Teacher and Student Connecting Episodes and Reasoning Discourse Moves: Consistent, Contingent, Dialogic Practices

• In Event: 61.086 - Roundtable Session 21
  In Roundtable Session: 61.086-9 - Understanding and Promoting Student Reasoning Across the Content Areas

Abstract

Classroom oracy practices mediate student learning. When students participate in classroom conversations and connect new subject content to their prior knowledge, they learn more deeply. However, not all teachers cultivate the potential of student exploratory talk and accountable reasoning to further student learning (Author 1, 2011; Barnes, 2008; Michaels, O'Connor, Hall, & Resnick, 2010).
Reasoning words are linguistic features associated with productive, exploratory classroom talk. They indicate individual cognitive and metacognitive activity and are sought-after contributions to the classroom collective as conversants speculate, link a claim to an assertion, and prompt similar reasoning in others. Teacher and student uses of reasoning words facilitate a conversation among a multiplicity of voices, perspectives, and resources in the classroom.
Sociocultural discourse analyses (Mercer, 2004) acknowledge the iterative, reflexive, and accretive process of teaching and learning across time, lessons and data. Each level of analysis informs and directs the next (see Figure 1). Current analysis focuses on the lexical density, patterning, and attendant discourse markers for teacher’s and students’ use of reasoning words across two lessons with the least vs. the most student critical turns [SCT]. These two lessons (87 minutes) illustrate a range of student talk practices in a literature-based instructional unit in a 4th/5th grade English language learning pull-out class (6 students). We examine how particular reasoning words (Wegerif, Mercer, & Dawes, 1999) relate to classroom learning (see Table 1 for word definitions and examples). Reasoning words were coded for modeling, connecting to reasoning, or cueing and prompting reasoning; questioning (display-authentic, convergent-divergent), and intertextuality (shared textual reference, close reading, personal connections).
Three research questions guided analyses:

What discourse patterns are associated with teacher and student use of reasoning words across two lessons?

How do students reason within and across these lessons?

How do teacher oracy practices [e.g., questions and use of reasoning words] introduce, link, support and deepen student reasoning?

We conducted three analyses within and across lessons: 1) teacher and student frequencies of reasoning words 2) statistical discourse analysis (SDA, (Author 2, 2008) 3) close discourse analysis of connect-reasoning episodes.

Findings
1. Reasoning word frequencies show similarities and differences across lessons and across teacher and students (see Table 2)
2. SDA’s explanatory model shows that during connect episodes, any reasoning word is more likely and specific reasoning words are more likely (consistent across lessons; see Figure 2)
3. Close discourse analysis explains the connect-reasoning relationship:
a) Teachers and students both listening and communicating (recasting, revoicing, double-purposed utterances, contingent questions)
b) Teacher flexibility and persistence (shifting agenda in least SCT lesson, returning to text in most SCT lesson)
c) Student comfort level and willingness to take risks (generous sharing about family and home, guessing and exploring, correcting and interrupting the teacher, taking up teacher questions)

This paper provides contextual anchoring for student reasoning and argues for a dialogic instructional stance. We show that connect episodes are linked to reasoning; illustrate student connect-reasoning; and explicate specific and consistent ways in which the teacher directs, supports and asks for more student reasoning and connecting.

Authors

• Maureen P. Boyd, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• Ming Ming Chiu, Purdue University