Dialogic Pedagogy: The Importance of Dialogue in Teaching and Learning

This book provides a wide-ranging and in-depth theoretical perspective on dialogue in teaching. It explores the philosophy of dialogism as a social theory of language and explains its importance in teaching and learning. Departing from the more traditional teacher-led mode of teacher–student communication, the dialogic approach is more egalitarian and focuses on the discourse exchange between the parties. Authors explore connections between dialogic pedagogy and sociocultural learning theory, and argue that dialogic interaction between teacher and learners is vital if instruction is to lead to cognitive development. The book also presents prosody as a critical resource for understanding between teachers and students, and includes some of the first empirical studies of speech prosody in classroom discourse.

David Skidmore is Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Bath, UK. He has worked in the field for over 20 years and is a member of the editorial board of Language and Education. His research interests include pedagaogy, dialogue, inclusive education and prosody.

Kyoko Murakami is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Her research interests include social remembering, discursive psychology, cultural psychology, cultural historical activity theory, dialogic pedagogy and social and community psychology.