Elements of Dialogic Teaching and How to Get Them into Classrooms
In this chapter, we elaborate on components of dialogic teaching. We present repertoires of teaching talk, and indicators and principles as elements that together bring dialogic teaching to life. Further, we describe some initiatives aimed at getting dial
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Elements of Dialogic Teaching and How to Get Them into Classrooms
Abstract In this chapter, we elaborate on components of dialogic teaching. We present repertoires of teaching talk, and indicators and principles as elements that together bring dialogic teaching to life. Further, we describe some initiatives aimed at getting dialogic teaching into the classroom through professional development programs for teachers. We evaluate the success of individual studies and consider what caused the very diverse outcomes of these studies. The diverse outcomes provide evidence that it is not easy to train teachers to implement dialogic teaching in their classrooms. With this notion in mind, in the last part of this chapter we analyze what obstacles teachers face when trying to teach dialogically.
2.1 Elements of Dialogic Teaching Various concepts strive to capture the essence of dialogic teaching. Below, we will briefly present some of the most influential: repertoires of teaching talk, and indicators and principles of dialogic teaching. The concepts do not compete with each other. Rather, they represent different facets of dialogic teaching and are expected to work in synergy.
2.1.1 Repertoires of Teaching Talk Alexander (2020) distinguished several repertoires of teaching talk: (a) rote—memorizing facts through repetition, (b) recitation—using IRE sequences to recall or test what is expected to be known already, (c) instruction—telling students what to do and how to do it, (d) exposition—the teacher imparting information and explaining things, (e) discussion—an open exchange of ideas aiming to share information and juxtapose opinions, (f) deliberation—weighing the merits of ideas, opinions, and
© Masaryk University 2020 K. Šed’ová et al., Getting Dialogic Teaching into Classrooms, Understanding Teaching-Learning Practice, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9243-0_2
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2 Elements of Dialogic Teaching and How to Get Them into Classrooms
evidence, (g) argumentation—reasoning and giving evidence, and (h) dialogue— structured questioning and elaborated responses intended to develop new student understanding; by using this repertoire, the teacher scaffolds student thinking. Alexander (2020) thought that the last four teaching repertoires (discussion, deliberation, argumentation, and dialogue) could be considered as dialogic, as they emphasize working with language and talk to enhance student thinking and deepen understanding. This is not to say that four dialogic talk repertoires should be employed all of the time. On the contrary, teachers should use a wide spectrum of communicative approaches, including authoritative ones (Reznitskaya and Wilkinson 2015). Teachers need to be aware of the functions of individual discourses and strategically balance the ratio of the usage of dialogic and non-dialogic repertoires. Some authors (Scott 2008; Nurkka et al. 2014) have spoken of a rhythmization of discourse— referring to alternating between dialogic and non-dialogic—that creates meaningful learning situations. However, it is
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