Welcome to the workshop on Dialogic Teaching and Learning!

Something to think / talk about

while we are waiting to start:

Would it make any difference

if the workshop were titled

“Dialogic Learning and Teaching”?

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Learning

"Learning is not the product of teaching.

Learning is the product of the activity of learners.”

John Holt (1967) How Children Learn

“If we taught children to speak, they’d never learn”

Bill Hull, quoted by John Holt, ibid.

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Outcomesfrom

workshop

So, let’s think / talk together about our workshop objectives …

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Outcomesfrom today

More learning about Dialogical Learning

Better appreciation of the value of Dialogical Learning and Teaching More practice of Dialogical Teaching

Connecting DL&T with Philosophical Enquiry

Here’s one I prepared before!

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Dialogue is not just the next step up from monologue!

Dia = through, across (not di = two)

Logos = speech, word

It is not restricted to two-way conversation.

Dialogue – back to basics

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Two avoidable extremes

Monologue

I (the ‘teacher’ / workshop ‘leader’)

present all I (think I) know

about dialogic teaching and learning

and you (the ‘learners’ / workshop participants) take private notes

Mock ignorance

I present nothing at all other than very open questions

and expect small groups to self-facilitate

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Will as well as skill

“We can teach students what constitutes good thinking,

but without their being motivated and disposed

to engage in good thinking when the occasion arises,

such instruction comes to naught.”

John Dewey (1910) How we Think

Dialogue disciplines thinking but also stimulates it.

Better teaching / facilitation Dialogic Learning & Teaching

The teacher / facilitator has ultimate responsibility for

establishing the focus for enquiry,

e.g. introducing a ‘stimulus’,

and for progressing learning,

i.e. making the best use of resources.

That may occasionally require the teacher / facilitator to

introduce information to aid understanding.

But the prime resources for learning are learners’ own

wills and skills to reflect, research and report,

which are best elicited and exercised by dialogue.8

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A Concept SPEC, e.g ‘Work’

Synonyms Phrases (the concept in daily use)

Connections(related concepts, inc. antonyms)

Labour, Force, Task, Job Work horse / house, Doesn’t work, All work and no play, Hard work

Duty, Purpose, Slavery, Effort Achievement, Industrious,Leisure, Play

Examples(i.e. scenarios)

Washing up, Essay-writing, Nine to five, Ploughing

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A Concept SPEC for ‘Dialogue’

Synonyms Phrases (the concept in daily use)

Connections(related concepts, inc. antonyms)

Conversation International dialogue

Feedback

Examples(i.e. scenarios)

A ‘Relate’ meeting

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“From the 1980’s,

the Piagetian idea of the child as the ‘lone scientist’

who develops cognitively by interacting with stimulating materials was…

supplemented by the Vygotskian

view that the child’s cognitive development also requires it to

engage, through the medium of spoken language,

with adults, other children and the wider culture.”- Robin Alexander, Towards Dialogic Teaching, 2004

Constructivism - 21st century pedagogy, based on 20th century Psychology

Beyond Speaking and Listening

Dialogic teaching is not National Curriculum

‘speaking and listening’ under another name.

It is grounded in research on the relationship between

language, thinking and understanding,

and in observational evidence

on what makes for truly effective teaching.

Robin Alexander, Towards Dialogic Teaching, 200412

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John Hattie (2009) Visible Learning

“Somewhat surprisingly, there was no preponderance of evidence supporting the importance of subject knowledge.”

(p. 248)

“It is not the knowledge or ideas, but the learner’s construction of this knowledge and these ideas that is critical.”

(p. 239)

“Students need much deliberative practice distributed over the learning time… 3 or 4 experiences involving interaction

with relevant information for a new knowledge construct to be created and transferred to long-term memory.”

(p. 242)

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Dialogic learning

In dialogic classrooms children don’t just provide brief factual answers to ‘test’ or ‘recall’ questions, or merely spot the

answer which they think the teacher wants to hear.

Instead they learn to: narrate, explain, analyse, speculate, imagine, explore,

evaluate, discuss, argue, justify and they ask questions of their own.

Children in dialogic classrooms also listen

think about what they hear give others time to think

respect alternative viewpoints

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John Hattie (Visible Learning) ctd.

“There seems universal agreement that cooperative learning is effective,

esp. when contrasted with competitive and individualistic learning”

Ibid, p. 212

“The aim is to help students to learn the skills of

teaching themselves – to self-regulate their learning.”

