PGCE Primary and Early Years Science

Dialogic Teaching: Forces

Dan Davies

Rediscovering whole-class teaching

‘Three Wise Men’Literacy and Numeracy

strategiesAlexander (2000) Culture

and PedagogyTechnology changeInteractivity

But….

“There has been an increase in whole-class teaching in primary schools, especially since the introduction of the National Literacy, Numeracy and Primary Strategies, yet the quality of the discourse between teachers and pupils on which higher-order learning critically depends has remained low-level.” (Tymms and Merrell 2007)

So what do we mean by dialogic?questions are structured so as to provoke

thoughtful answers […]answers provoke further questions and are

seen as the building blocks of dialogue rather than its terminal point;

individual teacher-pupil and pupil-pupil exchanges are chained into coherent lines of enquiry rather than left stranded and disconnected.

(Alexander, 2004, p. 32.)

Galton et al (1999)

50% of science interactions take place within a whole class setting

In science there were fewer ‘sustained interactions’ – 10%, compared with 20% in maths and 26% in English

The % of closed questions was highest in maths and science

number of statements of facts was highest in science

Inspection evidence – ‘good’ science teaching

“In these lessons, the teacher also maintains a flow of questions throughout the main activity, including:why do you think that……?how do you know that…..?what does that tell us about……?can you be sure about that…..?how can you explain that……?Many of these effective lessons also include a plenary, not always at the end, when children discuss what they have done” (OfSTED 2004)

Dialogic and Interactive – what’s the difference?

(Mortimer and Scott 2003)

Dialogic …….Authoritative

Whose ideas are given status and value?

Interactive ……. Non-Interactive

Participation – who is talking?

Two examples (Y6)

Four examples (Y1)

Dialogic/interactive teaching and elicitation

Why do some things float?

A. Because they’re light/small?

B. Because they’re made of wood or plastic?

C. Because they’re spread out?

D. Because they’re less dense than water?

E. Because they displace enough water to balance their weight?

…using concept cartoons

A CB

…to plan scientific enquiry

How can we test which trainer has the best grip?