Classroom Discourse Practices Research Articles

How is the design of teacher professional development related to teacher learning about classroom discourse? Findings from a one-year intervention study

ABSTRACT Promoting teachers to lead classroom discourse effectively is a relevant topic for teacher professional development worldwide. This study compares the impacts of two teacher professional development programmes that aim to support teachers in their classroom discourse practices. In one programme, an adaptive and practitioner-led approach was applied, while in the other programme, a more specified and direct instructional approach was implemented. In a one-year intervention study, we investigated how both designs affected teacher knowledge about classroom discourse and teacher beliefs. Both programmes were filmed, and the implementation of their design features was video-analysed. The effects on teacher knowledge and beliefs were measured via self-reporting and a knowledge test. The results show no differences in teachers’ knowledge acquisition over time. However, the adaptive-to-practice programme was significantly more successful in affecting teacher beliefs. The findings are discussed in light of further research and practical implications for teacher professional development.

Reimagining Discourse in the Classroom

AbstractClassroom discourse serves an important role in language, literacy, and other content area learning in early childhood and elementary classrooms. In this article, the authors define discourse as it relates to teaching and learning and overview the background of research on the topic. Then classroom discourse is reconsidered in the current context, including the field's growing understanding of the importance of knowledge for literacy, increasingly diverse student populations, and the rising prevalence of technology for instruction. Two traditional classroom discourse practices, sharing time and small‐group discussions, are revisited with these considerations. Suggestions are presented for how educators may update their approach to facilitating these types of discourse activities.

Scrutinizing two Finnish teachers’ instructional rationales and perceived tensions in enacting student participation in mathematical discourse

This study employs interviews and observations to investigate instructional rationales of two purposefully sampled teachers with divergent classroom discourse practices in Swedish-speaking Finnish lower secondary mathematics classrooms. Studies on classroom discourse often point to beliefs and contextual factors shaping teachers’ discourse practices. Less is known about how tensions perceived by teachers can influence the instructional rationale in a context such as Finland, known for traditional and teacher-centered mathematics instruction. Findings of this study suggest that these Finnish teachers’ instructional rationales for differently enacted classroom-discourse practices are grounded in similar concerns of student needs, related to student learning, well-being, and equity. One of the teachers perceived a tension between these concerns and mathematics education literature’s ideals of classroom discourse and avoided engaging students in discussions other than in tightly teacher-led format. The other embraced the idea of discourse as facilitating learning and created methods for giving all students equal access to the perceived benefits of mathematical discussions. The identified tensions of student learning, well-being, and equity can be used as guiding principles in developing teachers’ discourse practices in professional development in Finland and beyond.

Opening ‘windows’ for teachers to change classroom discourse

Abstract Appreciating student contributions and providing feedback to students are key features of productive classroom discourse. In addition, students' self-concept of ability is a crucial predictor for verbal contributions students make in teacher-student interactions. This case study explores how three teachers improved their classroom discourse practices by participating in a video-based teacher professional development program. In particular, it seems like the students with an initially low self-concept of ability benefited from the changes in the productive discourse as the teachers seemed to have gained a greater awareness of them. These case analyses are promising for further investigation of the complexity of changes in classroom environments.

Speaking or not speaking as a cultural practice: analysis of mathematics classroom discourse in Shanghai, Seoul, and Melbourne

The benefits of engaging students in mathematics classroom dialogue have been highlighted (and advocated) in a large body of research studies, most of which were conducted in Western cultural contexts. Whether such research advocacy can be extended legitimately to encompass practice in classrooms situated in other cultural contexts, such as East Asian classrooms, remains a matter for empirical investigation. In this paper, we problematize the assumptions underpinning this advocacy of “mathematical dialogue in classrooms” by revisiting several conceptualizations of the role of language in mathematics classrooms and by considering particular forms of communication in classrooms often undervalued in the research literature. To support such problematization, we draw upon an analysis of classroom discourse in nine classrooms situated in Shanghai, Seoul, and Melbourne from the Learner’s Perspective Study. The results of the analysis demonstrate some interesting variations in the extent to which the discursive practice of each classroom afforded or constrained the opportunities for students to speak mathematically, and its consequences for student learning as indicated by student mathematical fluency demonstrated in the post-lesson interviews. Such variations provide insight into the differences in inspirations and cultural values attached to particular types of mathematical performance. We argue that our theories should anticipate application in culturally differentiated settings and be sensitive to the constraints and affordance that culture might place on classroom discourse practices.

