Classroom Talk Research Articles

AI-Driven Classroom Conversations: Revolutionizing Education 5.0 for Enhanced Student Engagement in Speaking Skills

This study examines how modern education uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to improve student engagement and speaking skills. This study emphasizes the importance of tailored learning experiences and the potential of AI to transform language learning in the context of Education 5.0. The research seeks to fill the gap in education literature by showing how AI-driven classroom talks can improve student engagement and speaking skills. The study carefully evaluates AI-facilitated speaking activities in primary and high schools using a qualitative research design. The research shows how AI transforms student learning, improving engagement and speaking competency through case studies. The findings suggest using AI to supplement instructors rather than replace them. The study also explores Education 5.0's theoretical foundations, showing how AI can be used to personalize education, use big data to improve education, and increase education quality. Future studies should examine AI's effects on other language skills and its application to varied student demographics. This research advances the discussion on AI and education, enabling more nuanced studies of technology-enhanced learning.

Using explainable AI to unravel classroom dialogue analysis: Effects of explanations on teachers' trust, technology acceptance and cognitive load

AbstractDeep neural networks are increasingly employed to model classroom dialogue and provide teachers with prompt and valuable feedback on their teaching practices. However, these deep learning models often have intricate structures with numerous unknown parameters, functioning as black boxes. The lack of clear explanations regarding their classroom dialogue analysis likely leads teachers to distrust and underutilize these AI‐powered models. To tackle this issue, we leveraged explainable AI to unravel classroom dialogue analysis and conducted an experiment to evaluate the effects of explanations. Fifty‐nine pre‐service teachers were recruited and randomly assigned to either a treatment (n = 30) or control (n = 29) group. Initially, both groups learned to analyse classroom dialogue using AI‐powered models without explanations. Subsequently, the treatment group received both AI analysis and explanations, while the control group continued to receive only AI predictions. The results demonstrated that teachers in the treatment group exhibited significantly higher levels of trust in and technology acceptance of AI‐powered models for classroom dialogue analysis compared to those in the control group. Notably, there were no significant differences in cognitive load between the two groups. Furthermore, teachers in the treatment group expressed high satisfaction with the explanations. During interviews, they also elucidated how the explanations changed their perceptions of model features and attitudes towards the models. This study is among the pioneering works to propose and validate the use of explainable AI to address interpretability challenges within deep learning‐based models in the context of classroom dialogue analysis.Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Classroom dialogue is recognized as a crucial element in the teaching and learning process. Researchers have increasingly utilized AI techniques, particularly deep learning methods, to analyse classroom dialogue. Deep learning‐based models, characterized by their intricate structures, often function as black boxes, lacking the ability to provide transparent explanations regarding their analysis. This limitation can result in teachers harbouring distrust and underutilizing these models. What this paper adds This paper highlights the importance of incorporating explainable AI approaches to tackle the interpretability issues associated with deep learning‐based models utilized for classroom dialogue analysis. Through an experimental study, this paper demonstrates that providing model explanations enhances teachers' trust in and technology acceptance of AI‐powered classroom dialogue models, without increasing their cognitive load. Teachers express satisfaction with the model explanations provided by explainable AI. Implications for practice and/or policy The integration of explainable AI can effectively address the challenge of interpretability in complex AI‐powered models used for analysing classroom dialogue. Intelligent teaching systems designed for classroom dialogue can benefit from advanced AI models and explainable AI approaches, which offer users both automated analysis and clear explanations. By enabling users to understand the underlying rationale behind the analysis, the explanations can contribute to fostering trust and acceptance of the AI models among users.

Understanding the talk patterns in secondary school classrooms

There is a growing body of literature which highlights the relationship between classroom talk and learning. However, despite the growing acceptance of the link between talk and student learning, talk remains an undervalued pedagogical practice by many teachers. This is particularly evident in secondary school classrooms. This paper presents the findings of a research project examining the talk patterns of seven secondary school teachers from a range of learning areas. A video recording of each teacher’s lesson was the source of data. The teacher talk behaviours and student responses were coded highlighting 11 teacher talk behaviours and seven student response types. The results showed that over half of the teacher talk behaviours involved either instructing or asking closed questions. We also found the highest proportion of students’ responses involved explaining or labelling in response to teachers’ talk. Our data indicates that there was variation in the teacher talk behaviours that appeared to directly impact students’ responses. While the teachers talk patterns were predominantly instructing, the talk behaviour of the students was mainly labelling (one word or short responses) or yes/no responses. There was evidence of students explaining when the teachers engaged in higher proportions of open questions. Our data suggests that this was a key teacher talk behaviour to facilitate this talk behaviour in the students. The findings from this research have implications for understanding the challenges faced by secondary school teachers as they support students in a mainstream classroom setting.

