‘I wonder if they are going up or down’: children's co-constructive talk across the primary years

This article reports a research project, where two pairs of children were recorded in discussion, first in Year One and then five years later in Year Six. A unique opportunity meant that the children engaged in the same task at the beginning and end of their Primary School education. The research analyses the talk on three levels, considering the language that they use, the way that they manage their talk together, and the broader themes that they bring to their discussion. The findings suggest that their language changes subtly over time, with their earlier discussions more imaginative and fluid.     

Case studies of teachers' understandings of the pedagogy of classroom talk: some critical moments explored

This case study research is informed by Vygotsky's view that talk is essential to organise our thoughts and extend our thinking and that, as Barnes suggested, the teacher needs to use the social situation effectively in the classroom to promote talk for learning. This article focuses on pedagogy and teachers' understandings of how talk works in the classroom, as I sought to illuminate teachers' intuitions and insights and their views of what they find challenging in organising classroom talk. Three case studies of ‘critical moments’ in a lesson suggest that teacher knowledge about talk is located in concrete practices. The three teachers viewed a recorded lesson and chose a moment they defined as ‘critical’ because the moment helped them to learn something about the way they use talk in the classroom. They then discussed this moment with me. These collaborative but critically evaluative processes are particularly useful for exploring and probing teachers' knowledge about talk for learning, an area of pedagogy that has proved so resistant to change over quite a long period. These three teachers suggest that such talk is becoming more marginal under the impact of performativity and the new cultural restorationist English curriculum.     

英语专业精读课堂探索性教学的研究与应用

通过精读课堂教师话语的现场录音,及其转写与分析,总结其规律性特征,并结合话语分析及Sinclair和Coulthard模式,对课堂申的交际性重新释义,以期能为下一步探索性教学提供更多的数据支持。     

Vicarious learning from dialogue and discourse

This study examined learning in the domain of sentence parsing and syntax treediagram construction. The aim of the study was to assess whether subjects could learn vicariously from recordings of interactions between a previous student and a tutor.Four intervention conditions and a control condition were compared. Subjects in a dialogue group (DL) read printed tutorial notes and subsequently vicariously viewed dynamic (animated) recordings of tree diagrams being constructed by a previous student in the presence of a tutor.The discourse (DI) condition was similar except that subjects viewed recordings of tree diagrams being constructed by a tutor who concurrently verbalised instructional discourse.In a third condition (DO), subjects viewed tree-diagram construction animation clips which were not annotated with either dialogue or discourse. In a linear text (LT) condition, subjects were given only printed tutorial notes. A control (CO) condition involved pre and post testing without any intervention.Results indicated that the dialogue condition was as effective as the discourse condition. This provides support for contention that re-usable dialogue is a useful resource for the vicarious learner. Another finding was that un-annotated animated diagrams were surprisingly effective. Several reasons for their effectiveness are suggested from the literature on instructional animations.     

Storytelling as dialogue: how teachers construct professional knowledge

This study shows how a group of English language lecturers use storytelling as a form of professional dialogue. The aim of the study is to highlight the dialogic role of storytelling in supporting the construction of lecturers' professional knowledge and not to identify lecturers' professional knowledge. In a professional development project, 12 lecturers created digital stories about their experiences of professional development. These stories were shared with colleagues who then responded with their own digital stories. A narrative framework was used to analyse stories for the types of connections lecturers made between stories. Five dialogic processes were identified: connecting, echoing, developing, questioning and constructing. Excerpts of stories are used to demonstrate how lecturers construct professional knowledge through storytelling. The study concludes by outlining the potential and limitations of storytelling as an approach to professional development and proposes further research into the dialogic capacity of storytelling in a professional development context.     

校本教研中需要注意的几个问题

以校为本的教学研究包含三层含义：“以校为本”，“以教师为本”，“以教学为本”。教师个人的自我反思、教师集体的同伴互助、专业研究人员的专业支持是开展校本教研的三种基本力量。不断学习是教师自我反思的基本前提；宽松和谐的教师文化是教师集体同伴互助的基础；建立平等、对等的对话体系是专业引领的保证。     

The effect of exploratory talk on the development of sentence structure in able writers

This one‐term practitioner research study, conducted with 33 Year 5 children, considers the impact of teaching exploratory talk skills on the learning of the class, with particular consideration of the development of the ability of gifted and talented children to manipulate and control sentence structure to create effect. Beginning with metatalk activities, the class defined new talk rules, putting them into practice in an action‐research project. The study then went on to consider the detailed application of these skills in a focus group of six gifted children. In order to meet with the requirements of a wider study, the impact of this focus group on the learning of the whole class was observed. While many children, both those in the focus group and the wider class, appeared to embrace exploratory talk as a route to independence of the class teacher, some children were more reluctant to engage. The article concludes with an evaluation of the impact of exploratory talk.     

