Transcript Slide 1

It’s Good to Talk
Bradford Teachers’ Project
Day 1:
Talking, Listening, Learning
Aims of the Day
Exploring how talk can support children in shared thinking and
collaborative learning, in particular:

The findings of the Primary Review on Effective Pedagogy;

How talk relates to thinking and learning;

Different kinds of talk and different purposes for talk;

Using talk to scaffold learning;

Talking together – collaborative talk.
Teacher Bashing is not OK!

Teaching is a highly complex activity, requiring hundreds of microdecisions to be made every day, many of which are unique to that
day and that situation

The way teachers talk with children is deeply embedded in our
culture and is hard to change.

Critiquing classroom talk and looking to how to improve it
acknowledges the professional capability of teachers; it is not a
criticism of teachers.
Effective
Teaching and Learning
Ten Principles of Effective Pedagogy
1.
Effective teaching and learning equip learners for life in its
broadest sense.
2.
Effective teaching and learning engage with valued forms of
knowledge.
3.
Effective teaching and learning recognise the importance of prior
experience and learning.
4.
Effective teaching and learning require the teacher to scaffold
learning.
5.
Effective teaching and learning need assessment to be congruent
with learning.
Ten Principles of Effective Pedagogy
6.
Effective teaching and learning promote the active engagement of
the learner
7.
Effective teaching and learning foster both individual and social
processes and outcomes
8.
Effective teaching and learning recognise the significance of
informal learning
9.
Effective teaching and learning depend on teacher learning
10.
Effective teaching and learning demand consistent policy
frameworks with support for teaching and learning as their primary
focus.
Bloom’s Taxonomy
evaluation
synthesis
analysis
application
comprehension
knowledge
COGNITIVE
internalise
values
organise ideas
value ideas
respond to ideas
receive ideas
naturalisation
articulation
develop precision
manipulate
imitate
The Importance of Talk:
Talking and Learning
Talk for Learning
‘Language is an integral part of most learning, and oral language in
particular has a key role in classroom teaching and learning.
Children’s creativity, understanding and imagination can be engaged
and fostered by discussion and interaction. In their daily lives,
children use speaking and listening to solve problems, speculate,
share ideas, make decisions and reflect on what is important.’
DfES, 2003
Talk for Learning
‘…far more attention needs to be given, right from the start, to
promoting speaking and listening skills to make sure that children
build a good stock of words, learn to listen attentively and speak
clearly and confidently. Speaking and listening, together with
reading and writing, are prime communication skills that are central
to children’s intellectual, social and emotional development.’
The Rose Report 2006
Talking and Thinking
‘Real concepts are impossible without words, and thinking in
concepts does not exist beyond verbal thinking. That is why the
central moment in concept formation … is a specific use of words as
functional tools.’
Vygotsky 1978
‘Thought is not merely expressed in words – it comes into existence
through words’
Corden 2000
Learning through Talk
Talk allows us to::

formulate ideas for the first time,

reformulate our ideas so that our thinking and understanding is
clarified, focused or modified;

communicate our ideas through interaction and feedback;

reflect upon our learning through talk
Howe 1992
Learning through Talk
Talk as a tool for learning 
generates thought;

puts thought into words;

crystallises ideas;

clarifies understanding;

creates intellectual knowledge;

develops social knowledge.
European Classrooms
English Classrooms
more concerned with cognitive
more concerned with affective and
development
social development
problems and mistakes are as
strong orientation towards correct
important as correct answers
answers
mistakes discussed publicly
mistakes dealt with privately
feedback is learning-focused, not
feedback often framed as praise or
praise or criticism
criticism
no fear of public exposure
concern about public ‘humiliation’
Talk in English Classrooms
Planning of classroom talk tends to:

view talk as a means of learning rather than an object of learning in its
own right;

fail to integrate oracy with literacy;

not fully exploit the learning potential of oral teaching;

focus much more on written modes of assessment and thus misses
important opportunities of oral tasks for assessment for learning;

use forms of teaching and classroom organisation which militate against
the concentration, engagement and sustained interaction on which
cognitively-effective talk depends.
Alexander (N Yorks Talk for Learning Project Report)
Talk in English Classrooms
Classroom interaction is dominated by:

closed questions inviting recall, limited ‘wait’ time for pupil thinking,

brief answers which deliver information rather than access
speculation and problem-solving,

feedback which praises and supports but does not diagnose and
inform,

many questions from teachers but few from pupils,

little systematic building upon answers in order to construct coherent
lines of reasoning and enquiry,

an emphasis on the social and affective functions of talk at the
expense of the cognitive.
Adapted from Robin Alexander
Scaffolding

The ‘temporary, but essential, nature of the mentor’s assistance as
the learner advances in knowledge and understanding’ Maybin,
Mercer and Stierer

The step taken to reduce the degree of freedom in carrying out
some task so that the child can concentrate on the difficult skill she
is in the process of acquiring. Mercer 1995

The lending of an expert’s knowledge to learners in order to support
and shape learning.’ Goodwin 2001

The reduction of the learner’s scope for failure in the task. Mercer
2001
Scaffolding
Scaffolding involves:

activating and maintaining the learner’s interest;

(crucially) reducing the number of choices available to the child;

keeping the child on task;

highlighting critical aspects of the task;

controlling their frustration;

demonstrating the whole process to them.
(Wood, Bruner and Ross, 1976; Wood and Middleton, 1975)
Key Principles of Scaffolding

Scaffolding occurs with assistance

Scaffolding is focused

Scaffolding avoids failure

Scaffolding is temporary
Developing Effective
Collaborative Talk
Collaborative Talk

Exploratory talk where thinking aloud and thinking together to create
new ideas

Disagreement and differences of opinion are the source of new
learning

A spirit of enquiry supports a quest to understand or to resolve

New knowledge is created together which would not have been
created alone

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts!
Collaborative Talk

Collaborative: we learn with other people (socially constructed
knowledge)

Critical: participants engage with their own ideas and others in a
constructively critical manner

Challenging: ideas and opinions are challenged, with evidence,
reasoning and hypothesis

Consensual: the talk moves towards a consensus agreement, or
an agreement on the grounds of difference