A Functional Analysis of EFL Classroom Talk: The Case of Experience

A Functional Analysis of EFL Classroom Talk: The Case of Experience

Face-threatening and Face-saving Speech Acts of Teachers: A Discourse Analysis of Classroom Interactions

Politeness is fundamental to social order production and social interaction precondition. However, it is inevitable to encounter impoliteness in communication that could threaten a person's self-image. Hence, this study aims to explore the face-threatening acts of teachers in terms of positive and negative faces, as well as how they exhibit face-saving acts in classroom talks. This study employed a discourse analysis approach to investigate how teachers use language to threaten or save students' face needs during classroom interactions. The researchers collected the data from the video recordings taken by researchers from the twelve (12) research subjects' classroom discussions with their students at La Filipina National High School in Tagum City, Davao del Norte. The data was analyzed using the politeness theory of Brown and Levinson (1987) and revealed that the teachers' face-threatening acts in terms of positive face are an insult, disapproval, criticism, bringing bad news, threat, non-cooperation, and unleashed negative emotions. While in terms of the negative face, they employed reminders, accepting compliments, giving offers and suggestions. The analysis also showed that teachers exhibited face-saving acts (Bald- on record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off record) directly and indirectly by telling jokes or giving hints. These study findings contribute to our understanding of the complex nature of face-to-face communication in the classroom and provide insights into how teachers threaten or manage face needs in their interactions with students.

Opening the Black Box: Unraveling the Classroom Dialogue Analysis (Student Abstract)

This paper explores proposing interpreting methods from explainable artificial intelligence to address the interpretability issues in deep learning-based models for classroom dialogue. Specifically, we developed a Bert-based model to automatically detect student talk moves within classroom dialogues, utilizing the TalkMoves dataset. Subsequently, we proposed three generic interpreting methods, namely saliency, input*gradient, and integrated gradient, to explain the predictions of classroom dialogue models by computing input relevance (i.e., contribution). The experimental results show that the three interpreting methods can effectively unravel the classroom dialogue analysis, thereby potentially fostering teachers' trust.

Aided-speaking students’ unsolicited questions in teacher-fronted classroom talk: the use of speech-generating devices to ask questions

ABSTRACT Using the framework of conversation analysis, this paper examines aided-speaking students’ unsolicited speech-generating device (SGD)-mediated questions in teacher-fronted classroom talk. The analysis draws on a corpus of 18 h of video-recorded classroom interactions including 23 aided-speaking students using SGDs or picture-based communication boards. In all, 5% of the students’ contributions were unsolicited questions, produced by three students. The students were found to orient to turn transition relevance places, but due to prolonged production time their questions risked sequential and topical misplacement in the ongoing classroom talk and were vulnerable to misunderstandings. To address this problem, students activated the synthetic voice before finalising the question, claiming the interactional floor while securing time to complete their utterance. They also refrained from activating the synthetic voice and instead made the question visually available for the teacher to read, thereby transferring the responsibility for answering the question to the teacher when sequentially and topically relevant. The study demonstrates the complex interactional process of formulating SGD-mediated questions, sometimes requiring that the teacher, assistants, and students engage in repair work and scaffolding to establish the meaning of a student’s utterance. The findings imply that the treatment of non-speaking students’ contributions as questions requires designated teacher work.

Understanding proficiency-oriented silence in the context of EAL

This mixed methods, case study focuses on adult second language learning and their silences in a pre-intermediate level class, where they experience a potentially difficult time reaching the point of Target language proficiency. The findings of this study respond to the paucity of research on the problem adult student silence in a pre-intermediate language classroom by investigating the pre-intermediate language learning experiences of competent bilingual adults reflecting back on learning English as a second language (EAL) in Australia. The findings give reason for why students are silent in class. Analysis of student reflections combined with the EAL teachers’ interviews identified a pedagogical barrier. These barriers caused them to be silent because most of the teachers teaching content at this level were not trained to teach students who approximately break their silence at this level, and need a particular teaching approach to help them. The findings show that there needs to be a reform in approach during adult silent period which happens to be approximately at pre-intermediate level (Ekici, 2022). The need for teacher professional development on being able to adapt their English language classroom talk to foster spoken interactions was seen as priority. Finings have shown that the nuanced dynamic between what teachers think they are doing and what students know they are trying to achieve in many cases fail to match. Teacher and learner confusion about each other’s' styles, the struggle to teach and learner in which both pedagogy and silence are mutually problematic, and above all else, the need for empathy for student learning and the need to customise a pedagogy to suit it to avoid untreated proficiency silence which can be detrimental (Ekici, 2022).

