Dialogic Talk During Collaborative Learning

Abstract

Abstract The purpose of this chapter is to discuss the role of dialogic talk in classrooms and its capacity to promote students’ engagement, problem-solving, and learning. Understanding the role of dialogic talk in promoting student thinking and learning is critically important if teachers are to use this information to create environments where students feel supported, able to contest others’ ideas, consider alternative proposals, and integrate experiences with new knowledge and understandings. Collaborative learning experiences need to be intellectually challenging, provide opportunities for students to cooperate and constructively discuss challenging topics, integrate past experiences with new knowledge and understandings, and help students to learn how to monitor and regulate their own learning. The teacher’s role during these exchanges is to mediate the rules of discourse by steering, encouraging, and refereeing students’ discussions to help them understand the relationship between the language they use in different situations and the behaviors expected. This may include challenging children’s reasons and explanations, or paraphrasing students’ attempts to articulate their thoughts as they guide them to think more deeply about issues under discussion. Ensuring that students have access to the linguistic tools or ways of talking that are needed to enable them to participate in these dialogic exchanges is critically important if they are to reap the benefits widely attributed to this approach to learning and teaching. This chapter discusses three different types of linguistic tools that teachers can utilize to promote dialogic exchanges, understanding, and learning.