Investigating teachers’ appraisal of unexpected moments and underlying values: an exploratory case in the context of changing mathematics classroom discourse

This article provides an exploratory case study that examines what one teacher indicated as unexpected as she worked to become more purposeful about her classroom discourse practices. We found that she highlighted three areas as being unexpected: (1) aspects of lesson enactment; (2) characteristics of student learning and (3) her own intentionality or purposefulness. We interpret these instances through the lens of the systemic functional linguistics (SFL) appraisal framework in order to understand how she evaluates the instances she highlights and connect these instances to the literature on values in the teaching and learning of mathematics.

Developing teachers’ critical language awareness: A case study of guided participation

We explore the role of CLA in teacher development through a high school history teacher's understanding of disciplinary literacy (DL), and his classroom's discourse practices in DL lessons. A Critical Language Awareness (CLA) focus highlights how linguistic practices shape and are shaped by social relations of power. Disciplinary literacy, in this particular case of history, focuses on particular linguistic practices, which are valued in the field and help to understand the discipline as an interpretive community. In this paper, we investigate how CLA can be an effective tool in teacher development. We do this by tracking qualitative changes in the language he produces, we provide linguistic evidence of how a teacher develops a critical language awareness stance, which is ultimately used in classroom teacher talk. Our focus in this paper includes both what changed and how it changed, while the first part of our analysis highlights the qualitative changes in the way he conceptualized the lesson, the second part of the analysis focuses on the types of activities designed showing how his changing understanding translated into particular pedagogical actions; while the last part of the analysis focuses on the teacher's reflection of the designing and using DL lessons.

Discourse Practices in Inclusive Elementary Mathematics Classrooms

In this exploratory study, teachers’ use of standards-based, discourse practices and their students’ mathematics learning in inclusive elementary mathematics classrooms were examined. Two beginning teachers (one third-grade teacher, one fourth-grade teacher) and six students identified with disabilities or as low performing in mathematics participated in this study (three students from each classroom). Six classroom observations of teachers took place over 4 months focusing on a subset of indicators associated with Walshaw and Anthony’s framework of mathematics classroom discourse practices. Follow-up interviews were also conducted. Curriculum-based and state-accountability measures were collected on the six target students in these settings. Different patterns of student performance emerged across the two classrooms in which teachers were observed using different types and degrees of standards-based discourse practices during mathematics lessons. Findings suggest indicators of effective mathematics teaching in inclusive general education classrooms to be validated by future research efforts.

Language ideologies in English learner classrooms: critical reflections and the role of explicit awareness

This paper draws on fieldwork conducted over the course of one academic year in two urban high-school English learner (EL) classrooms located in the south-western part of the United States. As part of a larger interest in how language ideologies mediate classroom discourse practices, this paper analyses the role of awareness in language ideological (LI) inquiry, its methodological implications, as well as pedagogy in second language learning. Classroom surveys, observations and teacher interviews were conducted and analysed using content and discourse analysis. When probed for language issues within their classrooms and over their lives, students were able to articulate explicit awareness of how rules of language use mediated their lives. More importantly, they were able to articulate issues of status and difference vis a vis language which points to a critical view of LI inquiry. Teachers also expressed explicit rules regarding language use for instructional purposes. While explicit articulations of language ideologies were rare, especially within everyday classroom practices, they provide a valuable and necessary reference point for understanding the implicit ways in which language ideologies frame interactions within EL classrooms. This dimension enhances the empirical validity of LI inquiry in classroom settings.

“Noticing” as an Alternative Transfer of Learning Process

As transfer researchers have begun to investigate a broader range of phenomena, they have correspondingly put forward new processes to provide explanatory accounts for the occurrence of transfer. This move coincides with a call to acknowledge the contribution of social interactions, language, cultural artifacts, and normed practices to the generalization of learning. In this article, we posit “noticing” as a plausible transfer process and investigate both individual noticing and the social organization of noticing via the focusing framework. Specifically, we relate the nature of students' reasoning on transfer tasks with what students notice mathematically in classrooms when many sources of information compete for their attention, and then we account for noticing as socially situated in classroom discourse practices, features of mathematical tasks, and the nature of mathematical activity.

