Analysing student talk moves in whole-class teaching

Abstract

International research suggests high-quality classroom talk is central to learning as it engages students and extends their thinking, argumentation and reasoning. Most empirical studies of whole-class teaching focus on teacher talk and the focus on student talk is often taken for granted or is somewhat peripheral to the analysis. This chapter will focus on student talk using a theoretically-grounded discourse-analytical framework. To illustrate the application of the framework, the chapter draws on a data set which formed part of larger study of a professional development programme designed to promote a dialogic pedagogy in the teaching of primary English, mathematics and science in primary schools serving socioeconomically derived areas in England. The framework provides a tool for the microanalysis of 54 lesson transcripts identified as part of the systematic observation of 134 lessons using computerised software. It reveals rich and deep insights into the learning talk engaged in by students and identifies the repertoire of talk moves they used while sharing, explaining arguing and justifying their thinking and building on the ideas of other students.It concludes with a discussion of how the framework could be used by teachers and students to inform their implementation of a dialogic pedagogy to promote greater student participation and learning in whole-class talk.

Supporting practitioner‐led inquiry into classroom dialogue with a research‐informed professional learning resource: A design‐based approach

“…The difference lies in emphasis given to dialogue as a general pedagogical framework or a specific discourse practice. Researching the forms and functions of classroom discourse has become a thriving sub‐field (Wells, 1999; Nystrand, 2006; Lefstein & Snell, 2014; Resnick et al, 2015; Hennessy et al, 2016b; Mercer, 2019; Hardman, 2020), and this is the context of the T‐SEDA project reported here.…”

The link between student‐perceived teacher talk and student enjoyment, anxiety and discursive engagement in the classroom

“…We see student discursive engagement as a construct of student academic discourse participation, having a single one or a combination of the above engagement dimensions, being interrelated and not easy to differentiate (as Eccles mentioned), and more importantly, being characterised by student talk moves of sharing, explaining, arguing, justifying, constructing and building on the ideas of one another in the process of learning. Such student discursive engagement has been less focused on in empirical studies, which may be due to the tendency of seeing it as peripheral or a natural product of teacher‐guided discourse (Hardman, 2019)—a common perspective that is likely to be influenced by the tradition of studying the triadic classroom discourse structures, such as initiation–response–follow‐up (IRF; Sinclair & Coulthard, 1975) and initiation–response–evaluation (IRE; Mehan, 1979; Mehan & Cazden, 2015). However, understanding student discursive engagement is not peripheral but important, especially in relation to teacher talk moves.…”

Re-visiting systematic observation: A pedagogical tool to support coach learning and development

“…Research consistently demonstrates that showing and discussing with coaches' data pertaining to their behavior is a powerful learning experience, particularly when presented alongside video (Kidman, 1997 ; Partington et al, 2015 ; Raya-Castellano et al, 2021 ). A reason for this is that learners appear “struck” by what these combined data reveal, prompting critical reflexive thinking (Corlett, 2012 ; Partington et al, 2015 ; Hardman, 2020 ).…”