What Is Dialogic Teaching? Constructing, Deconstructing, and Reconstructing a Pedagogy of Classroom Talk T ⁎ Min-Young Kima, , Ian A.G
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Learning, Culture and Social Interaction 21 (2019) 70–86 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Learning, Culture and Social Interaction journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/lcsi Full length article What is dialogic teaching? Constructing, deconstructing, and reconstructing a pedagogy of classroom talk T ⁎ Min-Young Kima, , Ian A.G. Wilkinsonb a Literacy and Technology Department, College of Education, Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, MI, USA b School of Curriculum and Pedagogy, Faculty of Education and Social Work, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland 1142, NEW ZEALAND ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Keywords: Dialogic teaching is a pedagogical approach that capitalizes on the power of talk to further Dialogic teaching students' thinking, learning, and problem solving. The construct is often invoked when describing Classroom talk various pedagogies of classroom talk and is the focus of much research in the United Kingdom, Dialogue the United States, Continental Europe, and elsewhere. Despite its appeal, or perhaps because of it, the idea of dialogic teaching has been variously interpreted to the point that its significance has become unclear. The purpose of this paper is to bring conceptual clarity to the construct. We outline how Robin Alexander (2004) used the term ‘dialogic teaching’ in his model of dialogic pedagogy, and describe other, related conceptions of dialogic pedagogy. We then describe how the term ‘dialogic teaching’ is used in contemporary scholarship. Finally, we address three major points of contention surrounding dialogic teaching: the issue of discourse form and function, the role of classroom culture, and whether dialogic teaching constitutes a general pedagogical ap- proach or a specific discourse practice. Our overall intent is to examine similarities and differ- ences among the various approaches to dialogic teaching and locate the concept within a network of related ideas on teaching and learning through, for, and as dialogue. “When I use a word”, Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less”. “The question is”, said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things”. “The question is”, said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that's all”. (Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, 1872, p. 124) Few things are as well-established in the educational sciences as the proposition that language is the primary vehicle for learning and plays a central role in connecting teaching, learning, and cognitive development. The deliberative use of language as a tool in teaching and learning can be traced back to Socrates and Plato, although empirical research on its benefits as a pedagogical method has a more recent history. The role of talk in learning came to the fore in the summer of 1966 at an Anglo-American conference on the teaching of English, known as the Dartmouth Seminar. In a report of that meeting, Dixon (1967) forwarded a view of language as a vehicle for personal growth and development. This view gained prominence in two subsequent publications by participants in the Dartmouth Seminar, James Britton's (1969) Talking to learn and Douglas Barnes' (1976) From communication to curriculum. Since then, researchers have developed and tested a number of pedagogical approaches to classroom talk. These include ‘ac- countable talk’ (Michaels, O'Connor, & Resnick, 2008; Resnick, 1999), ‘dialogically organized instruction’ (Juzwik, Sherry, Caughlan, Heintz, & Borsheim-Black, 2012; Nystrand, 1997), ‘collaborative reasoning’ (Anderson, Chinn, Waggoner, & Nguyen, 1998), ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (M.-Y. Kim), [email protected] (I.A.G. Wilkinson). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lcsi.2019.02.003 Received 24 July 2018; Received in revised form 17 December 2018; Accepted 12 February 2019 2210-6561/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. M.