Feliciano Chimbutane: Rethinking Bilingual Education in Postcolonial Contexts

Chimbutane’s slim (170 pages) and readable text is an ethnographic study of bilingual education in Mozambique using research conducted in the country with the aim of answering the following questions: ‘‘How are views about the purpose and value of bilingual education in Mozambique manifested in bilingual classroom discourse practices? How do these discourse practices relate to the broader socio-historical context as well as to institutional and societal discourses about languages and bilingual education? How do the findings from the settings studied relate to other findings from similar settings…?’’ (4). Discursive practices were recorded in two primary schools comprising four classes in two different settings in Mozambique; teachers, students and community members were interviewed; and, questionnaires were administered. The methodology used to achieve these objectives included a combination of ethnography and discourse analysis, which was critically analysed based on the fact that ‘‘… speakers can opt to collude, challenge or transform the symbolic order’’ (7). A critical stance was deemed necessary as ‘‘… linguistic ethnography intersects with critical, interpretive approaches to bilingualism’’ (8). In the interest of ensuring that there had been no misinterpretation, the unorthodox step of allowing participants to view the transcripts and comment on conclusions reached was taken by the researcher. A chapter by chapter summary follows: Chapter one elucidates the methodology employed. Here linguistic ethnography was used to understand the nature of communicative practices in the classroom and how these practices affect and are affected by a wider spectrum of the community. The breadth of the sample is worth noting as it goes well beyond the classroom. As a speaker of both languages (Chagana and Choge), Chimbutane has an advantageous

Classroom Discourse and Discursive Practices in Higher Education in Tanzania

The paper problematises student writing as social practice from the perspective of lecturers’ discursive practices. The paper uses data from a major study at a higher learning institution in Tanzania to explore lecturers’ discursive practices and familiarity with the university orders of discourse including English medium of instruction, in unequal power relations with students, for whom English is a foreign language. The lecturers’ practices are scrutinised in terms of how they work against facilitating students’ access to the privileged literacy practices of the academia and how they serve to enact and sustain dominance in Tanzania's education system, with its monolingual orientation, which privileges Kiswahili in primary school and English in secondary and higher education.

The discourse of classroom interaction in Kenyan primary schools

This paper addresses the role of classroom discourse in supporting children’s learning in Kenyan primary schools. The discourse strategies of 27 teachers teaching English, mathematics and science across the primary phase were intensively studied using discourse analysis and semi‐structured interviews. A survey questionnaire (n = 359) was also used to explore teacher perceptions of classroom discourse practices. The findings revealed the dominance of teacher‐led recitation in which rote and repetition dominated the classroom discourse with little attention being paid to securing pupil understanding. The wider implications of the findings for improving the quality of classroom discourse in Kenyan primary schools are considered together with the need for further research into how the wider social order is influencing discourse practices in Kenyan primary schools.

Classroom Discourse Practices of a Deaf Teacher Using American Sign Language

This article describes the classroom discourse practices of an experienced Deaf teacher using American Sign Language (ASL) as the medium of instruction in a fifth-grade classroom in a residential school. The teacher is a native ASL user who has been teaching for more than thirty-five years. The analysis of three lessons illustrates the use of ASL linguistic features to encourage student participation. In constructing a teaching style using ASL, the teacher also employs discourse practices common among skilled teachers, regardless of the medium of instruction, such as maintaining a moderate level of control and selectively modeling na�ve questions. The teacher's ASL fluency and teaching experience interact to yield an effective strategy for increasing student involvement. Implications for classroom practice and suggestions for further research are included.

An Ethnography of Communication in Immersion Classrooms in Hungary

This study investigates the interface of recent macro- and microlevel changes in Hungary by examining transformations in educational discourse in the context of history lessons at secondary schools with English immersion (dual-language, or DL) programs. The macrolevel changes are linked to sociopolitical transformations in the late 1980s and the rejection of Soviet-oriented policies and the discourse of authoritarianism. Parallel microlevel changes have also surfaced in the innovative English-medium sections of some experimental DL schools. These changes have come about with the breakdown of a traditional, very demanding genre of oral assessment known as the feleles (recitation) and its replacement by short student lectures and other, more open-ended discussion activities. This ethnographic study explores the discursive constitution of English-medium classrooms and the socialization of students attending one progressive Eastern European secondary school into the use of a foreign language to discuss historical material. The research provides a contextualized analysis of classroom discourse practices by examining some of the sociocultural, linguistic, and academic knowledge structures that are integral to and instilled within one curricular area and school system in the wake of political and educational reform.