Producing Multiple-Response Sequences During Whole-Class Talk in the Early Years of Schooling

• In Event: 15.034 - Achieving Educational Change: Understanding Daily Practice and Developing New Methodologies

Abstract

The Initiation-Response-Feedback (IRF) sequence dominates whole-class talk and results in limited interactional opportunities for students. This article examines multiple-response sequences identified during a practitioner action research project when a teacher set out to change interactions between herself and her young students. Conversation analysis of sequences establishes ways initiating turns by the teacher led to multiple turns by students, how teacher turns were sometimes inserted into multiple responses, and how the teacher finally closed down multiple responses. Discussion addresses design of teacher turns, students’ orientations to the teacher during multiple responses, and trouble that led to resumption of an IRF pattern of interaction. The study establishes possibilities for increasing young students’ participation in whole-class talk.

Authors

• Christina R. Davidson, Charles Sturt University

• Christine J Edwards-Groves, Charles Sturt University