How Can Dialogue Create Opportunity for Students to Think and Express Their Ideas

Paper presented at BERA Conference, Institute of Education, University of London, 5-8 Sept 2007

How can dialogue create opportunity for students to think and express their ideas?

Sue Bewley and Dianne Smardon University of Waikato, New Zealand

Paper presented at the British Educational Research Association Annual Conference, Institute of Education, University of London, 5-8 September 2007

Abstract.

“Fostering dialogue at the classroom level, enabling the pupil’s voice to be heard and valued, has the potential not only to improve relationships but to enhance the learning and achievement which policy makers seek” (Nixon et al, 1996:272 as cited in Flutter & Rudduck, 2004).

This research is embedded in the New Zealand teacher professional development project, Assess to Learn (AtoL) which works nationally towards improving student learning and achievement and shifting teachers assessment knowledge, beliefs and practices.

Through gathering student voice data for the purpose of informing teacher learning and improving their practice, some student responses indicated that the opportunity to talk about their learning, through an interview process, may also improve their learning. Four key questions were used to guide an informal interview with students. In responses to the question; “How does your teacher help you with this learning?” students have shown that they value opportunities to talk about their learning as this is often where knowing is constructed. We acknowledge and support other research which is showing that “Giving young learners opportunities to think and talk about aspects of teaching and learning can have a direct impact on pupils’ metacognitive development and on their understanding of how they learn” (Flutter & Rudduck, 2004, p.8).

In the light of our work, inquiry into how dialogue can create opportunities for students to practice high order thinking and express their ideas supports teachers and students to understand the importance of dialogue. Dialogue for the purpose of this research is defined as talk through which meaning is mutually constructed. It should be thoughtful, reflective and focused on evoking and exploring understanding (Black and Wiliam, 1998).

The question; How can dialogue create opportunity for students to think and express their ideas?, has been investigated using qualitative methodology involving interviews with both teachers and students and gathering observational data of teacher-student interactions within normal classroom practice. The observational data was gathered over 20-25 minute periods twice within a six month period. Reactivity to the researcher presence is designed to be minimized through returning to the same classrooms, where the research focus and purpose has been shared with teachers and students. The data gathered in the observation was used in the interviews, to delve into the thinking and perceptions of the research participants and also to reduce the possibility of researcher bias in interpretation of observations. Validity of each component of the data is strengthened by the triangulated collection, analysis and interpretation.

Critical qualitative inquiry is enabled through shared analysis and interpretation of the data with the participants. The teachers and students can make sense of their world in terms of the part they play and make changes for improvement. Additional analysis of larger samples of data, gathered across contexts has been undertaken to investigate findings and further improve the work we do within the Assess to Learn (AtoL) professional development project.

We believe that this research may be useful to those involved in teaching and learning and those supporting professional learning because it is based on a subjectivist concept of change where people are changed rather than the structure of the organisation, and are agents of that change. In critical educational research the purpose is to change as well as understand situations (Cohen and Manion, 2000). It should also be of interest to teachers, policy-makers and the general public as it is underpinned by a belief in the empowerment of students who are far too often positioned as passive receivers of information. We are finding that dialogue empowers students to become critical thinkers and to express their ideas.

Background to topic and focus of enquiry

Within our work as assessment advisers we gather student voice data, using four key questions, primarily for the purpose of informing teacher learning and improving their practice. However some researchers have suggested that consulting and listening to students in an interview not only provides information for practitioners, as was our primary purpose, it may also provide the opportunity to re-focus on learners and learning. (Flutter & Rudduck, 2004). We were beginning to wonder if talking with us was also helping students to re-focus on their learning. In response to the question; How does your teacher help you with this learning? students have shown that they value opportunities to talk about their learning as this is often where knowing is constructed. “Giving young learners opportunities to think and talk about aspects of teaching and learning can have a direct impact on pupils’ metacognitive development and on their understanding of how they learn” (Flutter & Rudduck, 2004, p.8). In line with our work we were also considering how significant the opportunity to think and talk about learning can be in developing assessment for learning principles.

“Research carried out by Black et al (2002) suggests that there is a need for teachers to focus more closely on classroom dialogue and to develop classroom strategies that encourage students to think and talk about their learning. In particular Black and his colleagues have identified the importance of assessment practices—which they describe as assessment for learning that provide effective support for pupils’ learning” (Flutter & Rudduck, 2004, p. 9).

In our classroom observations we were also noticing that teachers do a lot of talking and in reflecting on the observational data teachers were making comments like “I think I do too much talking” “Did I really talk that much?” They were noticing that the recorded group discussions were more often repeated incidents of the teacher playing “ping-pong” with individual students (Askew & Lodge, 2000) where the purpose of the feedback is to describe and discuss. In this model the power sits with the teachers, positioning students in a role of passivity. It was evident through many classroom observations over several years that learning talk where students are engaged was rare. It seemed to us that teachers do most of the talking, and if we believe that talking is ‘thinking aloud’ we wonder who is doing the thinking in our classrooms. Mercer talks about the infrequency of ‘exploratory talk’ in classrooms and the need for teachers to teach it. (2000). Mason suggests that some features of teacher talk such as repeating back may not necessarily be wrong, we can create opportunities for teachers to view and reflect on their classroom talk so they can deliberately and consciously use these features appropriately to facilitate learning. (Mason, 2002).

