Teaching Approaches/Dialogue
The term dialogue is intended to imply a deeper level of analysis or explanation than that which concerns itself only with the surface meaning of talk as isolated expressions made by individuals. When we talk about dialogue, we are talking about the joint enterprise of talk, as a cumultative (building up over time) activity which is aimed at some purpose or other. In education, the purpose we are most often interested in is learning, in a rather broad sense.
In classrooms such dialogue occurs in a variety of settings, including whole class work and group talk in group work contexts. Research indicates that the most effective sorts of dialogue
- Are often not reflected in classroom talk
- Are not simply question and response (IRF) exchanges, but are dialogic in nature
- Are mutually respectful, and involve exploratory talk which seeks to build a shared understanding between talk partners (what Edwards and Mercer (1987) termed 'Common Knowledge')
Dialogue is a recuring theme on this wiki, and in particular is covered in context in the sections described above.
You should consider throughout the relationship between dialogue, and assessment. You might find some of the items in the table below to be useful prompts
Assessment for learning
Developing strategies that promote classroom dialogue
Use the table below - 'Features of effective dialogue and associated strategies' and our assessment and dialogue resources to provide prompts to help you think about the characteristics of effective dialogue that
- feature strongly in your teaching and the strategies used to achieve them
- are absent or might be improved
| Teacher Strategies | Everyone is engaged with the dialogue | Teacher talk does not over-dominate the dialogue | Pattern of dialogue is 'basketball' rather pingpong | Dialogue is reciprocal, that is, children respond to and build on what others have said | Children's contributions are well- developed sentences or phrases | Children are willing to take risks by sharing partial understanding | Children are willing to challenge each other's ideas in a constructive way | Children demonstrate higher levels of thinking | Children reprocess their thinking as a result of dialogue |
| Rich questions | |||||||||
| Big questions | |||||||||
| Higher-order thinking questions | |||||||||
| Questions linked to resources or tasks | |||||||||
| Peer discussion following a question | |||||||||
| Wait time after a teacher question | |||||||||
| Wait time after a child's response | |||||||||
| Varying length of wait time | |||||||||
| No-hands-up questioning | |||||||||
| Pausing to survey | |||||||||
| Eavesdropping on group dialogue | |||||||||
| Cue in children using gestures and | |||||||||
| Model prompts and body language to encourage continuation | |||||||||
| Acknowledge where children demonstrate effective dialogue | |||||||||
| Group Work Strategies | |||||||||