Researching teachers' and parents' perceptions of dialogue

While there has been a great deal of research done on parent involvement and the challenges of conducting effective dialogue in parent–teacher meetings, less attention has been paid to how teachers and parents themselves perceive dialogue. The purpose of the present article is to study whether deliberative principles are vital to teachers' and parents' perceptions of dialogue. The study seeks to answer this question by initiating qualitative interviews with teachers and parents. The findings show that deliberative principles are definitively vital to the participants' perceptions of dialogue. They include basic deliberation values and procedural aspects of deliberation. However, it must be noted that the informants also include aspects that are not highlighted as core elements of deliberation, especially the importance of good relational qualities and informal talk. They also assign the professional a moderator role in parent–teacher meetings. Practical implications are discussed.     

Vicarious learning from dialogue and discourse -- A controlled comparison

This study examined learning in the domain of sentence parsing and syntax tree-diagram construction. The aim of the study was to assess whether subjects could learn vicariously from recordings of interactions between a previous student and a tutor.Four intervention conditions and a control condition were compared. Subjects in a dialogue group (DL) read printed tutorial notes and subsequently vicariously viewed dynamic (animated) recordings of tree diagrams being constructed by a previous student in the presence of a tutor.The discourse (DI) condition was similar except that subjects viewed recordings of tree diagrams being constructed by a tutor who concurrently verbalised instructional discourse.In a third condition (DO), subjects viewed tree-diagram construction animation clips which were not annotated with either dialogue or discourse. In a linear text (LT) condition, subjects were given only printed tutorial notes. A control (CO) condition involved pre and post testing without any intervention.Results indicated that the dialogue condition was as effective as the discourse condition. This provides support for contention that re-usable dialogue is a useful resource for the vicarious learner. Another finding was that un-annotated animated diagrams were surprisingly effective. Several reasons for their effectiveness are suggested from the literature on instructional animations.     

Seeking for the unwelcome truths: beyond celebration in inquiry-based teacher professional learning

This paper seeks to interrupt the dominant discourse of action research that emphasises the celebration of achievements, paying less attention to the ‘unwelcome truths’ that can sometimes be revealed. Building on our work in supporting inservice teacher professional learning thorough practitioner research in contexts such as the Coalition of Knowledge Building Schools, we examine the capacity of practitioner inquiry and student voice to contribute to teachers’ broader professional knowledge base. Welcoming ‘unwelcome truths’ requires a robustness on the part of teachers, an openness to the professional learning and growth that can ensue from genuine critique and reflection. Among other things, asking questions of young people in schools can sometimes yield new and challenging insights into school and learning. We draw on examples from our work with schools and teachers to consider what might be done to make these ‘unwelcome truths’ the basis for the reconceptualisation of practice and catalysts for the ongoing formation of teacher professional identity.     

Researching feedback dialogue: an interactional analysis approach

A variety of understandings of feedback exist in the literature, which can broadly be categorised as cognitivist information transmission and socio-constructivist. Understanding feedback as information transmission or ‘telling’ has until recently been dominant. However, a socio-constructivist perspective of feedback posits that feedback should be dialogic and help to develop students’ ability to monitor, evaluate and regulate their learning. This paper is positioned as part of the shift away from seeing feedback as input, to exploring feedback as a dialogical process focusing on effects, through presenting an innovative methodological approach to analysing feedback dialogues in situ. Interactional analysis adopts the premise that artefacts and technologies set up a social field, where understanding human–human and human–material activities and interactions is important. The paper suggests that this systematic approach to analysing dialogic feedback can enable insight into previously undocumented aspects of feedback, such as the interactional features that promote and sustain feedback dialogue. The paper discusses methodological issues in such analyses and implications for research on feedback.     

对加拿大和中国教师教育的探究:一个跨文化的对话

This article compares teacher education in China with Canada, with the aim of fostering a cross-cultural dialogue between the two systems. Using case studies the article attempts to address the following questions: What can the two countries learn from each other? Can Canadian teacher education be a possible alternative model for China? Can Canada’s teacher education curriculum be used to enhance greater pedagogical preparation and more pre-service teaching practice for China? Is Canada’s move towards strengthening professionalism in teaching of value to China?     

英语专业教师话语性别差异探究

男性和女性在交际方式上存在着"性别话语",不同的性别话语会形成迥然不同的教学风格。本文从话语量、提问方式、反馈方式、体态语和课堂导入五方面来探讨不同性别的英语专业教师的话语差异以及由此而产生的对学生语言学习的影响。     

教师授课语言对学生英语语法学习的影响

教师话语是学生语言输入的主要来源之一。教师教授学生英语时,选用哪种语言讲解语法会对学生英语语法学习产生影响。本文以汉族、民考汉和民考民教师为例,讨论了教师语种使用差异对民考民大学生英语语法学习的影响。     

Where practice and theory intersect in the chemistry classroom: using cogenerative dialogue to identify the critical point in science education

