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Talking to learn: developing thinking in and
through dialogue
Karen Littleton
The team
Neil Mercer Lyn Dawes
Rupert WegerifKaren LittletonPaul Warwick
Sylvia Rojas-DrummondClare Sams
Juan Manuel Fernández CárdenasJudith Kleine Staarman
Futoshi Hiruma
Educational Challenges
The single greatest challenge facing children as they grow up in the twenty-first century is how they can become productive members of an increasingly technological society
Educational Challenges Perhaps we take too much for granted a more fundamental aspect of the human condition: namely our use of language, principally speech, to communicate with each other
(Hodgkinson and Mercer, 2008)
Talk as tool
• Classroom talk is not merely a conduit for the sharing of information
• Classroom talk is the most important educational tool for guiding the development of understanding and for jointly constructing knowledge
ways of using language
ways of thinking
Educators should give more attention to improving the quality of classroom talk
Wells (1986)The typical environment for talk in most classrooms is not compatible with children’s active and extended engagement in using language to construct knowledge
Alexander (2004/2008)
Teachers dominate the interaction in the classroom and typically only offer children limited opportunities for making brief responses to their questions
Littleton and Howe (2010)
The paradox of children working everywhere in groups but rarely as groups
Why is there so little variety in classroom
dialogue?• Teachers are under immense pressure to ‘deliver’ the curriculum
• Teachers may not be aware of how to use the tool of language
• They use questions mainly to keep topics closed down, when they could be used to open them up
• Children may not have much experience of expressing their thoughts in words – and even less of revealing their misunderstandings to a whole class
Teachers want to create a more inclusive and participatory environment for talk in their classrooms
What might children learn from talk in the
classroom?•new information
•whether they know the ‘right answers’
•new ways of making sense of the world
•how to use language for (inter) thinking
What today is about
•How can talking help learning?
•How can whole-class talk best serve teaching and learning?
•How can we help children talk effectively during group work?
•How can we get the most out of both whole-class talk and group work?
1.Whole class talk
2.Group work - talk amongst
children
3.Linking these together
1. Whole class talk
Whole class talk: example 1Teacher: OK. Looking at the text now I want you please to
tell me what tense the first paragraph is in.
Girl: The past tense.
Teacher: Yes it’s in the past tense. How do you know it’s in the past tense?
Girl: Because it says August 1990.
Teacher: You know by the date it’s in the past tense, but you know by something else you know, you know by the doing words in the text that change. What’s a doing word? What do we call a doing word David?
David: A verb.
Teacher: A verb good. Will you give me one verb please out of this first paragraph. Find one verb in this paragraph. Stephen?
Stephen: Rescued.
Teacher: Rescued, excellent, excellent and that’s in the past tense.
(Hardman, 2007)
Initiation Teacher: What tense is the first paragraph
in?Response
Child: The past tense
FeedbackTeacher: Yes it’s in the past tense
An ‘IRF exchange’
A ‘closed’ question
What can teachers use talk to do?
• Provide information /Check understanding/ Maintain control
• Help students see a learning trajectory, and see that their learning is progressive and cumulative - Link present activities to past experience and setting up future activities
• Encourage students’ metacognition: get them to articulate their thoughts and reflect on their understandings
• Model ways of using language to reason and get things done
• Relate existing ideas to new educational frames of meaning
Whole class discussion: example 2
Teacher reads text :
'Ten to twenty Daddy-long-legs can live together in this cage. It is fun to watch them at night. They are more active then. They rest during the day. If you look into your Daddy-long-legs’ cage when they are resting, your shadow will wake them suddenly. Then they will scamper round the cage, bouncing up and down in their funny dance. A few minutes later, they will all be resting quietly again.'
Teacher: Who has a question?
Susan: How many spiders can fit in a cage?
Reggie: It didn't tell
Susan: Yes it did
Justin: Reggie doesn't think it told us
Susan: Charlie?
Charlie: About ten or so.
Susan: Mara?
Mara: Ten to twenty.
Teacher: Ten to twenty. Daryl…what question would you ask?
Daryl: If you came by and looked, if you looked in the Daddy Long Legs’ cage, what would they do?
Justin: Your shadow would wake him up and then they would start scampering around and...
Mara: And in a little bit all of them will lay down and go back to sleep again.
Daryl: He kind of left something out
Teacher: What did he leave out?
Daryl : When they bounce up and down
Teacher : In a funny dance, right. That was a good question Daryl. And Justin, I like the
way you brought in the use of shadow.
Dialogic teaching…
…uses both authoritative talk and dialogue to best effect
(Robin Alexander)
Two kinds of whole-class talk
• Authoritative talk – Teacher-as-expert– Closed questions– Instructing– Informing
• Dialogue– Teacher-as-learner– Open questions– Eliciting students’ initial ideas– Hearing what groups have achieved– Discussing problems and misunderstandings
Talking Points: True, false, or unsure?
