Investigating educational dialogue: Variations of dialogue amount and quality among different subjects between early primary and secondary school classrooms

Abstract

To support student learning throughout their school journey, it is important to investigate the authentic state of educational dialogue both in early primary and secondary school to map the potential variations concerning dialogue. The present study examined educational dialogue in early primary school and secondary school in literacy, mathematics and science lessons. Video-recorded classroom lessons (n = 115 in both grades) of Grade 2 primary school teachers (n = 50) and Grade 9 subject teachers (n = 36) were analysed in terms of the amount, duration, and quality of episodes of educational dialogue. Educational dialogues were found to be typically longer in Grade 9 than in Grade 2. In terms of the quality of educational dialogue, teacher-initiated dialogue of moderate quality occurred more in Grade 9 classrooms, whereas teacher-initiated dialogue of high quality was observed more in Grade 2 classrooms. In Grade 2, both the amount and quality of dialogue varied across subjects, whereas in Grade 9, variation concerning specific subjects was scant. The findings contribute to prior research by suggesting differences in several aspects of educational dialogue between early primary and secondary school. These variations should be considered when supporting students' learning and participation through educational dialogue in different developmental phases and in different subjects.