Classroom dialogue

Howe, C., & Abedin, M. (2013). Classroom dialogue: A systematic review across four decades of research. Cambridge Journal of Education, 22(2), 1-32. doi: 10.1080/ 0305764X.2013.786024

Background

It is widely believed that classroom dialogue is crucial for effective teaching. However, it is unclear which patterns of classroom dialogue support student learning and which factors influence student participation in classroom dialogue.

Aims

The aim of the paper was to examine how classroom dialogue was organized and whether some modes of organization were more beneficial than others.

Sample

The authors selected 225 studies published between 1972 and 2011 concerning classroom dialogue in primary and secondary schools.

Method

The samples of dialogue in 219 of the studies were recorded while lessons were in progress. The remaining six studies examined reflections about dialogue. In the first two decades, field coding was used to code functions and subject matter. Observers used coding sheets for ticking instances within fixed periods. In the middle two decades, audio recording was the most popular method. After 1992, video recording was also increasingly used.

Findings

The authors found that much more research had been conducted on the organization of classroom dialogue than on whether some modes of organization benefitted students more than others. Classroom dialogue was found to revolve around teacher-student Initiation-Response-Feedback (IRF). Teacher pedagogic style and small-group activities played a role in ensuring more student-student interaction. The distribution of student participation in classroom dialogue was also dependent on factors such as the gender, ethnicity and history of attainment of those students. The studies reviewed showed that boys were more likely than girls to contribute to classroom dialogue and that high attainers were shown to contribute disproportionately more frequently to classroom dialogue through both responses and initiations. White and African-Caribbean students also engaged more often in classroom dialogue than Asian students. Very few studies investigated the relationship between classroom dialogue and the learning of curriculum content. The three studies that did were not able to give a clear message. Nine studies that examined the relationship between small-group dialogue and curriculum content found that students benefitted from dialogues that involved exchanges of views. A common theme found across the studies is that teachers found it difficult to provide students with the freedom to explore their ideas because they had to deliver curriculum goals.

Implications

The author recommended that quantitative methods should be used to investigate whether some modes of classroom dialogue are more beneficial than others so that recommendations could be made regarding good dialogic practice.

Original article retrieved from Talyor and Francis.