The moon changes shape because it is in the shadow of the earth
Talking points: the solar system
Sequence 1 (primary): phases of the moon
Teacher: Keighley, would you read that out for us?Keighley:‘The moon changes shape because it is in the shadow
of the earth.’Teacher: Right, now what does your group think about that?Keighley:True.Teacher: What, why do you think that?Keighley:Hm, because it's when earth is dark then, hm, not
quite sure but we think it was true.Teacher: Right (to Keighley) Who would you want to
contribute? Keighley:Um, Sadie?Sadie: I think it's false because when the sun moves
round the earth, it shines on the moon which projects down to the earth.
Teacher: (to Sadie) Do you want to choose somebody else? Sadie: Matthew.Matthew: Well, we weren't actually sure ‘cos we were thinking
the actual moon changes which it never does or if it is in our point of view from earth which it
put us in the shadow.Teacher: That's a good point isn't it, it doesn't actually
change, it looks as if it changes shape to us, that's a really good point.
dialogic-interactive
Sequence 2 (primary): phases of the moonTeacher: Right look, if the sun's shining from here there is nothing
between the sun and the moon, so from here on earth what we can see is a circle, a big shiny full
moon. (She holds the ‘moon’ so it is the third object in line with the ‘sun’ and ‘earth’) Right? That's a full moon, we can see the whole caboodle, if we're here on earth and the sun's over there. However, have a look now, what happens now. If I put the moon here (she puts the ‘moon’ between the ‘sun’ and the ‘earth’) here's the sun, is there any light from the sun falling on this moon that we would be able to see from earth?
Children: No.Teacher: What would we see if the moon is in that position?Children: Nothing.Teacher: Yeah, it would be totally dark. We get a completely black
effect because we can't see it, we can only see it if there Is light falling on it, and all the light is falling on this side and we're not over there, we're over here. Yes?
Child: If it's like that, the reason we can't see anything really because it's so dark around it.
Teacher: Yeah, it's dark, yeah, the light needs to land on it for us, it can't shine on itself. So that's when it's the
darkest bit of the moon, we can't see it (returns ‘moon’ to first position). That's a full moon, over here relative to the earth, (moves ‘moon’ to second position) and that's when it's dark.
authoritative-interactive
In dialogic teaching…the teacher
• questions are structured so as to provoke thoughtful answers
• asks questions which encourage students to take extended turns to express their thoughts, reveal their misunderstandings and make relevant comments
• answers provoke further questions and are seen as the building blocks of dialogue rather than its terminal point
In dialogic teaching the teacher…
• uses talk to create continuity and coherence in children’s learning individual teacher-pupil and pupil-pupil exchanges are chained into coherent lines of enquiry rather than left stranded and disconnected
• helps students understand that talk is useful for learning
• balances authoritative talk with dialogue
(Alexander, 2004/2008)
A dialogical pedagogy A monological pedagogy
Teacher’s task is to ensure learners’ active participation
Teacher’s task is to deliver the curriculum to learners
Lesson structures and aims of activities are clearly explained
Teacher’s intentions and purposes of activities are unclear
Students’ prior knowledge is activated and
built upon
Knowledge is offered from the teacher’s perspective
The pace of interaction varies, according to the needs of teaching and learning at any time
The pace is fast and insistent
(Adapted from Wolfe, 2007)
Effective teachers...
1.…use question-and-answer sequences not just to test knowledge, but also to guide the development of children’s understanding
2.…teach not just 'subject content', but also how to solve problems and make sense of experience
3.…treat learning as a social, communicative process
(Rojas-Drummond & Mercer, 2004)
Whole class strategies for starting a new topic
• Ask some ‘open’ questions • Ask one or more students to explain their ideas to the class• Ask some ‘why’ questions• Ask students to comment on what has been said• Make a note of any misunderstandings that the discussions revealed, so you can draw on them later • Hold back on providing the correct explanations until students have reflected on what they think, and have had chance to research or think about it
But...
• Does not mean teachers shouldn’t ask questions
• This does not mean teachers should avoid lecturing or instructing
• It is the strategic balance of authoritative and dialogic discourse that matters
(Mortimer & Scott; Scott, 2008)
Teachers’ use of talk is linked to good learning
outcomes when…•…teachers use strategies other than the usual closed-question IRF exchanges
• …and they help pupils appreciate the value of dialogue for learning
(Kyriacou & Issitt, 2008)
2. Talk in groups
What makes a ‘good discussion’?
(1) Disputational talk in which speakers…
are competitive rather than co-operative don’t listen each stick to their own point of view ('Yes it is! - No
it's not!') make their own decisions.
(2) Cumulative talk in which speakers…
share ideas agree with each other …but there is no critical evaluation of ideas.
3 types of talk
• all actively participate• ask each other questions
“What do you think…?” “Why do you think that…?”
• share relevant information“Do you remember….?”
• give reasons for their views “I think that because…..”
• constructively criticise“Yes, but if……
• try to reach agreement “Do we all agree that….?”
(3) Exploratory Talkin which speakers…
Why is children’s talk in groups often not creative and
productive?
