Enhancing Classroom-based Talk: Blending Practice, Research and Theory

Enhancing Classroom-based Talk provides an overview of the major research and theoretical perspectives that underpin the development of classroom-based talk. It outlines specific dialogic strategies and elaborates on the key role that teachers play in promoting interactions, challenging thinking and scaffolding the learning of students.

While it is important to know how different dialogic approaches can enhance students’ interactions and learning and the effects they have on students’ social, emotional and cognitive development, it is also important to understand how students’ interactions promote understanding and learning during small group discussions. Throughout the book, teachers will be shown how to embed different dialogic approaches in their classrooms to promote discourse, with chapters covering:

• Interest in classroom-based talk
• The teacher’s role in promoting dialogue in the classroom
• Dialogic approaches to teaching
• Strategies to promote students’ interactions, thinking and learning
• Help seeking and help giving behaviours
• Creating environments that promote classroom-based talk

Enhancing Classroom-based Talk will be a valuable asset to all those concerned with promoting classroom-based talk, as well as postgraduate students, teachers and academics who are regularly called upon to assist in developing classroom interventions that provide for the academic and social needs of students.

Robyn M. Gillies is Professor of Education at The University of Queensland, Australia. She has worked extensively in primary and secondary schools to help teachers embed student-centred pedagogical practices into their classroom curricula, promoting student engagement, problem-solving and learning.