Identifying quality in classroom talk

Westgate, D., & Hughes, M. (1997). Identifying ‘quality’ in classroom talk: An enduring research task. Language and Education, 11(2), 125-139. doi: 10.1080/09500789708666723.

Background

The authors noted the increasing political pressure in the UK at the time of writing to evaluate education and educational practice on results ‘using student outcomes to keep teachers up to the mark’. They felt that this emphasis on quantitative rather than qualitative evidence put in danger the progress that had been made in looking at the quality of talk in the classroom.

Aims

The paper discusses the possible ways of identifying the quality of classroom talk.

Sample

The paper includes four extracts of actual talk from classrooms to illustrate some of the possible problems and solutions to identifying quality classroom talk.

Method

The authors discuss some of the possible approaches to identifying the features of classroom talk and what constitutes quality.

Findings

The paper lists possibilities rather than comes up with findings. The writers note, for example, the developments with regard to the Initiation/ Response/ Evaluation sequence initially identified in the 1970’s. Many have noted that this pervasive sequence tends to limit students to short snippets in the total classroom conversation. More recently, some theoreticians have suggested that, used well, the sequence can be used to develop a more fruitful classroom conversation. The problem is then the identification of the identifiable qualities of good classroom talk and the approaches that can be used to encourage it. However, they do suggest that there is mounting evidence of communicative and cognitive benefits for students when teachers share their ideas with the students and encourage or allow them to add their own. They note that children tend to benefit more from being taken seriously as conversational partners by adults than from adult attention to the forms of their talk.

Implications

The authors feel that the question of learner-talk is relevant to a range of current issues including the differential in participation in education between boys and girls. Because of such concerns, questions with regard to listening and speaking cannot be left to the English classroom but need to be considered across the curriculum. This has become an even greater concern as communication, collaborative learning and group problem-solving have become more established as transferable skills demanded by employers.

Original article retrieved from EBSCOHost.