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Dialogue and the development of creative thinking

Dialogue and the development of creative thinking. Neil Mercer. What is language? It is a tool . for creating and maintaining shared identities and cultures. Cumbria. Cumbrian dialect words. Fell Beck Tarn Scale Dale Lait Laik Lowp. What is language? It is a tool ….

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Dialogue and the development of creative thinking

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  1. Dialogue and the development of creative thinking Neil Mercer

  2. What is language?It is a tool • for creating and maintaining shared identities and cultures

  3. Cumbria

  4. Cumbrian dialect words Fell Beck Tarn Scale Dale Lait Laik Lowp

  5. What is language?It is a tool … • …for creating and maintaining identities and cultures • …for making sense of the world together • …for solving problems creatively • We can not only interact with language, we can interthink with it

  6. ways of using language Lev Vygotsky ways of thinking

  7. The amount and quality of the dialogue children experience at home is one of best predictors of their eventual academic attainment (Hart & Risley, 1995). School offers the only chance for some productive, educational dialogue for some children

  8. To be creative, we need space and time to think To be creative together, children need space and time to talk

  9. What makes a ‘good discussion’?

  10. 3 kinds of talk

  11. Exploratory Talk, in which speakers • 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….?”

  12. Why is children’s talk in groups often not creative and productive? Children don’t know how to think together They aren’t using the same ‘ground rules’ Teachers assume that children know how to talk and think together creatively

  13. Do teachers use talk effectively themselves? • Yes… • …but they may ask too many ‘closed’ questions that only require short responses,… • …not enough of the kinds of questions which get children thinking… • ..and they may not encourage or expect extended talk from children

  14. It would better if teachers… • asked questions which encourage children to express their ideas and reveal their misunderstandings • modelled ways of using talk for thinking • set up shared ‘ground rules’ for classroom talk • gave children space and time to talk

  15. Class 5’s ground rules for Exploratory Talk1. 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

  16. Hundarnir á hundahótelinu Hundur 1 Nafn Fífí Tegund franskur kjölturakki (French poodle) Kyn kvenkyn Aldur 5 ára Stærð meðal Fæða kjúklingur/skinka Varðhundur nei Gott/gaman krakkar og aðrir hundar Vont/leiðinlegt rigning og bleyta

  17. Hundur 2 Nafn Tanni Tegund sporhundur (Bloodhound Cross) Kyn karlkyn Aldur 4 ára Stærð mjög stór Fæða mjög mikið Varðhundur já Gott/gaman að sitja við arin Vont/leiðinlegt kettir

  18. Heimsóknir á hundahótelið Þessir gestir komu á hundahótelið að skoða hundana um síðustu helgi: • Sigurður Jónsson og Guðrún Lárusdóttir. Siggi og Gunna, Tommi, 10 ára og Lísa, 8. ára. Þau búa í einbýlishúsi í rólegri götu í múthverfi Reykjavíkur. Öll eru þau í skóla eða vinnu á daginn en eru heima um helgar. Þau hafa stóran garð við húsið sitt og svo er ágætis útvistarsvæði í nágrenni heimilis þeirra. 2. Þorbjörg Ólafsdóttir. Þorbjörg er 75 ára og býr ein í Breiðholtinu. Sonur hennar býr í Keflavík en heimsækir hana oft með barnabörnin en þau eru tvö; Palli, 3 ára og Sara sem er eins árs. Þorbjörgu langar í félagsskap og vill gjarnan fá sér hund. Hún býr í lítilli kjallaraíbúð í fjórbýlishúsi og hefur aðgang að bakgarði.

  19. When Exploratory Talk is happening you hear children saying… • ‘What do you think?’ • ‘Why do you think that?’ • I think that because…’ • ‘I disagree, because…’ • ‘Yes, but…’ • ‘Do we all agree?’

  20. Three cats and three dogs are sitting alternately in a row. Change the seating arrangement so that the cats are sitting together and the dogs are sitting together. You can only swap adjacent cats or dogs. Do this in as few moves as possible. How many moves do you need?

  21. What are the effects? Children… • become more interested in learning • become better at solving problems creatively together • improve their individual scores on tests of reasoning • achieve better results in maths and science and reading comprehension

  22. How can a teacher help children to talk together effectively and creatively? • Step 1: help them to ‘see’ how they talk • Step 2: ‘model’ ways using language for thinking • Step 3: set up some ground rules for talk • Step 4: give them some good activities and enough time for them think together

  23. For more information nmm31@cam.ac.uk Lyn.Dawes@northampton.ac.uk http://www.thinkingtogether.org.uk/

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