Combining In-Class Micro-Blogging and Jointly Created Talk Rules to Enhance Student Participation in Classroom Dialogue

• In Event: Technology-Enhanced Dialogic Instruction

Abstract

Objectives and Framework

In this presentation, we introduce an approach to technology-enhanced dialogic instruction where we combine a novel in-class microblogging tool (Appendix C), with jointly created rules for talk in class to enhance student participation in class dialogues based on the ‘Thinking Together’ programme (Mercer, 2019).

Microblogging refers to the posting of short messages in a shared digital environment. Studies on microblogging in education indicate that microblogging can get more students to take part in conversations and in collaborations (Gao et al., 2012; Mercier et al., 2015; Ludvigsen et al., 2019). However, technology-mediated communication also poses new challenges and can be unproductive because social interactions tend to be different in these spaces.

We examined how microblogs of 140-500 characters could act as digital knowledge artefacts to i) widen a ‘dialogic space’ (Wegerif, 2010) in the classroom by exploring a wide range of different perspectives, and ii) deepen the space by problematising ideas and synthesising positions. Importantly, the alignment of the use of the tool to the development of a dialogic classroom pedagogy was central to the research intentions and to the further collaborative development of the tool through and beyond the project.
We ask: In a combination of in-class microblogging and jointly created talk rules, what characterised participation across classroom dialogues and what emerged as conditions for productive student participation?

Methods and Data

Video data from 52 lessons across secondary school classrooms in Norway and England, field notes, and electronic logs from student and teacher interactions with microblogging were subjected to an initial iterative process of analysis by the whole team (Authors, 2022). This involved an examination of identifying dialogic properties where we focused on: (1) interactivity (Mortimer & Scott, 2003), (2) dialogue ‘move’ coding drawing on the CDAS scheme (Howe et al., 2019); and (3) ‘on-task’ microblogging engagement, examined through electronic logs of activity.

Findings and Significance

Elaborations and invitations to elaborate were the most common dialogue moves. 97% of the microblogging blogs were on task. Short blogs created by the students in response to a question from the teacher were referred to, read aloud, elaborated, challenged, and revised. Further, frequent shifts between group and whole class dialogues seemed to assist ideas to travel between groups and among the whole class.

Three interdependent conditions characterising productive interactional processes were identified: i) the intermingling of oral and written dialogue, ii) co-creation and sharing; and iii). development of a dialogic classroom ethos. The latter supports previous research in demonstrating the importance of creating a culture for inclusive participation. The former two suggest that the teachers need to consider the interaction between digital tools and classroom dialogue when they create and guide students’ idea exchange across individual, group and whole class work, thereby widening participation and facilitating the creation of a co-constructive and inclusive classroom culture.

This study contributes significantly to researchers’ work in presenting modes of analysis and concepts that might be drawn upon by others as they consider the interaction between digital tools and classroom dialogue.

Authors

• Ingvill Rasmussen, University of Oslo
  Presenting Author

• Paul T. Warwick, University of Cambridge
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ole Smørdal, University of Oslo
  Non-Presenting Author