Learning through Conversation Exploring effective Communication to promote learning

1. Learning through ConversationExploring effective Communication to promote learning Kirsty Brown, Educational Psychologist kirstybrown1@yahoo.co.uk

2. Conversation & shared understanding

3. The Czech Republic USA Poland Germany Video Enhanced Reflection on Communication

4. Impact of interaction in learning Optimising communication to promote learning Reflecting with teachers on classroom conversations Exploring nature and process of change Learning through conversationexploring effective communication to promote learning

5. Across learning Increased motivation & ownership (eg. Matusov, 2001) Teaching more directed to individual need (Schacher, 2003) Promotes cooperative learning & child-child scaffolding (Meadows, 1998) Potential for positive impact on self-belief & identity (Dweck, 1999; Hattie, 2001) Conversational routines promoting self-regulation (Feeney & Ylvisaker, 1998) The function of classroom interactions Increased attainment & achievement (eg. Schacher, 2003)

6. Across learning second/foreign language Role in negotiation of meaning in conversation (Pica, 1988) Role of give-and-take/constructing output in second language development (Swain, 2000) Regulating own learning through repeating conversational exchange (Ohta, 2000) The function of classroom interactions

7. Hattie’s model of feedback(2001) Self-regulation/ Meta-cognition Task Self Process Learning through effective interactions • Potential impact on the child’s self-belief • Self-handicapping • Learned hopelessness • Discounting • Adopting less challenging goals • Social comparison Independent learners

8. Learning through effective interactions Intersubjectivity Co-operation Dialogue Feedback Learning outcomes Learning behaviour Self-belief / Identity Hattie (2001), Mercer (2000), Trevarthen (1998)

9. Modelling effective interactions MEDIATION & LEARNING INTERSUBJECTIVITY: CO-OPERATION INTERSUBJECTIVITY: ATTUNEMENT

10. Second language learning • Intersubjectivities in the second language learning classroom • Face to face activities • direct experience/real communication • attunement and emotional exchange • Side-by-side activities • shared attention about another object • more effective for learning in the early stages? • Group/class activities • arrangement of activities to facilitate above (Van Lier, 2004)

11. Joint attention/cooperation about another topic Scaffold cooperation across group Modelling effective interactions MEDIATION & LEARNING Dialogue Feedback Scaffolding learning SECONDARY INTERSUBJECTIVITY Emotional & conversational exchange Attuned body language Shared attention with children PRIMARY INTERSUBJECTIVITY

12. Supporting teacher reflection on classroom conversations Sharing goals and feedback MEDIATION & LEARNING Scaffolding learning Cooperation SECONDARY INTERSUBJECTIVITY Taking Turns ‘Yes’ Verbal PRIMARY INTERSUBJECTIVITY ‘Yes’ Body Being Attentive

13. Reflecting on Interactions in the classroom • Key aims that the teachers developed in the project • To receive children & build more on children’s ideas • Extend children’s ideas • Request children to extend their ideas • 2. To support the interaction between children • Link children’s ideas • Pass ideas between 2 children • Passed ideas from child to group

14. Ideas develop within group Pass to another child Pass to group Make links between children’s ideas Reflecting on Interactions in the classroom Teacher makes initiative Receives child’s initiative or response • Extend child’s idea • Build on child’s idea • Request child to extend own idea

15. Linking statements = 7 Child-child neg Child-child neg Child-teach neg Child-child self Child-teacher self Extend child Child-child extend Child-teach self Child-teach extend Extend child Child-teach initiate Request extension Child-child extend Request extension Give info Child-teach extend Make request Child-child initiate Make request Child-teach initiate Give info Changing classroom interactions After reflection Prior to reflection Linking statements = 26

16. Summary of change in conversations • Child-talk • Increased time extending own ideas – with self, teacher & other children • Increased time extending ideas of other children • Decreased negative/ off-task interactions • Teacher-talk • Increased focus on child’s ideas and decreased focus on own ideas • Increased use of linking statements • Changed nature of talk – from content to process of cooperation

17. Learning through effective interactions Intersubjectivity Co-operation Dialogue Feedback Learning outcomes Learning behaviour Self-belief / Identity Hattie (2001), Mercer (2000), Trevarthen (1998)

18. kirstybrown1@yahoo.co.uk

19. Dweck, C. S. (1999). Self-Theories: Their Role in Motivation, Personality, and Development. Philadelphia: Taylor & Francis Hattie, J. (1999) Influences on student learning. Inaugural professional address, Uni Auckland. www.arts.auckland.ac.nz/edu/staff/jhattie. Matusov, E. (2001) Intersubjectivity as a way of informing teaching design for a community of learners classroom. Teaching and teacher education, 17 (4) 383-402. Mercer, N. (2000) Words and minds, how we use language to think together. London: Routledge. Ohta, A.S. (2000) Rethinking recasts: A learner centred examination of corrective feedback in the Japanese language classroom. In J.K,Hall & L.S. Verplaetse (Eds.), Second and Foreign Language Learning Through Classroom Interaction. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Pica, T. (1988) Interactive adjustments as an outcome of NS-NNS negotiated interaction. Language Learning 38,45-73. Shacher, H. (2003) Who gains what from co-operative learning, an overview of eight studies. In Gillies, R.M. & Ashman, A.F. (Eds) Co-operative learning, the social and intellectual outcomes of learning in groups. London: Routledge Falmer. Swain, M. (2000) The output hypothesis and beyond: Mediating acquisition through collaborative dialogue. In J.P. Lantolf (Ed.), Sociocultural theory and second language learning (pp.97-114). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Trevathen, C. (1998) The concept and foundations of infant intersubjectivity. In S. Braten (Ed.), Intersubjective communication and emotion in early ontogeny (pp.15-46). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Van Lier, L. (2004) The Ecology of Language Learning. Paper presented at the UC language consortium conference on Theoretical and Pedagocial Perspectives. Ylvisaker, M., & Feeney, T. (1998). Collaborative brain injury intervention: Positive everyday routines. San Diego: Singular Publishing. References