TALKING ABOUT OUR TROUBLES: USING VIDEO-BASED DIALOGUE TO BUILD PRESERVICE TEACHERS' PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE

This study investigates the preservice teacher learning in the context of conversations about their field-based challenges. First, a review of the literature explores studies that highlight the role of evidence-based conversation as a mechanism to approach the inevitable problems faced by teachers in the classroom. The subsequent case study provides an analysis of how a group of preservice teachers approached a colleague's challenge through a structured conversation and used digital videotapes and artifacts to add specificity to their analysis. The study's implications suggest how constructive and critical conversations between prospective teachers can play an important role in their professional development.     

Thinking aloud together: A teacher’s semiotic mediation of a whole-class conversation about percents

How does classroom interaction support students’ apprenticeship into the ways of speaking, writing, and diagramming that constitute the practice of mathematics? We address this problem through an interpretative analysis of a whole-group conversation about alternative ways of solving a problem involving percent discounts that occurred in a sixth grade classroom. This research study draws upon Dewey’s theory of inquiry, Vygotsky’s cultural–historical psychology, Freudenthal’s realistic mathematics education, and Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics (SFL). From Freudenthal, we borrow the notions of mathematizing and guided reinvention—the former notion offers a view of mathematics as an activity of structuring subject matter and the latter one provides insights into the processes whereby mathematizing is learned and taught in the classroom. We glean from Dewey his view of reflective thinking as inquiry and the role that conversations may serve therein. We rely upon Vygotsky’s notions of a verbal thinking plane and a social phase of learning in order to reconsider the function of whole-class interaction in apprenticing students into mathematizing. Finally, SFL provides us with tools for explaining the choices of grammar and vocabulary students and teachers make as they realize meanings in whole-group conversations. Treating the selected whole-class conversation as a text, we focus our analysis on how this text came to mean what it did. Our central questions are as follows: What meanings were realized in the whole-class conversation by teacher and students and how were these meanings realized? How did the teacher’s lexico-grammatical choices guide the students’ choices? In addressing these questions, we advance an interpretation of the conversation as paradigmatic of students and teacher thinking aloud together about percents.     

Hearing Words,Learning Words: How Different Presentations of Novel Vocabulary Words Affect Children’s Incidental Learning

Research Findings: Children learn most of their vocabulary incidentally, by hearing words used in their environment. This study explored which kinds of presentations of words, without any direct instruction, yielded greater depth of target word knowledge. Changes in 56 kindergartners’ depth of knowledge for each of 23 novel target words (N = 1,288) based on presentation in 1 of 3 conditions (read-aloud, teacher conversation, or both read-aloud and conversation) were explored and compared to control words that were never presented. A 2-level, cross-classification analysis modeled the postintervention score for each word for each child. Children’s word meaning knowledge improved most when words were presented via combined conversations and read-alouds. Vocabulary gains for words presented via conversations differed across classrooms. Practice or Policy: Both teacher conversations and read-aloud presentations of target vocabulary should be used together. Professional development for teachers’ effective vocabulary conversations may be needed.     

Children as readers: what we learn from their conversations about reading

This article analyses a conversation about reading with three Year 8 students. Drawing on sociocultural theories of learning and elements of discourse analysis, it explores not only details of what the students read, but also how the process of the conversation itself shapes their perception of themselves as readers. Analysis of the data suggests that close attention to conversations such as these can affect our understanding of young readers and the reading practices in which they engage, in ways which may be valuable for classroom teachers of English.     

商务聊天

我们都知道。在职场上。谈判技巧、商务礼仪、发表演讲等都是必备的技能,其实除了这些,聊天也是一项技能,毕竟很多项目不只是在会桌上谈拢的。     

Connecting online learners with diverse local practices: the design of effective common reference points for conversation

This mixed‐methods study probed the effectiveness of three kinds of objects (video, theory, metaphor) as common reference points for conversations between online learners (student teachers). Individuals’ degree of detail‐focus was examined as a potentially interacting covariate and the outcome measure was learners’ level of tacit knowledge related to their practice (teaching). Analysis was conducted using hierarchical linear modeling and significant results were followed up with a qualitative theme analysis. An interaction between reference point type and detail‐focus was found, demonstrating a positive effect of detail‐focus within the metaphor condition. Unexpectedly, some participants interpreted the metaphors in ways other than those intended, leading to differences in the kinds of understandings developed. The study indicated that a conceptual frame is an important characteristic of a reference point that will be truly taken in common, and that metaphors need additional framing to be viable in this role. Implications for online learning conversation design are discussed.     