Ibid, p. 245

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Teaching without Meaning

Evidence suggests that students of all ages have many misconceptions that are not being effectively addressed by existing instructional methods.

Anderson and Smith (1984), for instance, have noted that elementary students can pass chapter quizzes on photosynthesis and still not

understand that plants make their own food.

Equator: A menagerie lion running around the Earth through Africa.

Momentum: What you give a person when they are going away.

“Vivisection is all right when practised on dead animals.”

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Modes of Learning(Research by National Training Laboratories

for Applied Behavioural Sciences, USA)

Audio-visual

Demonstrations

Discussion

Explaining to others

Listening

Practice by doing

Reading

5%

10%

20%

30%

50% 75%

90%

1. Listening

2. Reading

3. Audio-visual

4. Demonstrations

5. Discussion

6. Practice by doing

7. Explaining to others

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Explaining how (sequencing)

A explains to B:

how to make a cup of tea

B explains to A:

how to brush your teeth

N.B. Instructor may assume normal adult level of

comprehension,

but role of instructee is to be as awkward as possible,

suggesting gaps or vaguenesses in the instructions.

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Explain and Enquire – a routine for better learning

Instead of plenary review, with the teacher asking questions to check learning

(often with only a few giving the answers)pupils review in pairs

trying to explain to each other (or, better still, to keyword in writing) the main things they can remember from the lesson.

They are also expected to come up between them with a question about something they have forgotten or don’t fully understand,

or a new field of enquiry about something connected with the topic.

These questions/enquiries could either be dealt with there and then, or ‘posted’ for further attention in the next appropriate lesson.

Or pupils might enter them into their Thought Journals or Enquiry Diaries

Inspirers of Dialogue and Enquiry

The value of learning with and from others in dialogue,

and especially through raising questions and reasoning about answers,

has long been recognised by philosophers, educators and psychologists.

Perhaps the most important names in this story are:

SOCRATES (famous for the Socratic Method)

DEWEY (for proposing education as Inquiry, and learning as Reflection)

VYGOTSKY (for proposing Socially Mediated Learning)

Think – Pair - Share20

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Socratic Questioning – the MTV stepsto understanding and good judgement

1. Questions of Meaning:

Could you explain more clearly (or give an example)?

How does X relate to Y? (or, How is X different from Y)?

2. Questions of Truth (and Validity)

Is that true? (or, What makes you think – or assume - that?)

Does that follow? (or, What follows from that?)

3. Questions of Value

What is interesting, or important, in this?

What lessons can we draw from this? (or, So, what?)

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Talking and P4C

“The teacher’s goal is to teach students to be better thinkers,

and to do so by engaging students in dialogue.”

Robert Sternberg, Former President of the American Psychological Association, and creator of the Triarchic theory of intelligence: Analytical, Creative and Practical

“No programme I am aware of is more likely to teach durable

and transferable thinking skills  than Philosophy for Children.”

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Aims of P4C

“The aim of a thinking skills program such as P4C

to help (children) become

more thoughtful, more reflective,

more considerate and more reasonable individuals.”

Matthew Lipman

(1924 - )

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The 4 Cs of P4C

Thinking mode Thinking focus

CRITICAL ABOUT THINKING

CREATIVE FOR YOURSELF

CARING OF OTHERS

COLLABORATIVE WITH OTHERS

Thinking Habit

Reflective(ness)

Thoughtful(ness)

Considerate(ness)

Reasonable(ness)

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A – Z of Ideas

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

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Dialogue

(esp. w.r.t.

T & L)

Pause for reflection on future learning

What would you still like to know about DT&L?

Not a programme but a ideal

Dialogic teaching is not

a single set method of teaching.

It is more a professional outlook or state of mind

than a specific method.

It requires us to rethink not just the techniques we use,

but the classroom relationships we foster

and the balance of power between teacher and taught.

Robin Alexander, Towards Dialogic Teaching, 2004

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CEC, Exeter - Definition of a Thinking SchoolAn educational community in which all members share a common commitment to giving regular careful thought to everything that takes place.

This will involve both students and staff learning how to think reflectively, critically and creatively,

and employing these skills and techniques in the co-construction of a meaningful curriculum and

associated activities.

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CEC, Exeter - Definition of a Thinking SchoolSuccessful outcomes will be reflected in students across a wide range of abilities demonstrating independent and co-operative learning skills,

high levels of achievement and both enjoyment and satisfaction in learning.

Benefits will be shown in ways in which all members of the community interact with and show consideration for each other and in the

positive psychological well-being of both students and staff.