1. Many children may not know how to talk and think together effectively
2. Their teachers assume they do
Teachers rarely encourage students to verbalize their thinking or to ask questions
Student behaviour in small groups largely mirrors the discourse modelled by, and the expectations communicated by, their teachers
(Webb et al. 2006)
•Most teachers do not help students learn how to collaborate effectively
•Most teachers do not ‘model’ Exploratory Talk
If we want to improve classroom education we could:
1.Train teachers in strategies for using talk effectively
2.Teach children how to use talk for reasoning
3.Integrate teacher-led and peer group discussion
How to enable effective group work1. Raise children’s own
awareness of how they can talk together
2. Establish some ground rules for Exploratory Talk
3. Give children some suitable group activities and enough time to do them
Thinking Together (Dawes et al. 2003)
Thinking Together is an educational programme that can be adopted by teachers and used as a means of inducting children into the use of the crucial speaking and listening skills that are involved in Exploratory Talk
http://www.thinking-together.org.uk
The Thinking Together intervention
• Teachers: – develop strategies for whole-class discussion
– model Exploratory Talk– raise children’s awareness of how they can use talk to work together
– organise, monitor and assess group work
• Children : – learn how talk can be used as a problem-solving tool
– adopt shared ‘ground rules’ for conducting effective discussions
– use their new knowledge to carry out curriculum-related tasks
The Thinking Together intervention studies
• Approx 700 children, 6-14• 12 lesson programme• Lessons 1-5: teacher-led discussion
• raising children’s awareness of how talk can be used for working together and establishing a set of ‘ground-rules’ for discussion which would facilitate Exploratory Talk
• Lessons 6-12: peer group activity
• Children collaborate in their study of the curriculum
Class 5’s ground rules for Exploratory Talk
1. Everyone should have a chance to talk2. Everyone’s ideas should be carefully considered3. Each member of the group should be asked: What do you think?
Why do you think that?4. Look and listen to the person talking5. After discussing, agree what to do
The Nuffield Thinking Together Project
• 2 year interventional study in state primary schools
•Involved 7 ‘target’ classes and 7 ‘control classes (230 children in all, aged 9 - 10 years)
•Focused on development of reasoning and on learning in science and maths
•A comparison of effects on children’s talk, reasoning test scores and tests of science and maths
Compared with those in ‘control’ classes, children who followed the
Thinking Together programme…
• Used much more Exploratory Talk
• Pursued group activities more collaboratively and in more depth
• Became better at solving problems together
• Became better at solving problems alone*
• Achieved significantly better scores in national tests of science and maths
* Scores on Raven’s Progressive Matrices
(3) Linking whole class talk and group
work
One way of preparing children for dialogueT: Right. Don't talk.
(Teacher is at her desk preparing to start the lesson. She drops a paper)
T: Can you pick it up Sylvia and Gina? That will be so helpful, instead of just sitting there and going ‘yeah right’.
(Students help the teacher pick up paper from the floor)
T: Whose mess is all that? Get it into a neat pile, and two, there should be Helen, a box of compasses in the bottom cupboard, can you get them out for me please? Right this table, Fran's table can we straighten up and move down a bit? This table can to the right a bit.
(Students are helping set up the classroom)
T: Ok, right. Books away please, let’s have a look at you today. Steven we're going to be doing lots of talking today, but we need to be talking about the right things. Everything away. Come on it’s a nice sunny day, and we've got stuff to do. OK. You're there so Michael and and David can give you a nudge, when you need to focus. Sit next to Helen please Robby. Alright now, today we're moving on a little bit…
..and another wayT: You all have to co-operate, so it’s a group responsibility for completing the task. It's not up to one person, it is a group responsibility. What about if you can't make your mind up? If two people, if things aren't quite going, going as they should be?
S1: Write down both ideas.
T: Write down both ideas, if that's part of the [problem]. And if you've got a real problem?
S1: You could vote.
T: You could vote, good way of sorting it out.
(Various students raising their hands)
T: You still might want to write down this is the majority. Anything else we could do, Alvie?
S1: Explain why you think your answer is right.
T: Right explain, take your time to - don't just say well I think this.
S1: Ask ‘Why?’.
T: Which is a word you guys often use.
•Classroom dialogue is important for children’s learning and development
•We know which dialogic strategies are effective, and that teachers can learn to use them
•If children are taught how to use language to reason together, they get better at reasoning together – and alone
We now know…
However, we also know that…
• The quality of dialogue many children experience in school, is not optimal for their educational progress
• Most classroom interaction (whole-class or in groups) does not generate very productive dialogue
• Most teacher-training does not give priority to the development of teachers’ use of talk
• The crucial and special role of language in education is still not really appreciated by many educators
• Through dialogue, these things can be changed!
Conclusions
• Without guidance, instruction and encouragement from a teacher, many children may not gain access to some very useful ways of using language for reasoning and working collaboratively.
• Education must provide children with opportunities for learning new and useful language-based ways of thinking. To do otherwise upholds an inequitable status quo and undermines the empowering potential of school-based education.