Critical Conversations on Social Justice in Undergraduate Mathematics

Abstract

This article explores how critical conversations engage undergraduate mathematics faculty in a community of practice that enhances their knowledge about teaching and learning mathematics for social justice. More broadly, critical conversations are defined as a cooperative learning strategy that can be used to identify, explore, and respond to various interests and issues situated across differing values and beliefs. We present a case study of a critical conversation that took place at a 2016 Mathematics for Social Justice workshop organized by a group of junior faculty. Participant reflections situate perspectives that can help novice and experienced instructors design conversations about teaching mathematics for social justice. Specifically, individual and group reflections highlight the importance of: (i) framing and reflecting on the conversation; (ii) exploring implications and content connections; and (iii) identifying barriers. Implications for faculty members and mathematics departments are provided.     

会话分析与批评话语分析异同辨析

会话分析和批评话语分析都将自然话语视为对社会的反映,都以话语为媒介考察社会对话语生成的影响,但由于对话语及社会本质的认识不同,二者的方法论也不尽相同。梳理两个流派的异同点可加深对话语社会特性的认识,同时也有助于整合话语分析各流派的理论及研究方法,推动话语研究的深入发展。     

What are Middle School Students Talking About During Clicker Questions? Characterizing Small-Group Conversations Mediated by Classroom Response Systems

There is a growing interest in using classroom response systems or clickers in science classrooms at both the university and K-12 levels. Typically, when instructors use this technology, students are asked to answer and discuss clicker questions with their peers. The existing literature on using clickers at the K-12 level has largely focused on the efficacy of clicker implementation, with few studies investigating collaboration and discourse among students. To expand on this work, we investigated the question: Does clicker use promote productive peer discussion among middle school science students? Specifically, we collected data from middle school students in a physical science course. Students were asked to answer a clicker question individually, discuss the question with their peers, answer the same question again, and then subsequently answer a new matched-pair question individually. We audio recorded the peer conversations to characterize the nature of the student discourse. To analyze these conversations, we used a grounded analysis approach and drew on literature about collaborative knowledge co-construction. The analysis of the conversations revealed that middle school students talked about science content and collaboratively discussed ideas. Furthermore, the majority of conversations, both ones that positively and negatively impacted student performance, contained evidence of collaborative knowledge co-construction.     

Young people’s everyday romance and sexual experiences in relation to sex-related conversations with parents: a diary study in the Netherlands

This study builds on existing research into how young people’s emergent sexual development is connected to parent–child sex-related communication through avoidance vs. disclosure. Over the course of one year, a total of 21 young people (age range 12–17.5) reported in longitudinal qualitative diaries their (1) everyday sexual experiences and (2) sex-related conversations with their parents. Using a mixed-methods approach, findings show that less sexually experienced participants reported greater avoidance of parent–child sex-related conversations than more experienced participants. The sex-related conversations of more experienced participants mainly concerned overt experiences in the form of everyday issues with their romantic partner, while the conversations of less experienced participants were characterised by more covert experiences such as opinions about romantic relationships in general. These results suggest that the degree to which young people feel comfortable talking about sexuality with their parents partly depends on when the conversation takes place during a young person’s romantic and sexual development.     

Everyday conversation as a context for professional learning and development

Because conversation is a constant in our personal and professional lives, we are not inclined to stop and think about it as a phenomenon. However, that is what I have found myself doing. In particular, I have become much more self‐conscious, and hopefully more thoughtful, about the conversations that constitute an inevitable aspect of my day to day work in an academic staff development role. Drawing on my own reflections and a body of related literature, I have thought about the features of conversation that may make it conducive for professional learning; how “valued” conversation is as a context for professional learning; the possible ingredients of a conversation and the extent to which they can be controlled or influenced without disturbing, or even destroying, the defining essence of conversation; and the competencies and sensitivities that may be required if conversation is to become an occasion for learning. In this article, I present the outcomes of my reflections and inquiry with the hope that they will prompt conversation about conversation as a context for professional learning and development.

Puisque la conversation est une constante dans nos vies personnelle et professionnelle, nous sommes peu enclins à nous arrêter et à y réfléchir en tant que phénomène. Cependant, c’est ce à quoi je me suis affairé. Plus particulièrement, je suis devenu davantage conscient et, je l’espère, davantage réfléchi, en ce qui a trait aux conversations qui constituent un aspect inévitable de mon travail quotidien en tant que conseiller pédagogique. Puisant dans mes réflexions et dans un ensemble de connaissances connexes, j’ai réfléchi aux aspects de la conversation qui la rendent propice à un apprentissage professionnel; dans quelle mesure la conversation constitue‐t‐elle un contexte valorisé d’apprentissage professionnel; les ingrédients possibles d’une conversation, ainsi que la mesure dans laquelle ceux‐ci peuvent être contrôlés ou influencés sans déranger, ou même détruire, l’essence même de la conversation; de même que les compétences et les habiletés pouvant être requises pour que la conversation constitue une occasion d’apprendre. Dans cet article, je présente le résultat de mes réflexions et interrogations dans l’espoir de susciter une conversation au sujet de la conversation en tant que contexte d’apprentissage et de développement professionnel.     