Other research is convincing in the idea that dialogue can create opportunity for students to think and express their ideas and that this impacts on learning. However we believe that teachers and students could learn more about how dialogue can develop thinking and expression through inquiry in an authentic context which also allows us to learn and further support their professional learning. “…the focus on learning through activity, constructing new ideas through the individual interacting with the environment, and contextualized rather than abstract learning, represent the common characteristics of situativity theory within the psychological perspective”(Owen, 2004). Due to the ethnographic nature of this inquiry it has had practical value for teachers because it is concerned with their own issues, problems and in their terms, thus teachers can add to their strategies and skills through the studies of themselves, their students and teacher-pupil interactions (Woods, 1986 as cited in Jones).

Research questions and methods.

The key research question; How can dialogue create opportunity for students to think and express their ideas? was investigated using qualitative methodology to gather student voice data, observations of teacher practice and teacher voice.

Classroom observations

Using a pro forma recording sheet a running commentary of teacher talk and incidence of student talk is recorded capturing as much as possible the actual words the teacher speaks (15-20 minutes). Student voice is collected through individual response to set questions, recorded in most instances against the student’s name on the recording sheet. Follow up prompts were used at the discretion of the adviser in order to elicit further information directly linked to the purpose of the question. Teachers were invited to select students that they might have an interest in knowing about their perceptions – this was also an intentional step to ensure teachers did not feel threatened by the process but could see that there would be benefits for them at the outset.

Students were asked:

1. What do you think you are learning?

2. Why do you think you are learning this?

3. How will you know you have learnt it?

4. How does your teacher help you with…?

5. When you are learning, how might discussion give you a chance to think and express your ideas?

6. How do you think listening to other people’s ideas helps you with your own ideas?

7. How have I helped you to think?

The first four questions are asked to set the scene and establish a context. It is the last three questions which we have designed specifically to investigate the key research question. We interviewed 120 students ranging from 5 to 15 years of age in seven different schools. To this point the responses of students of different ages have not been analyzed in a comparative way—this might provide information for a different research question.

All the data was gathered through written recording and was used in the teacher interviews to delve into the thinking and knowledge of the teachers and also to reduce the possibility of researcher bias in interpretation of observations. Validity of each component of the data is strengthened by the triangulated collection, analysis and interpretation

Discussions with teachers

Follow up discussions were held with each teacher where the responses of the three or four students interviewed were examined. There were forty teachers in this large sample. Through this reflective dialogue, teachers have the opportunity to view and reflect on their practice and relate it to the students’ perceptions as recorded. Teachers can then plan actions they will take to further improve their practice based on the data collected and shared. They focus specifically on what they could do differently in their practice. These actions become the focus for the next classroom observation.

Thirty percent of these classrooms observations were repeated twice within a six month period. These teachers discussed with us the changes they have made in their practice and the impacts they are noticing. The discussion was guided by two questions.

1. What have you been deliberately doing?

2. What are you noticing for your self and the students?

For various reasons not all teachers and students in the first phase of this inquiry have yet been visited a second time. This process is ongoing as it is built into our work and is informing our practice and that of the teachers we work with.

Links to literature and data collation.

This inquiry draws on research into metacognition, thinking and dialogue (Alexander, 2005; Costa, 1991, 2001; Flutter & Rudduck, 2004; McGuiness et al, 2005; Mercer, 2000), the discipline of noticing by teachers (Mason,2002), feedback for learning theories (Askew & Lodge, 2000), and positioning of students in classrooms (Askew & Lodge, 2000; Flutter & Rudduck, 2004). In the light of our work, inquiry into how talking can create opportunities for students to think and express their ideas supports teachers and students to understand the importance of dialogue. The original meaning of dialogue is the sharing of ideas and meaning, to enable insights not attainable individually (Senge, as cited in Carnell, 2000). Dialogue for the purpose of this research is defined as talk through which meaning is mutually constructed. It should be thoughtful, reflective and focused on evoking and exploring understanding (Black and Wiliam, 1998).

In considering how dialogue can create opportunity for students to think and express their ideas we referred to literature about different types of thinking and talk. The term metacognition refers to the ability to think about one’s own thinking on which learning is predicated (Flutter & Rudduck, 2004). There is general agreement in the literature that has guided us, that metacognition means thinking about our thinking or learning or “the ability to know what we don’t know” (Costa, 1991, p.143). “We can evidence if students are becoming more aware of how they think when they can explain the processing in their head sequentially, describe what data is missing and their plans for producing it” (Costa, 1992). The process of planning, monitoring, redirecting and evaluating was evident in comments that students made in regards to what they have been learning, what they need to learn, and how the teachers helps them.

Alexander has propounded the need for a pedagogical repertoire where learning talk is as important as organisational interaction and teaching talk. Learning talk includes the ability to narrate, explain, instruct, ask different types of questions, analyze and solve problems, speculate and imagine, explore and evaluate ideas, discuss, argue, reason, justify and negotiate. Together with these he lists four contingent abilities; to listen, be receptive to alternative viewpoints, think about what they hear and give others time to think, as vital if students are to gain full potential of talking with others. These abilities, according to Costa, are indicators of flexibility in thinking. Students who are becoming more flexible in their thinking can be heard considering, expressing and paraphrasing alternative points of view. Clarification and often expansion of their own ideas and thinking is apparent when students consider what others think.

While this literature supports the understanding that learners need to be effective learners, it also discusses the notion of learning partnerships within teaching and learning models.