The Instructional Conversation Model: Raising Latino Student Achievement From a Cultural-Historical Perspective

• In Event: Exploring Best Practices to Promote English Language Learner Achievement in the New South: The Instructional Conversation Pedagogy

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Instructional Conversation model and establish its fit with the cultural-historical framework that orients all work conducted by the University of Georgia’s Center for Latino Achievement and Success in Education (CLASE).

Theoretical Lens: The Instructional Conversation is a culturally responsive pedagogy which has been found in multiple quasi-experimental trials to raise the achievement of marginalized learners (Saunders, 1999; Saunders & Goldenberg, 1999; Yamauchi et al, 2000). It is defined as a regularly-scheduled teacher-led communication between small groups of students with a clear instructional goal. Instructional conversation (IC) pedagogy is based on five standards that guide classroom instruction. These standards are: joint productive activity (teacher and students producing together), language development (developing language and literacy across the curriculum), contextualization (making meaning: connecting school to students’ lives), challenging activities (teaching complex thinking), and instructional conversation (teaching through conversation). The instructional conversation standard is the keystone of the pedagogy. All other standards build on one another and culminate in the implementation of the instructional conversation standard.

Research questions: How does the Instructional Conversation model theoretically fit the cultural-historical model of CLASE’s educational programming in North Georgia?

Methods/data: This is a theoretical paper, establishing the connections and fit between cultural history theory and the Instructional Conversation pedagogy.

Results & Conclusions:
CLASE’s research is framed within a cultural-historical framework for understanding human development (Vygotsky, 1978). That is, CLASE’s framework emphasizes the ways in which Latino students’ higher mental functions, cognition and emotion are socially constructed through ELLs’ formal and informal lived educational experiences from a lifespan perspective.
The five CREDE standards which form the backbone of the Instructional Conversation pedagogy are derived largely from Vygotsky’s (1978) learning theory. Both recognize the social construction of knowledge, and the IC is specifically formulated to help facilitate learning environments which build on the cultural backgrounds of the students involved.
Scholarly significance: While the Instructional Conversation pedagogy has been used to build on the cultural knowledge of marginalized learners to raise their reading achievement, what CLASE is doing in applying this framework among a growing Latino student population in the New South is novel, and builds solidly on cognitive and affective research with ELLs and other groups.

References:
Saunders, W.M. (1999). Improving literacy achievement for english learners in transitional bilingual programs. Educational Research and Evaluation, 5(4), 345-381.
Saunders, W.M., & Goldenberg, C. (1999). Effects of instructional conversations and literature logs on limited-and fluent-english-proficient students' story comprehension and thematic understanding. The Elementary School Journal, 277-301.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher mental process. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Yamauchi, L., Estrada, P., Tharp, R., & Dalton, S. (2000). Teaching transformed: Achieving excellence, fairness, inclusion, and harmony. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Authors

• Pedro R. Portes, University of Georgia

• Rolf Straubhaar, University of Georgia

• Paula Jean Mellom, University of Georgia