Education as Dialogue

1. Education as Dialogue Robin Alexander University of Cambridge Contact: rja40@cam.ac.uk Download text at: www.robinalexander.org.uk

2. Education as dialogue • Introduction: why dialogue? • The dialogue about education: futures • The nature of dialogue • Dialogue in the classroom • The dialogue about education: curriculum • Conclusion

3. Education as dialogue • Introduction: why dialogue? • The dialogue about education: futures • The nature of dialogue • Dialogue in the classroom • The dialogue about education: curriculum • Conclusion

4. By the year 2000, the United States will be first in the world in mathematics and science achievement. • By the year 2000, every adult American will possess the knowledge and skills necessary to compete in a world economy. (From Goals 2000: Educate America Act 1994)

5. Programme for International Student Achievement (PISA) First cycle (43 countries)Assessing the preparedness of 15-year old students for adult life

6. United NationsMillennium Development Goals (MDGs) for 2015 • Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger • Achieve universal primary education • Promote gender equality and empower women • Reduce child mortality • Improve maternal health • Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases • Ensure environmental sustainability • Develop a global partnership for sustainable development.

7. Education as dialogue • Introduction: why dialogue? • The dialogue about education: futures • The nature of dialogue • Dialogue, learning and teaching • The dialogue about education: curriculum • Conclusion

8. There is neither a first nor a last word. The contexts of dialogue are without limit. They extend into the deepest past and the most distant future. Mikhail Bakhtin: Estetika, 1979 The destruction of the past, or rather of the social mechanisms that link one’s contemporary experience to that of earlier generations, is one of the most characteristic and eerie phenomena of the late twentieth century. Most young men and women [now] grow up in a sort of permanent present, lacking any organic relation to the public past of the times they live in. Eric Hobsbawm: Age of Extremes, 1995

9. Education as dialogue • Introduction: why dialogue? • The dialogue about education: futures • The nature of dialogue • Dialogue, learning and teaching • The dialogue about education: curriculum • Conclusion

10. Teaching talk • Rote • Recitation • Exposition / instruction • Discussion • Dialogue

11. Dialogic teaching repertoires What ultimately counts is the extent to which instruction requires students to think, not just to report someone else’s thinking. (Martin Nystrand et al, Opening Dialogue, 1997)

12. Dialogic teaching:principles Dialogic teaching is: • collective • reciprocal • supportive • cumulative • purposeful If an answer does not give rise to a new question from itself, it falls out of the dialogue. (Mikhail Bakhtin: Speech Genres and Other Late Essays, 1986)

13. Education as dialogue • Introduction: why dialogue? • The dialogue about education: futures • The nature of dialogue • Dialogue in the classroom • The dialogue about education: curriculum • Conclusion

14. The dialogic curriculum:starting points • Realms of knowledge / ways of knowing • Generic skills • Forms of intelligence • Ways of learning • Hybrids

15. Curriculum as subjects (National Curriculum for English secondary schools, from 1999) English Mathematics Science Design and technology Information and communications technology History Geography Modern foreign languages Art and design Music Physical education Citizenship Curriculum as areas of learning & experience (HMI, 1985) Aesthetic and creative Human and social Linguistic and literary Mathematical Moral Physical Scientific Spiritual Technological Curriculum as realms of knowledge/ways of knowing Curriculum as areas of learning & development (3-5 Foundation Stage curriculum, from 2000) • personal, social and emotional development • communication, language and literacy • mathematical development • knowledge and understanding of the world • physical development • creative development

17. Curriculum as subjects (National Curriculum for English secondary schools, from 1999) English Mathematics Science Design and technology Information and communications technology History Geography Modern foreign languages Art and design Music Physical education Citizenship Curriculum as areas of learning & experience (HMI, 1985) Aesthetic and creative Human and social Linguistic and literary Mathematical Moral Physical Scientific Spiritual Technological Curriculum as realms of knowledge/ways of knowing Curriculum as areas of learning & development (3-5 Foundation Stage curriculum, from 2000) • personal, social and emotional development • communication, language and literacy • mathematical development • knowledge and understanding of the world • physical development • creative development

18. Competences for life (RSA 1999) learning citizenship relating to people managing situations managing information Skills for employment (DfES 2000) vocational job-specific generic Generic skills (Hargreaves 2004) managing one’s own learning problem-solving thinking research, enquiry and investigation invention, enterprise and entrepreneurship communication social and interpersonal skills teamwork leadership Curriculum as skills

19. Multiple Intelligences (Gardner) linguistic logico-mathematical spatial musical bodily-kinaesthetic interpersonal intrapersonal naturalist existential Triarchic Intelligence (Sternberg) analytical creative practical Curriculum as forms of intelligence

20. Curriculum as ways of learning • Children as imitators: learning from modelling • Children as recipients: learning from didactic exposure • Children as thinkers: learning by intersubjective exchange and collaboration • Children as knowledgeable: learning by exploring the relationship between personal and objective knowledge (Jerome Bruner, 1996)

21. Disciplinary knowledge Cross-curricular domains and competences (France) Subjects Cross-curricular issues Teaching/learning styles (Wragg’s ‘cubic curriculum’) Hybrid curricula • National Curriculum subjects • Cross-curricular key skills (England) • Key learning areas (KLAs) • Generic skills • Values and attitudes • Key tasks • Essential learning experiences • Learning goals (Hong Kong) • Areas of learning and experience • Elements of learning (England, not introduced)

22. Education as dialogue • Introduction: why dialogue? • The dialogue about education: futures • The nature of dialogue • Dialogue in the classroom • The dialogue about education: curriculum • Conclusion

23. The dialogic curriculum:starting points • Realms of knowledge / ways of knowing • Generic skills • Forms of intelligence • Ways of learning • Hybrids

24. Education as Dialogue Robin Alexander University of Cambridge Contact: rja40@cam.ac.uk Download text at: www.robinalexander.org.uk