involved in the co-construction of meaning through discussion of topics that are of significance to them. This paper reports the results of an extended collaborative action research project in which teachers attempted to create the conditions for such discussion by adopting an inquiry approach to the curriculum. A quantitative comparison between observations made early and late in the teachers' involvement in the project showed a number of significant changes in the characteristics of teacher-whole class discourse, with a shift toward a more dialogic mode of interaction. Nevertheless, the frequency of stretches of "true discussion", as defined by , remained low. When the same observations were examined qualitatively, however, there was clear evidence of an increase over time in the teachers' success in engaging students in co-constructing accounts and explanations. The paper concludes with a reconsideration of the purpose of "dialogue" in the classroom and of teachers' goals and strategies in trying to achieve it.
Exploring the ‘black box’: What happens in a dialogic classroom?
The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 2020
The present study analysed the teaching-learning strategies taking place in classrooms where an educational innovation was implemented. This study is a sequel to a broader, quantitative year-long study by Rojas-Drummond et al. (2016). The latter, original study, included 120 sixth-graders from two (experimental and control) state schools. Both groups solved an individual and group pre- and post-intervention Test of Textual Production. Between tests, children from the experimental group participated in a program called ‘Learning Together’, which promoted scaffolding, collaborative problem-solving and dialogic interactions. Five lessons from experimental and control groups were video-recorded throughout the year. Macro-analyses carried out as part of the original study revealed that the experimental group (in comparison with the control), learned to compose higher quality written articles when working in small- groups and independently. In the present study, we carried out fine-grained analyses of selected lessons from each group to understand how the achievements of ‘Learning Together’ children might have come about. Results showed that the teaching-learning strategies of the control group tended to be directive and transmissional and literacy was addressed in a somewhat fragmented and decontextualised way. In contrast, the ‘Learning Together’ classroom practices showed an orientation towards the joint construction of knowledge among teachers and students through dialogic interactions and co-regulatory processes, as well as the promotion of literacy as an articulated, situated social practice. We hypothesise that these contrasting teaching-learning styles partly account for why ‘Learning Together’ participants became more expert writers by the end of the academic year, in contrast with their control peers.
Better than Best Practice: Developing teaching and learning through dialogue
2013
Better than Best Practice offers a new way of thinking about classroom practice, professional development, and improving teaching and learning. This companion book and website together offer a selection of rich and realistic video-based case studies, context and narrative, step-by-step guidance through key issues, and commentary and debate from a range of expert contributors. Carefully chosen video clips from primary school literacy lessons show real teachers in a variety of often knotty situations: classroom conversations that take unexpected turns; grappling with assessment; managing disagreements, to name a few. The book explores the educational potential of classroom talk and, in particular, the promise and problems of dialogic pedagogy. With an emphasis on the complexity and 'messiness' of teaching, Better than Best Practice considers how to learn from observing and discussing practice in order to develop professional judgment. It offers practical advice on how to organise and facilitate video-based professional development in which teachers share their practice with colleagues in order to learn from one another's challenges, problems, dilemmas and breakthroughs. This exciting new resource argues that critical discussions of practice, which highlight dilemmas instead of prescribing solutions, help to develop and support thoughtful, flexible, and insightful practitioners: an approach that is better than best practice.
DIALOGIC LEARNING TALKING OUR WAY INTO UNDERSTANDING
This file can be downloaded, free, at http://www.taosinstitute.net/education-as-social-construction DIALOGIC LEARNING: TALKING OUR WAY INTO UNDERSTANDING Gordon Wells My aims in this chapter are first, to make the case for the foundational role that dialogue plays in the creation and development of knowledge, both individual and societal, and then to explore ways in which a dialogic approach can improve learning and teaching in schools and universities. To these ends, I shall start by briefly summarizing recent work in a variety of academic fields that provides both arguments and evidence for the active and interactive nature of learning, with dialogue being essential for human learning. I shall next draw on studies of early child development to illustrate how knowledge-building dialogue plays a critical role in children's learning in the preschool years but occurs much less commonly in formal educational settings. Finally, based on my collaborative action research with teachers, I shall suggest ways in which classrooms at all levels can create more effective opportunities for learning by treating knowledge as being jointly constructed through dialogue among students and acknowledged experts, mediated by the planning and supportive guidance of teachers who, themselves, are also learners. Vygotsky (1981) was convinced that all human psychological processes develop out of collaborative social forms of interaction, using cultural tools – most importantly language – to transform the world rather than passively adapt to it. However, while
On the Way to Dialogic Teaching: Action Research as a Means to Change Classroom Discourse
In this study, we present an action research project studying classroom discourse that took place at the Department of Educational Sciences at Masaryk University, Faculty of Arts, in Brno, the Czech Republic. The core of this project consisted of a development programme for teachers focused on a change in communication methods in dialogic teaching. We observed four teachers who took part in the programme in 2013/2014. Our goal was to determine how much the participation in the programme led to an actual change in teacherstudent communication in the classroom. The data analysis showed that the participating teachers did actually change their communication methods – there was an increase in the average levels of openness, cognitive demand, length of student replies, and the number of cases when students themselves initiated communication. The data analysis also showed that the process of change is unique for each teacher and there is no unified trajectory.