Classroom talk in secondary social studies

Kramer-Dahl, A., Teo, P., & Chia, A. (2007). Supporting knowledge construction and literate talk in Secondary Social Studies. Linguistics and Education, 18(2), 167-199. doi: 10.1016/j.linged.2007.07.003

Background

The early years of secondary education make new language demands on students with a variety of subjects taught by a variety of teachers. Some students come with limited ‘textual repertoires’, ways of approaching texts learnt from the cultural milieu in which they live. Moreover, the syllabus documents provide little support for teachers in relating content learning to new language and literacy requirements. As a result, they have difficulty helping students become critical readers of texts.

Aims

The article shows how one teacher of Social Studies in a Singapore school, using a framework called Expanding Textual Repertoires (ETR), was able to help students engage both in higher order thinking while reading texts and in reciprocal talk about their learning.

Sample

The data were from a much larger intervention study with 18 teachers in three suburban schools in Singapore. This teacher taught the lowest of three classes observed in her school. She was observed for two 60-min lessons and two 90-min lessons over two weeks.

Method

The researchers worked with all the teachers on a unit they had previously observed being taught. Together, they analysed the flow of the unit activities and the response of students. The review used three dimensions: the intellectual quality demanded, the way learning was connected to other topics, subjects and home life, and the explicit instructions on what was required of the students.

Findings

Before the intervention, teachers lectured from the textbook and then worked through the materials in the accompanying workbook. The students’ learning was then checked through standard closed questions, and a final writing activity based on a previous year’s examination question.

For this teacher, the intervention led to a new approach to the unit on Singapore’s Population Policies. She started from the textbook but introduced extra material, getting different students to become primary knowers of policies in other countries or of how policies affected different groups. These students then presented what they had learned to the class. All this led to two final activities, a class replica of a government feedback session and an individual task in which students suggested fine-tuning to the government policy.

Implications

With careful planning and understanding, teachers of different subjects could plan lessons that involve students in critical reviews of their course content.

Original article retrieved through Google Scholar.