Talking to Learn: Developing Thinking in and through Dialogue

1. Talking to learn: developing thinking in and through dialogueKaren Littleton

2. The teamNeil Mercer Lyn DawesRupert WegerifKaren LittletonPaul Warwick Sylvia Rojas-DrummondClare SamsJuan Manuel Fernández CárdenasJudith Kleine StaarmanFutoshi Hiruma

3. 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

4. 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)

5. 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

6. ways of using language ways of thinking

7. Educators should give more attention to improving the quality of classroom talk

8. 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

9. Alexander (2004/2008) Teachers dominate the interaction in the classroom and typically only offer children limited opportunities for making brief responses to their questions

10. Littleton and Howe (2010) The paradox of children working everywhere in groups but rarely as groups

11. 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

12. Teachers want to create a more inclusive and participatory environment for talk in their classrooms

13. 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

14. 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?

15. Whole class talk • Group work - talk amongst children • Linking these together

16. 1. Whole class talk

17. Teacher: 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) Whole class talk: example 1

18. Initiation Teacher: What tense is the first paragraph in? Response Child:The past tense Feedback Teacher: Yes it’s in the past tense A ‘closed’ question An ‘IRF exchange’

19. 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

20. 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.'

21. 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?

22. 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.

23. Dialogic teaching… …uses both authoritative talkand dialogue to best effect (Robin Alexander)

24. 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

25. Talking Points: True, false, or unsure? The moon changes shape because it is in the shadow of the earth

26. Talking points: the solar system

27. 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

29. Sequence 2 (primary): phases of the moon Teacher: 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

30. 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

31. In dialogic teachingthe 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)

32. (Adapted from Wolfe, 2007)

33. Effective teachers... • …use question-and-answer sequences not just to test knowledge, but also to guide the development of children’s understanding • …teach not just 'subject content', but also how to solve problems and make sense of experience • …treat learning as a social, communicative process • (Rojas-Drummond & Mercer, 2004)

34. 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

35. 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)

36. 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)

37. 2. Talk in groups

38. What makes a ‘good discussion’?

39. 3 types of talk

40. (3)Exploratory Talkin 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….?”

41. 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

42. Most teachers do not help students learn how to collaborate effectively • Most teachers do not ‘model’ Exploratory Talk 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)

43. If we want to improve classroom education we could: • Train teachers in strategies for using talk effectively • Teach children how to use talk for reasoning • Integrate teacher-led and peer group discussion

44. How to enable effective group work 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

45. 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

46. 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

47. 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

48. 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

49. 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

50. 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