Teacher knowledge and discourse control: Quantitative evidence from novice biology teachers' classrooms

This article describes the effects of science teacher subject-matter knowledge on classroom discourse at the level of individual utterances. It details one of three parallel analyses conducted in a year-long study of language in the classrooms of four new biology teachers. The conceptual framework of the study predicts that when teaching unfamiliar subject matter, teachers use a variety of discourse strategies to constrain student talk to a narrowly circumscribed topic domain. This article includes the results of an utterance-by-utterance analysis of teacher and student talk in a 30-lesson sample of science instruction. Data are broken down by classroom activity (e.g., lecture, laboratory, group work) for several measures, including mean duration of utterances, domination of the speaking floor by the teacher, frequency of teacher questioning, cognitive level of teacher questions, and student verbal participation. When teaching unfamiliar topics, the four teachers in this study tended to talk more often and for longer periods of time, ask questions frequently, and rely heavily on low cognitive level questions. The rate of student questions to the teacher varied with classroom activity. In common classroom communicative settings, student questions were less common when the teacher was teaching unfamiliar subject matter. The implications of these findings include a suggestion that teacher knowledge may be an important unconsidered variable in research on the cognitive level of questions and teacher wait-time.     

Appropriating geometric series as a cultural tool: a study of student collaborative learning

The aim of this article is to illustrate how students, through collaborative small-group problem solving, appropriate the concept of geometric series. Student appropriation of cultural tools is dependent on five sociocultural aspects: involvement in joint activity, shared focus of attention, shared meanings for utterances, transforming actions and utterances and use of pre-existing cultural knowledge from the classroom in small-group problem solving. As an analytical point of departure, four mathematical theoretical components are identified when appropriating the cultural tool of geometric series: (1) estimating of parameters, (2) establishing of the general term, (3) composing of the sum and (4) deciding on convergence. Analyses of five excerpts focused on the students’ social processes of knowledge objectification and the corresponding semiotic means, i.e., lecture notes, linguistic devices, gestures, head movements and gaze, to obtain shared foci and meanings. The investigation of these processes unveils the manner in which the students established links to pre-existing mathematical knowledge in the classroom and how they simultaneously combined the various mathematical theoretical components that go into appropriating the cultural tool of geometric series. From the excerpts, it is evident that the students’ participation changes throughout their involvement in the problem-solving process. The students are gaining mathematical knowing through a process of transforming and by establishing shared meanings for the concept and its theoretical components.     

A procedure for analysing classroom dialogue

The importance of dialogue in classrooms and the neglect of dialogue structure as a significant research variable are highlighted. Techniques for analysing classroom dialogue are reviewed. These are limited in that they are relatively unsophisticated frequency counts, focus on a limited range of types of interactions, analyse teacher dialogue only and/or disregard the context of the utterances. A technique that overcomes these inadequacies, the Thematic and Structural Analysis (TSA) Technique, is described. The technique has been used previously in the analysis of text material to investigate the emergence and recession of themes by the analysis of the distribution of substantive words across paragraphs. In the case of dialogue, paragraphs are replaced by Bellack cycles and implicit language is made explicit. The application of the technique to a sample of classroom dialogue is discussed along with possible future uses of the technique.     

Relation between language experiences in preschool classrooms and children's kindergarten and fourth-grade language and reading abilities

Indirect effects of preschool classroom indexes of teacher talk were tested on fourth-grade outcomes for 57 students from low-income families in a longitudinal study of classroom and home influences on reading. Detailed observations and audiotaped teacher and child language data were coded to measure content and quantity of verbal interactions in preschool classrooms. Preschool teachers' use of sophisticated vocabulary during free play predicted fourth-grade reading comprehension and word recognition (mean age=9; 7), with effects mediated by kindergarten child language measures (mean age=5; 6). In large group preschool settings, teachers' attention-getting utterances were directly related to later comprehension. Preschool teachers' correcting utterances and analytic talk about books, and early support in the home for literacy predicted fourth-grade vocabulary, as mediated by kindergarten receptive vocabulary.     