-Y. Kim and I.A.G. Wilkinson Learning, Culture and Social Interaction 21 (2019) 70–86 ‘Thinking Together’ (Dawes, Mercer, & Wegerif, 2004), and ‘dialogic inquiry’ (Wells, 1999; Wells & Arauz, 2006), to name a few. Research on such approaches has provided mounting evidence that dialogic teaching improves performance in students' content knowledge, comprehension, and reasoning, and that the benefits maintain well beyond the time of initial engagement with the discourse (Resnick, Asterhan, & Clarke, 2015a). There are even indications that the benefits transfer from one content area to another (e.g., from math to English Language Arts, O'Connor, Michaels, & Chapin, 2015). It is now taken as a given that dialogic teaching has positive impacts on students' learning and development. The purpose of this paper is to bring conceptual clarity to the construct of dialogic teaching. Despite its appeal, or perhaps because of it, the idea of dialogic teaching has been variously interpreted. Some scholars use the term ‘dialogic teaching’ to refer to any use of talk that involves some form of discussion to further student engagement and learning (e.g., Resnick, Asterhan, Clarke, & Schantz, 2018). Some scholars use the term to refer to the use of a specific type of talk in classroom instruction (e.g., Reznitskaya et al., 2012). And some use the term to refer less to the use of talk and more to an overall orientation or stance towards knowledge and knowing (e.g., Boyd & Markarian, 2011). We argue that differences in the ways scholars have used the term ‘dialogic teaching’ have led to a lack of coherence in the field with respect to what it is, how it should be implemented, and what consequences it has for students. Although differences in usage are to be expected in an emerging area of inquiry, there comes a point at which the differences make it difficult for researcher to integrate findings across studies (e.g., how to explain the failure to find benefits of a particular instantiation of dialogic teaching). Howe and Mercer (2016) echoed this concern in a recent commentary on studies of dialogic pedagogy: … conceptual differences in this field are frequently overlain with differences in terminology. As noted earlier, even a key term like ‘dialogue’ does not have a universally agreed definition amongst classroom researchers. While on one level terminological choices are arbitrary, differences nevertheless have the potential to create confusion, and make it harder to integrate the work of different researchers (who are often seeking to address the same educational issues and solve similar problems). (p. 90) Calcagni and Lago (2018) and Alexander (2019) raised similar concerns about the diversity of perspectives on dialogic pedagogy and varied use of key terms. To provide an organizing framework for our analysis, we use Alexander's (2004/2017a) conception of dialogic teaching. His framework is perhaps the most comprehensive in its delineation of types of talk and the conditions under which talk is productive for student learning. It is also arguably the most influential in current scholarship. Alexander's (2017a) book, Towards dialogic teaching: Rethinking classroom talk, is now in its fifth edition and has sold over 20,000 copies (publisher's figure, December 2017); one of the editions (Alexander, 2006) has been cited over 2000 times (Google Scholar, February 18, 2019). His framework has been influential in shaping primary and secondary education in England (Alexander, 2010a; DfES/QCA, 2003; Higham, Brindley, & Van de Pol, 2014) and was the focus of a recent independent evaluation in a large-scale randomized control trial in that country (Alexander, 2018; Jay et al., 2017). It has also played a role in research and discussion about improving schooling in the United States (e.g., Resnick, Asterhan, & Clarke, 2015b) and Europe (e.g., Sedova, 2017; Sedova, Sedlacek, & Svaricek, 2016). The widespread appeal of Alex- ander's notion of dialogic teaching attests to its usefulness as a framework for comparing various pedagogical approaches to class- room talk. The structure of our paper is as follows. We begin by describing Alexander's (2004/2017a) model of dialogic teaching. We then describe other conceptions of dialogic pedagogy. Next, we describe current understandings of dialogic teaching as exemplified in contemporary scholars' use of the term. In these latter two sections, we highlight similarities and differences among the various perspectives using Alexander's model as an organizing framework to provide a basis for comparison. Our approach is itself dialogic, in the Bakhtinian sense, in that we seek to bring meaning to the term ‘dialogic teaching’ by juxtaposing alternative perspectives and allowing them to “inter-animate or inter-illuminate each other” (Wegerif, 2006, p. 146). We then address several major points of contention surrounding dialogic teaching: the issue of discourse form and function, the role of classroom culture, and the char- acterization of dialogic teaching as a general pedagogical framework or as a specific discourse practice. We conclude by briefly revisiting the affordances of the concept for theorizing research on classroom dialogue. 1. Alexander's model of dialogic teaching According to Alexander (2008b, 2017a), the concept of dialogic teaching grew largely out of his comparative analysis of primary education in England, France, India, Russia, and the United States (Alexander, 2001). In the fieldwork for that analysis, from 1994 through 1998, Alexander conducted interviews and observations, including video and audio recording of classroom