Student's vocal participation trajectories in whole-class discussions during teacher professional development

Abstract

Research studies have long shown that dialogic classroom interactions can have a positive impact on student learning. Despite this, in practice, monologic classroom discussions still predominate. This comparative scarcity of dialogic classroom discussions is linked to the considerable challenges inherent in cultivating them, both for teachers and their students. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the extent to which, during a one-year teacher professional development program, students' vocal participation in whole-class discussions can be successfully fostered. As data material, we used videotaped classroom discussions of six classes (three mathematics and three history classes) from pre-, post-, and delayed post-test intervention lessons, as well as from three practice phases of the training. The discussions were evaluated using quantitative analyses and content analysis. In all six classes, the pre-post-test comparison revealed an increase in students' talk share. In four of the six classes, more students participated after the intervention than before. The type of student contributions changed in all classes: The students more often justified their contributions and referred to other students' contributions. The insights gained regarding the mostly non-linear progression of individual developments, and regarding subject-based differences, yield useful hints for the design of professional development formats.