The importance of dialogue in classrooms

Research evidence suggests that dialogue occupies a crucial position in the classroom in relation to children and learning. Mercer and Littleton (2007) have shown that classroom dialogue can contribute to children’s intellectual development and their educational attainment. Research suggests that both

interaction with adults and collaboration with peers can provide opportunities for children’s learning and for their cognitive development. Vygotsky describes the young child as an apprentice for whom cognitive development occurs within

social interactions; in other words, when children are guided into increasingly mature ways of thinking by communicating with more capable others and through interactions with their surrounding culture andenvironment.

Vygotsky further argued that cognitive development is enhanced when children work in their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The ZPD defines skills and abilities that the child is in the process of developing; a range of tasks that the child cannot yet perform independently. To perform such tasks

children need the help of adults or more competent individuals to support or scaffold them as they learn new things. Such scaffolding involves communication and Vygotsky considered language to be the main vehicle for learning.

Vygotsky’s model of learning suggests that knowledge is constructed as a result of a pupil’s engagement in dialogue with others. The teacher’s role in facilitating social engagement in the learning process is therefore crucial for developing pupil learning. Pupils are more likely to learn where there are opportunities for dialogue with more knowledgeable others. Such others might be peers or teachers. Learning will take place where ideas discussed are not yet part of the pupil’s present understanding but which are within their ZPD. The Vygotskian view of the centrality of language in learning has been supported by empirical research.

Barnes (1971) established that the way in which language is used in classrooms has a major impact on pupils’ learning. Barnes demonstrated that pupils have the potential to learn not only by listening passively to the teacher, but by verbalizing, by talking, by discussing and arguing.

More recent research by Mercerand Hodgkinson (2008) built on the earlier work of Barnes to establish the centrality of dialogue in the learning process. There is now considerable evidence that suggests that getting student to talk together in class has numerous benefits in:

• allowing students to articulate their understanding of a topic;

• helping them to understand that other people may have different ideas;

• enabling students to reason through their ideas;

• assisting the teacher in their understanding of ‘where their students are’ in their learning.

A characteristic of much classroom talk is the extent of the teacher’s conversational control over the topic, the relevance or correctness of what pupils say and when and how much pupils may speak. Pupils in many classrooms have few conversational rights. One would not for example expect a pupil to say to a

teacher, “That’s an interesting point”. Research suggests that the common pattern of classroom talk, where the teacher controls the discourse, asks the important questions, repeats children’s answers and offers praise, does not seem likely to advance children’s thinking or develop their talking skills.