Opportunities and hindrances for promoting interdisciplinary learning in schools

ABSTRACT Background Influential philosophers have suggested that interdisciplinarity is crucial for ecosystem management and scientific practice, and for education to democracy. However, a historical review of the rise of disciplines points at their compartmentalization in schools. An analysis of core construct categories of three disciplines, shows that this compartmentalization may decrease when dialogic argumentation is enacted. This background led us to launch an interdisciplinary program in schools. In previous publications, we identified multiple constraints in its implementation and listed design principles for affording interdisciplinary dialogic argumentation. Method We adopt a narrative approach to analyze classroom talk, and ask whether and how interdisciplinary processes emerge in this talk. Findings Students maintain dialogic argumentation around Interdisciplinary Social Dilemmas, but guidance is necessary for integrating knowledge from different disciplines. When the teacher is attentive to student’s unarticulated references to disciplinary ideas, she may subtly guide the emergence of interdisciplinary dialogic argumentation. Often, the teacher misses those opportunities and declaims the integration of knowledge in a non-dialogic talk. Contribution Dialogic Education is crucial for the success of interdisciplinary programs in schools, but the actual emergence of interdisciplinary processes depends on the handling of organizational and institutional constraints, on huge design efforts, and on subtle guidance.

Fostering an ideology of inclusivity: shared critical dialogue and self-reflexivity in the English classroom

ABSTRACT Despite a reported sociocultural shift in the public perception of rights affecting LGBTQ+ individuals and some changes in governmental policies and laws, there has not yet been a resulting shift in the overall K-12 pedagogical paradigm. Within the classroom, LGBTQ+ individuals and students growing up in LGBTQ+ households are frequently and actively silenced and, therefore, marginalised and stigmatised while LGBTQ+ topics and curricula are intentionally avoided. LGBTQ+ students, students raised in LGBTQ+ families, and LGBTQ+ educators may struggle to feel included within the heteronormative school environment. This lack of LGBTQ+ representation highlights potentially damaging implications for the microsystem of students, parents, and educators. To meet the needs of its LGBTQ+ population, schools must re-evaluate their current inclusivity practices and examine possible interventions to increase inclusion. Through a synthesis and discussion of the research literature rooted in Freire’s (2017) critical dialogue, the author examines possible solutions to increase perceptions of inclusion for the LGBTQ+ community from within the English classroom.

Investigating the effects of discipline and first-language backgrounds on ITAs’ instructional discourse patterns

Using a multidimensional analysis (MDA), this study aimed to increase the understanding of international teaching assistants’ (ITAs’) instructional language use by analyzing co-occurring linguistic features during their mock-teaching presentations in ITA assessment. With this purpose, the study examined the effects of ITAs’ proficiency levels, disciplines, and first-language backgrounds on their discourse patterns. The data comprised a corpus of 165 prospective ITAs’ mock-teaching presentations in ITA assessment. Based on the two dimensions of the twenty-six linguistic features found prevalent in university classroom talk (Csomay, 2005), an additive MDA was performed. Overall, the mock-teaching presentations of more proficient ITAs involved more contextual, directive, and personalized framing discourse features, with interaction effects for the ITAs’ disciplines and first-language backgrounds. The study discusses the implications for ITA training and assessment and directions for future studies. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0 .

Discursive interactions in the classroom. Ideas to expand research and enhance teaching practice to multiply opportunities to learn /Interacciones discursivas en el aula. Pistas para ampliar la investigación y potenciar la práctica docente

During the last five decades, the scientific study of classroom talk has converged in the tradition of classroom dialogue. Empirical research has progressed, showing how dialogic forms of organizing classroom talk would be more conducive to student learning and development than monologic forms. However, two major problems remain unresolved. On the one hand, and despite the research mentioned above, teachers still mostly use a monological teaching method, thus arranging monological ways of organizing classroom discourse. On the other hand, our understanding of the psychological processes that would explain the relationship between the way of organizing classroom talk and learning is still limited. In the present article, we introduce a special section in which we have brought together six papers that sought to extend conceptually and methodologically the limits of the study of classroom talk by explicitly adopting the notion of discursive interactions in the classroom.

