What Is the Value of Classroom Talk?

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This symposium brings together researchers whose work focuses on the role that classroom talk plays in influencing student learning. It is argued that the indiscriminate enthusiasm about the purported benefits of classroom dialogue continues despite the arguable inconclusiveness of the relevant empirical studies. Each paper reports substantive research and utilizes this to identify specific conditions where classroom talk can be conducive to or impede student learning. In combination, the four papers address the question: "Under what conditions and in what form is classroom talk likely to be of educational value?" The symposium examines available research evidence regarding the value of particular forms of student classroom talk, extends the current thinking on classroom discourse and suggests implications for classroom practice.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Language and Social Processes

Chair

• Man Ching Esther Chan, The University of Melbourne

Papers

• Students Speaking Mathematics: Practices and Consequences for Mathematics Classrooms in Different Countries - David J. Clarke, University of Melbourne; Lihua Xu, Deakin University; Vivien Wan, University of Melbourne

• Analyzing the Educational Value of Classroom Dialogue: Expert Perspectives and Conditions for Student Learning - Sara Hennessy, University of Cambridge; Neil McKay Mercer, University of Cambridge; Christine Howe, University of Cambridge; Maria Vrikki, University of Cambridge; Lisa Wheatley, University of Cambridge

• Academic Talk During Cooperative, Inquiry-Based Science in Year 6 Classrooms - Robyn Margaret Gillies, The University of Queensland

• Learning-Teaching Agreement as a Condition for Dialogical Learning - Anna Sfard, University of Haifa; Man Ching Esther Chan, The University of Melbourne

Discussant

• Richard Lehrer, Vanderbilt University