Young people’s conversations about environmental and sustainability issues in social media

Young people’s conversations about environmental and sustainability issues in social media and their educational implications are under-researched. Understanding young people’s meaning-making in social media and the experiences they acquire could help teachers to stage pluralistic and participatory approaches to classroom discussions about the environment and sustainability. The aim of the article is to explore the characteristics of meaning-making in young people’s conversations about environmental and sustainability issue in social media, more precisely in an online community. The study takes a public pedagogy and citizenship-as-practice approach and uses Epistemological Move Analysis. The conversation are shown to be argumentative, sophisticated, elaborative and competitive and create an educational situation in which facts about the world and moral and political values and interests are confronted and argued. The findings raise questions about pluralistic and participatory approaches and the staging of classroom conversations in environmental and sustainability education.     

基于语料库的会话中重复现象分析研究

以自然、真实的会话为语料，对会话中的重复现象进行了探讨。分析了重复与重叠的区别、重复的作用等问题，并指出了实际会话中运用重复产生的良好效果。     

Effects of Visual Spatial Structure on Textual Conversational Multitasking

Textual computer-mediated communication gives rise to conversational multitasking—participation in several concomitant synchronous textual conversations. This study examined how this communication competence is affected by several visual parameters—the distance between conversation windows, number of windows, and window size. Results show that comprehension of concomitant textual conversations is not affected by the distance between conversation windows, and that the advantage of separating conversation threads into distinct windows is greater when overall window size is larger. This study considers the implications and applications of these results to communicative multitasking phenomena, in general, which become prevalent in technologically advanced societies.     

The influence of race and gender on children's conversations and playmate choices

The present study examined the influence of race and gender on children's conversations and friendship choices. Four hundred and twenty-eight children (M age = 7.5 years, SD = 0.34) from 2 racial minority groups (i.e., African Caribbean and South Asian) and the racial majority group (i.e., European) chose a picture of a playmate together with a peer. Race influenced the levels of assertion and affiliation in children's conversations. The effects of race on conversation also varied according to the gender of the children involved in interaction. Same-race pairs tended to choose in-group playmates, but same-race minority pairs showed less marked in-group preference. Cross-race pairs selected a majority-group child as a playmate most often.     

How age and race affect the frequency,timing, and content of conversations about race with children

Anti-racist efforts require talking with children about race. The present work tested the predictors of U.S. adults' (N = 441; 52% female; 32% BIPOC participants; M_age = 35 years) conversations about race with children across two timepoints in 2019. Approximately 60% of adult participants talked to their children (3–12 years) about race during the preceding week; only 29% talked to other adults about race during the same period. This paper describes the content and predictors of conversations about race, revealing how conversations differ depending on the participant's race, a child's age, and whether the conversation occurs with children or another adult. These data have important implications for theorizing about when, why, and how adults actually talk about race with children and adults.     

A Socio-pragmatic Analysis of Gender Differences in Gossip Girl

The paper employs the method of discourse analysis to analyze males' and females' differences in cross-gender conversations in Gossip Girl from the perspective of Searle's Indirect Speech Act Theory, Grice's Cooperative Principle, and Leech's Politeness Principle. The study found that females tend to abide by Cooperative Principle, while males are more likely to fl out the CP, and that female characters are used to making requests or suggestions by raising question in a euphemistic way; while males concern less about courtesy, women always attach a great deal of importance to saving others' face in daily conversation. The paper contributed to reducing misunderstanding in cross-gender communication.     

Conversational Pedagogy: Exploring Interactions Between a Teaching Artist and Young Learners During Visual Arts Experiences

In many early childhood classrooms, visual arts experiences occur around a communal arts table. A shared workspace allows for spontaneous conversation and exploration of the art-making process of peers and teachers. In this setting, conversation can play an important role in visual arts experiences as children explore new media, skills, and ideas. The investigation of informal conversations during visual arts experiences will serve to improve understandings of the cognitive, imaginative, social, and affective components of young children’s creative endeavors. In particular, the exploration of conversational discourse contributes to understandings of conversation as an integral component of pedagogy in early childhood arts. As an exploration of the nature of conversation as pedagogy in early arts experiences, I present a ‘telling case’ (Mitchell 1984) featuring the collaborative work between a teaching artist and two young students as they explore and create together. The findings from this research have important implications for early childhood and art education teacher educators striving to develop supportive educational practices that will assist early childhood teachers in promoting supportive visual arts practices.