Sounds of Life and Concern: Echoing Through Lively Storytelling in Early Childhood Education

This paper emerges from the journey of a group of early childhood educators seeking to reconnect with land in meaningful and ethical ways. Reorienting from humancentric views, the authors explore “lively storytelling” to bring attention to overlooked stories and create alternative ways of being and thinking. We are called into new relations and ecological entanglements through a sensitive and responsive attunement to the soundscapes of Lynn Creek and Hastings Creek in Vancouver and Bow River in Calgary. Our engagement encompasses a posthumanist framework while weaving interdisciplinary studies in environmental humanities, materiality, and architecture to encourage generative inquiries and dialogue in early childhood classrooms and communities.

Productive classroom dialogue and its association with student achievement in knowledge-building environments

The first purpose of the present study was to characterize progressive and metacognitive dialogue in knowledge-building classrooms. The second purpose was to examine the association between the quality of classroom dialogue and students’ learning outcomes, including domain knowledge and conception of collaboration. One hundred thirty college students and their teacher participated in this study. A total of 73 lessons were video-recorded. Qualitative analysis of ­classroom dialogue identified dialogic moves into three categories—articulation and elaboration, building-on and connection, and reflection and coordination. The findings provide a rich illustration of how students engage in metacognitive and progressive dialogue. Quantitative analysis indicated that student engagement in classroom dialogue was positively associated with their domain knowledge and conception of collaboration. The results revealed that considering student involvement in classroom dialogue is essential for understanding how knowledge building occurs in classroom contexts and how collective knowledge and conception of collaboration are developed through classroom dialogue.

Using positioning theory to think about mathematics classroom talk

This article aims to connect two research areas by using positioning theory to review the literature on talk moves, teacher interactions, and discourse patterns in mathematics education. First, a conceptual review identified 44 articles with 94 concepts describing interactions and discourse patterns. Similar concepts were grouped in a process that developed five categories, each describing one teacher position (a teacher who tells, a teacher who supports, a teacher who uses students’ ideas to create learning, a teacher who orchestrates, and a teacher who participates). Related to each position, we describe rights, duties, and communication acts. We suggest that these five teacher positions represent three transcendent storylines (teachers are providers of insight, teachers are facilitators of learning, and teachers are participants in learning). Using positioning theory enables us to understand the underlying powers that shape the classroom in relation to transcendent storylines, rights, and duties. We use this to explore what the implications are of these storylines and positions for equity and access to important mathematical ideas. This article contributes to our understanding of the complexity of classroom interactions and how transcendent storylines might play a role in subverting or promoting particular classroom communication patterns.

Exploring teacher talk in training classrooms: A case study at SD Linimasa, Kuningan

The aim of this study is to investigate the types of teacher talk and their meanings in dealing with diverse students. This research aimed to explore several fundamental aspects that occurred in classroom interaction. They are: 1) the types of teacher talk; 2) the most dominant and least performed type of teacher talk; and 3) the contribution of teacher talk to supporting learning. This research was a case study with the participation of three English teachers. The data had been collected through classroom observation, semi-structured interviews, and questionnaires. In examining the utterances uttered by all teachers, video recordings were utilised throughout the learning process. The result of the video transcription was then analysed using Moskowitz’s FLINT system to categorise the type of teacher talk. The result was then cross-checked with the interview and questionnaire to support the validity of the data. The study's findings demonstrated that during the teaching and learning process, teachers used nearly every kind of teacher discourse. Joking was the least frequent sort of speech, while asking questions was the most frequent. Through their utterances during the session, the teacher also provided support to the students who transferred from situations where English was not their first or second language. Teachers facing comparable situations may find it helpful to consider the study's implications and outcomes while trying to boost student engagement, which in turn encourages students to participate more actively in the learning process. Keywords: Exploration; classroom interaction; teachers’ talk;

Urban Teen Perspectives on Gun Violence: a Mixed Methods Study.

