Basics of dialogic teaching
DIALOGIC TEACHING ESSENTIALS
Robin Alexander
University of Cambridge
1.
WHAT IS DIALOGIC TEACHING?
Dialogic teaching harnesses the power of talk to stimulate and extend pupilsʼ thinking and advance their learning and understanding. It helps the teacher more precisely to diagnose pupilsʼ needs, frame their learning tasks and assess their progress. It empowers the student for lifelong learning and active citizenship. Dialogic teaching is not just any talk. It is as distinct from the question-answer and listen-tell routines of traditional teaching as it is from the casual conversation of informal discussion. Thus:
Dialogic teaching is not the ʻspeaking and listeningʼ component of the teaching of national curriculum English under another name.
•
•
•
It attends as closely to the teacherʼs talk as to the pupilʼs.
It is a comprehensive approach to talk in teaching and learning across the whole curriculum.
It is grounded in research on the relationship between language, learning, thinking and understanding, and in observational evidence on what makes for truly effective teaching.
Dialogic teaching is not, or not only ʻcommunication skillsʼ
Dialogic teaching certainly aims to improve pupilsʼ powers of communication, but it aims to do much more than that.
Dialogic teaching is not a single set method of teaching.
•
•
•
•
2.
Dialogic teaching is an approach and a professional outlook rather than a specific method. It requires us to rethink not just the techniques we use but also the classroom relationships we foster, the balance of power between teacher and taught and the way we conceive of knowledge.
Dialogic teaching, like all good teaching, is grounded in evidence and principles.
And like all good teaching it draws on a broad repertoire of strategies and techniques.
The teacher draws on this repertoire in response to different educational purposes and contexts, the needs of different pupils, and the diverse character what
Robin Alexander
University of Cambridge
1.
WHAT IS DIALOGIC TEACHING?
Dialogic teaching harnesses the power of talk to stimulate and extend pupilsʼ thinking and advance their learning and understanding. It helps the teacher more precisely to diagnose pupilsʼ needs, frame their learning tasks and assess their progress. It empowers the student for lifelong learning and active citizenship. Dialogic teaching is not just any talk. It is as distinct from the question-answer and listen-tell routines of traditional teaching as it is from the casual conversation of informal discussion. Thus:
Dialogic teaching is not the ʻspeaking and listeningʼ component of the teaching of national curriculum English under another name.
•
•
•
It attends as closely to the teacherʼs talk as to the pupilʼs.
It is a comprehensive approach to talk in teaching and learning across the whole curriculum.
It is grounded in research on the relationship between language, learning, thinking and understanding, and in observational evidence on what makes for truly effective teaching.
Dialogic teaching is not, or not only ʻcommunication skillsʼ
Dialogic teaching certainly aims to improve pupilsʼ powers of communication, but it aims to do much more than that.
Dialogic teaching is not a single set method of teaching.
•
•
•
•
2.
Dialogic teaching is an approach and a professional outlook rather than a specific method. It requires us to rethink not just the techniques we use but also the classroom relationships we foster, the balance of power between teacher and taught and the way we conceive of knowledge.
Dialogic teaching, like all good teaching, is grounded in evidence and principles.
And like all good teaching it draws on a broad repertoire of strategies and techniques.
The teacher draws on this repertoire in response to different educational purposes and contexts, the needs of different pupils, and the diverse character what
Bibliography: Alexander, R.J. (1995) Versions of Primary Education, Routledge, chapter 4, pp 103-219. Alexander, R.J. (1992, revised and extended edition 1997) Policy and Practice in Primary Education: local initiative national agenda, Routledge. Alexander, R.J., Willcocks, J. and Nelson, N. (1996) ʻDiscourse, pedagogy ad the national curriculum: change and continuity in primary schoolsʼ, Research Papers in Education, 11(1), 81120. Alexander, R.J. (2008) Essays on Pedagogy, Routledge, chapters 5 and 6, pp 92-153, and appendix, pp 184-191. Alexander, R.J. (2009) ʻDe lʼusage de parole en classe: une comparaison internationaleʼ, Revue Internationale dʼÉducation, 50, pp 35-48. Alexander, R.J. (2008) Education for All, the Quality Imperative and the Problem of Pedagogy (CREATE Research Monograph 20), 50 pp, Universities of Sussex and London, with the