This paper argues for an inclusive model of science education practice that attempts to facilitate a relationship between “science and all” by paying particular attention to the development of the relationship between the teacher, students and science. This model hinges on the implementation of cogenerative dialogues between students and teachers. Cogenerative dialogues are a form of structured discourse in which teachers and students engage in a collaborative effort to help identify and implement positive changes in classroom teaching and learning practices. A primary goal of this paper is to introduce a methodological and theoretical framework for conducting cogenerative dialogue that is accessible to classroom teachers and their students. I propose that researchers must learn to disseminate their findings to teachers in ways that are practical, in that they provide teachers with information needed to make concrete connections between the research and their teaching, while continuing to make available the theories that support their findings. Using an integration research framework in conjunction with a temporality of learning model, I introduce a method of disseminating research findings that provides both classroom teachers and researchers with access to different forms of knowledge about cogenerative dialogues in the same paper. In doing so, this article examines the relationships between teacher knowledge and researcher knowledge by exploring the practical application of cogenerative dialogues for classrooms teachers and the theoretical implications of using cogenerative dialogues for researchers.

英语课堂教师话语真实性研究：内涵、表征与应用

英语课堂教师话语既具有组织教学的功能,也是学生语言输入的一个重要来源。无论是作为组织教学活动的语言,还是作为语言输入,教师话语的真实性都不可或缺。英语教师课堂话语真实性是指情景、语言和内容的真实性;课堂话语真实性具有即时性、连贯性、目的性、可理解性等特点,且具有多种促学功能;课堂话语真实性的表现形式有口语化、协商性、反馈性和转换性等方面;在课堂教学中,教师应创设真实情景、促进语言输出,明确教学目的、力求话语真实,提高语言能力、确保内容真实。     

Conceptual and Action Frameworks for Peace

An overview is provided on conceptual and action frameworks for peace, including contributions from different areas of psychology and several multidisciplinary perspectives. Approaches lacking in previous efforts, and some of the reasons for the limited success of peace work are identified. Two case examples are given to illustrate possibilities that have transformative potential, but are less often pursued by counseling professionals. Action research in communal dialogue and advocacy, and psychoeducation and mentoring in psychospiritual development are emphasized in promoting peaceful communities. Implications for our roles and functions as well as future theory, research and training are discussed.     

Email dialogue journaling: attitudes and impact on L2 reading performance

With the rapid development of technologies, online learning, especially email dialogue journaling, has been playing an increasingly important role in foreign language learning and teaching in recent years. While many studies have examined the effect of email learning on student learning performance, few have looked into students’ attitudes towards email application and its impact on their learning outcomes. Positive user attitudes (high self‐efficacy) have been considered critical factors that contribute to the subsequent and successful academic performance. By integrating email for the reading learning process, this study developed an electronic‐based peer collaborative environment to explore students’ attitudes towards email application in reading classes. Specifically, the relationship between students’ self‐efficacy and their reading performance was examined. The results demonstrate that most students maintain positive attitudes towards the potential outcomes of email application on reading achievement. Furthermore, the feature of electronic discussion has a greater direct effect on the reading enhancement. Implications of certain designs of email tasks for an enhanced second language reading development are presented.     

Facilitating Self-Study of Professional Development: Researching the Dynamics of Teacher Learning

In this study a teacher educator worked with two elementary teachers to facilitate a self-study of their learning during a professional development programme. The programme extended for 6 months and was underpinned by four learning processes—reflection, sharing, action and feedback. The two teachers documented their learning experiences and were interviewed several times during and after the study. At the end of the 6-month period, the teachers sketched and shared models of their learning and then collaborated to produce a joint model. Sue learned that she needed to start with a small change in her teaching and that her learning involved multiple factors that interacted to create change. Loraine learned that focusing on the teaching of science reminded her of childhood experiences and that it was important for her to analyse why she taught the way she did. Self-study helped the teachers to develop insights about how they learned and enabled them to better understand and manage their own professional development.     

Learning to mark: exemplars,dialogue and participation in assessment communities

The problems of shifting from norm-referenced assessment to criterion-referenced assessment have been identified by several scholars in recent years. These important critiques touch on a number of areas, but neglect a key question about how assessors learn to accomplish what Shay calls a ‘socially situated interpretive act'. Research that does exist tends to focus on salaried, full-time academics. This overlooks the heterogeneity of the academic labour force in higher education and the substantial contribution made by contract (hourly-paid) lecturers, particularly in applied disciplines such as Business and Management. This study explores how nine newcomers to a UK Business School – including salaried and contract staff – attempt to understand local assessment practice. We use a situated learning lens to analyse their diary entries and interviews about their experiences of learning to mark. Drawing on scholars such as Sadler, we examine the suggestion that exemplars are important for newcomers coming to understand local assessment practice. We argue for the fundamental importance of dialogue about exemplars and other aspects of practice, both to develop inter-subject understandings of assessment ‘anchor points' and also to foster among newcomers (and especially contract lecturers) a greater sense of participating in, and being valued by, the local assessment community.