Student-teachers’ verbal communication patterns during their teaching practice in ‘Studies for the Environment’ subject in early Greek primary classes

This study explores the quality of student–teachers’ (STs’) verbal communication during their teaching practice on the ‘Studies for the Environment’ subject, and identifies potential factors affecting it. Forty-one teaching sessions were analysed revealing that STs dominate classroom talking by having almost an equal number of utterances with their students. Moreover, only about one-third of STs’ sentences are questions, with the majority of them being factual (38%), while probing (18%), higher order (18%) or divergent (6%) questions were much less frequent. In addition, although teaching sessions were addressed to very young children (6–9 years old), only a minor percentage of questions were stimulating their emotions (5%). STs’ questioning seems to be independent from the class size, grade level and topic of instruction, while STs’ expressed utterances are significantly higher in smaller classes. A classroom verbal communication pattern was also developed from the available data; however, it is confined within the Greek context.     

Boys’ and girls’ conversational participation across four grade levels in Norwegian classrooms: taking the floor or being given the floor?

The participation of girls and boys in teacher‐led classroom conversations in Norway was examined across four grade levels (first, third, sixth and ninth). Boys participated more across all grade levels. The difference in girls’ and boys’ participation was least in the first grade and greatest in the ninth grade. A greater proportion of the girls’ utterances was initiated by the teacher allocating turns. The boys had more overlapping utterances with the teacher and contributed more comments that were not invited by the teacher. The difference in girls’ and boys’ participation was less in a classroom with a female rather than a male teacher. Boys made many uninvited comments in classrooms with male teachers. The discussion draws attention to relationships between conversation participation and learning, between participation and influence, and between participation and developing skills to take the floor in public.     

Examining tensions in the socioscientific issues classroom: Students' border crossings into a new culture of science

In the socioscientific issues (SSI) classroom, students need to cross the border between the subcultures of science (i.e., school science vs. everyday science). Traditional school contexts tend to present science as positivistic knowledge and unshakable truth unaffected by sociocultural factors. In contrast, everyday science, including SSI, is more nuanced, context-based, socially and culturally embedded. Thus, learning in an SSI classroom requires students to make additional efforts to successfully navigate between the subcultures of science. The expected norms located within these two educational contexts can create academic and sociocultural tensions for students. It is therefore necessary to explore the tensions caused these differential norms in order to successfully implement SSI. Through the lens of cultural-historical activity theory, we attempted to identify possible tensions that originate by implementing SSI instruction in a setting where teachers and students are accustomed to traditional lecture-based classroom instruction. One hundred thirty ninth graders at a public middle school located in Seoul, South Korea, participated in SSI programs on genetic modification technology during seven class periods over three to 4 weeks. Data was collected by classroom observation, audio-taping while students participated in various types of discourse, and semistructured interviews. We identified four noteworthy phenomena including intolerance of uncertainty, scientism, a sense of rivalry, and reaching an expedient and easy consensus. By revealing and understanding these tensions and phenomena, we aim to help inform teachers (and teacher educators) recognize instructional clues that can change not only students' epistemological views and attitudes toward science and science classes, but also better navigate the norms of classroom culture.     

Effects of a Cross-Linguistic Storybook Intervention on the Second Language Development of Two Preschool English Language Learners

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a shared reading experience between parent and child in the child’s home language on the emergent literacy and language acquisition in English of preschool-age English Language Learners. Parents of Spanish-speaking four-year-old Head Start students read storybooks in Spanish with their children concurrently with the use of the English language version of the books in the classroom. A single subject design with multiple baselines across subjects and settings was applied. Observed variables included changes in the frequency of utterances, the Mean Length of Utterance-word, and the frequency of spontaneous or child-initiated utterances in various settings within the Head Start classroom. The results indicated that there might be a relation between the shared reading experience in the home language and the child’s second language acquisition. Additionally, there appeared to be a relation between the behaviors and the settings. Finally, implications of this study were discussed.     