We aimed to explore perspectives of teenagers on their exposure to gun violence (GV), their knowledge and attitudes towards firearm injury prevention (FIP) efforts, and how to counsel them about FIP. Teens from two single-sex Bronx Catholic high schools participated in videoconferencing focus groups. Participants completed an online survey collecting demographic information and Likert-scale scoring of attitudes towards GV. Quantitative data was analyzed with descriptive statistics. Focus group discussions were recorded and transcribed. Using Dedoose, two investigators independently coded data and achieved consensus using content analysis. Six focus groups (3 from each school, n = 28 participants) were held from October-November 2020. A total of 27 participants completed the survey. Eighty-one percent of respondents agreed "Doctors should talk to teens about gun safety." During focus groups, participants reported personal, community, and entertainment media exposure to GV. GV elicited many emotions, including fear and frustration. Teens identified factors contributing to GV that should be addressed, including poverty, racism, and mental illness. Most had not received prior FIP education and desired more information from trusted adults. They preferred discussions over written materials and information given over time. Teens were open to doctors counseling on FIP during healthcare visits and suggested including screening questions on surveys, conversations during healthcare maintenance visits, and classroom talks by physicians. Bronx teens are exposed to and distressed by community GV. They desired more FIP education, including physician counseling during healthcare visits. Next steps are to create and test FIP guidance for adolescents.

Exploring Teaching and Learning Physics in Engineering Institutions of Kathmandu District

Being a physics educator for the last two decades, the first author of this paper observed some disturbing scenarios in the educational landscape of diploma in engineering in physics theory portion. Students' academic achievements in the physics final examination conducted by Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) indicated that many failed to fulfill the minimum requirements to pass the final exam or gain good grades. In addition, most students could not apply the physics principles in real-world contexts. The purpose of this study was to explore teaching and learning practices in physics theory classrooms of Kathmandu district-based diploma in engineering schools affiliated to CTEVT. The study employed a qualitative research design and was underpinned by the social constructivist learning theory. Ethnography as a research method was employed in which participant observation and unstructured interviews were used as the research tools. A purposeful sampling was carried out to conduct the research in which nine students from two engineering institutions were taken as the research participants. Data analysis was carried out by coding the raw data primarily employing N-vivo coding thus creating several categories and finally developing three major themes. The findings indicated that the classroom dialogue didn’t support the social constructivist epistemology. Thus, the findings lead to the conclusion that traditional teacher-centric practices were prevalent at those engineering institutions that might be responsible for the poor academic achievements of students.

Is it possible to have a dialogical English language classroom? Challenges and advantages

The research aims to investigate are opportunities and challenges in English language teaching classrooms for dialogic teaching. To achieve the aim of the research, a multiple case study design was chosen. The cases were determined by considering the socio-economic, socio-cultural, and success levels of the schools. The data are obtained from qualitative techniques which are observation of the class and interviews with teachers. The study group consisted of students in 5th grade and English Language Teachers. The findings of the article consist of observing the dialogues in the classrooms using a structured observation form and interviews with teachers using a semi-structured interview form. The research offers new insights for further practice and research, in terms of identifying challenges and advantages for the application of dialogic teaching. Keywords: Dialogy; dialogic classroom; dialogic teaching; English language; English language teaching

Strategies of Teaching English as A Second Language in Multilingual Classrooms in Meheba Refugee Settlement in Kalumbila District of Zambia

This study investigated the strategies of teaching English as a Second Language in multilingual classrooms at Lower Grades in primary schools in Meheba Refugee Settlement in Kalumbila District of Zambia. The objectives were to establish the strategies employed in teaching of English as a second language in multilingual classrooms; analyze how the strategies are used and investigate materials used with the strategies. To address these objectives, a phenomenological qualitative descriptive design was employed. The study was guided by Vygotsky’s Social Learning Theory. Data were collected through interview guide and lesson observation protocol; on a sample of 18 teachers drawn from five selected primary schools. Narrative analysis was employed. The findings indicated that translation, code switching, look and say, group work, class discussions, question and answer, body language and phonemic awareness were the strategies teachers employed in the teaching of English as a Second Language in multilingual classrooms. The study further found that the strategies were used in the teaching of different components of English Language such as vocabulary, prepositions, dialogue and comprehension in the multilingual classrooms. The data also revealed that Chalkboard, English Readers (Textbooks) and Flash cards were the most commonly used teaching and learning materials in the multilingual classrooms that were studied. The findings revealed there was over reliance on the use of chalkboard and question and answer in the lessons. The study concludes that variety of strategies and teaching and learning materials are employed in teaching English as a Second Language in multilingual classrooms. The study recommends that teaching English as a Second Language in multilingual classrooms should involve the use of different strategies that enhance learning among learners. Teachers should think out of the box when deciding on what teaching and learning materials to use besides depending on the usual common chalkboard, textbooks and flash cards.