Teacher-Student Dialogue in Large Class Teaching: Does It Have Impact on Students' Scientific Reasoning?

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 19
  In Roundtable Session: Dialogue and Interactions for Science Learning

Abstract

This study aims to understand whether the benefits shown in small-group study for scientific reasoning during teacher-student conversation are applicable to the whole-class discussion in large class teaching. Two science teachers and 66 grade 9 students in Shanghai participated in the study. 271 turns of teacher-student dialogue were encoded into different types and levels. Using Chi-square test and correspondence analysis, this study revealed that: (a) teacher discourses can significantly affect the scientific level of students' oral language; (b) teacher discourses of calling for explanation and presenting key knowledge are closely related to scientific reasoning, meanwhile eliciting students' knowledge, asking for relevant phenomenon and procedural question may scaffold students’ oral language from everyday reasoning to scientific reasoning.

Authors

• Nan Zhao, Qingpu Lansheng Fudan School

• Xinning Pei, East China Normal University

• Danxuan Qiao, East China Normal University