论跨联推理及百科信息对该过程的制约力

跨联是话语理解过程中最常见的语言现象之一。跨联假设是这一类话语理解过程中必不可少的环节，影响跨联假设构建过程的因素有很多。文章通过对英汉两种语料的对比分析探讨跨联推理的构建过程及百科信息对这一过程的的制约力。     

Addressing Orthodox Challenges in the Pluralist Classroom

The American public landscape has shifted in concert with a newly emboldened political right, and the public school has again become an important battlefield in the latest culture wars. In addition to confrontations over educational policy issues is a largely untheorized area where the everyday classroom takes center stage: Teachers face a difficult situation when it is students’ spontaneous utterances, rather than curricula or policy issues, at the center of religiously rooted controversy. How teachers respond to these situations, and the basis for their responses, is crucial as they continue to navigate the increasingly problematic relationship between the religiously orthodox and pluralist public schooling. Pushing the conversation into the everyday workings of the real, live public school classroom is critical to liberal theorists if they are to significantly impact discourse related to the purposes and aims of public education in pluralist societies.     

阅读教学“违规”现象及分析

语文课堂教学特别是阅读教学中普遍存在一种“违规”现象。文章对这些现象作一梳理,并进行简要分析。     

中学语文教师教学语言探微

教师的课堂教学语言,对提高教学质量至关重要。中学语文教师,要使自己的教学语言更具魅力,必须发音准确,吐字清晰;教学语言要抑扬顿挫,富有节奏感;语言要简练、准确,逻辑严密,条理清晰;语言要生动形象,力求具有趣味性与幽默感。因此,教师应该严格要求自己,认真掌握好口语技巧,讲究修辞的规则和规律,选择运用具有鲜明特点的语言形式,使自己的讲课取得最佳的表达效果。     

Talking modelling: examining secondary science teachers’ modelling-related talk during a model-based inquiry unit

This study examines the classroom talk about models and modelling of two secondary science teachers implementing a model-based inquiry instructional unit. The goal was to better understand the opportunities for explicit metamodeling talk in the science classroom. The findings revealed the ways in which they used language to frame the modelling work of the classroom. Instances of modelling talk were identified in classroom videos, and coded using a framework for metamodeling knowledge. Findings revealed that, while instances of metamodeling talk were common, they were largely implicit. This shows that the teachers were aware and knowledgeable about metamodeling ideas (e.g. the nature of models, process of modelling, etc.), but often did not make these ideas explicit to their students. Such findings suggest a trend of focusing on models of phenomena rather than supporting student engagement in the epistemic practice of modelling for reasoning about phenomena. The findings also revealed specific opportunities for explicit metamodeling talk by the teachers including during share-out sessions and the negotiation of explanation criteria. Further implications for classroom practice and research are discussed.     

Emergence,flexibility, and stabilization of language in a physics classroom

Learning physics is a complex phenomenon. In this article, we use concepts from the theory of nonlinear systems to study the development of language in classroom science in an experimental unit on chaos theory in a German 10th‐grade physics classroom. In ongoing activity, the explanations students developed for phenomena emerged through interactive stabilization and material constraints on the interpretive flexibility of material (artifacts) and discursive representations (talk). Interpretive flexibility both enables novel understandings and differences between private and common public use of these representations. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 869–897, 2003     

课堂教学中的虚假现象及其对策

当前的课堂教学出现了许多虚假现象,如课堂作业课外完成的现象不仅没有减轻学生的课业负担,反而加重了学生课外作业量;课堂讨论是开放课堂教学的一个重要标志,但许多课堂讨论却流于形式;课堂提问是课堂教学中师生双向活动最常用的方法,但在实际教学中,许多教师的课堂提问具有应付的成份。课堂教学中出现的许多虚假现象使得教学手段与预期的教学目的相去甚远。为提高课堂教学效果,教师必须既备教材,又备学生,在教学手段上采取相应的对策。     

The semiotics of authority: a closely-observed lesson

This article looks at the ways in which the semiotics of authority are established and challenged during a secondary school English lesson on The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. I focus on the utterances of one student and the context of the classroom in which she finds herself as a means to explore the ways in which pedagogic identities and relationships are negotiated and contested.     

Emotional Speech Acts and the Educational Perlocutions of Speech

Over the past decades, there has been an ongoing debate about whether education should aim at the cultivation of emotional wellbeing of self‐esteeming personalities or whether it should prioritise literacy and the cognitive development of students. However, it might be the case that the two are not easily distinguished in educational contexts. In this paper I use J.L. Austin's original work on speech acts to (a) emphasise the interconnection between the cognitive and emotional aspects of our utterances, and (b) illustrate how emotional force affects communication in the classroom.