University Learning in Schools
Using talk and technology to
develop learning
Katie Clemmey
King’s College London
Some background
• Technology and Teaching RE
• MA action-research led to PhD research
• Problem solving: effective talk in the
classroom + using online discussions as a form
of extended learning space
• Transferable skills: talk and literacy
• English Language as an example
Some Key Questions
• Do students have enough time to really
explore their ideas in your lessons?
• Do your students effectively use their
discussion skills in lessons?
• Would you like to extend students’ learning
beyond the classroom?
• Wouldn’t it be a good idea to make use of
students’ digital literacy to promote better
learning discussions?
Three Key Writers
• Robin Alexander
• Rupert Wegerif
• Neil Mercer
Why do these writers suggest we
can use talk more effectively for
learning?
‘Towards Dialogic Teaching’
Robin Alexander (2008)
• ‘Children, we now know, need to talk, and to
experience a rich diet of spoken language, in
order to think and to learn.....talk is the true
foundation of learning’
• ‘In Britain at least...considerably lower
educational status is ascribed to talk than to
writing’
• ‘Do we promote the right kind of talk; and how
can we strengthen its power to help children
think and learn even more effectively than they
do?’
Dialogue and Teaching Thinking
Rupert Wegerif (2010)
• ‘The concept of education....implies some growth
in the intellectual freedom of the learner’
• ‘Teaching knowledge content and teaching for
thinking do not need to be mutually exclusive
goals’
• ‘the most educationally productive dialogues are
those that teach thinking in the sense of
liberating students to be able to think for
themselves, regardless of what else they may also
learn’
The Guided Construction of Knowledge
Neil Mercer (1995)
• ‘Why do teachers talk to children? ......(to) provide
educational experiences which would be hard to
provide by any other means than by talk’
• ‘Some of the most creative thinking takes place
when people are talking together’
• ‘One of the opportunities that schools can offer
pupils is the chance to involve other people in
their thoughts – to use conversations to develop
their own thoughts’
How do these writers suggest
we can use talk more effectively
for learning?
Features of Dialogic Teaching
Alexander (2008)
• Collective: students (and the teacher) engage
together rather than working alone
• Reciprocal: listening, sharing and considering
alternative viewpoints
• Supportive: ideas articulated freely, no wrong
answers, common understandings reached
• Cumulative: build on each others’ ideas and
chain them into coherent lines of thought
• Purposeful: there is an educational goal
Impact of Dialogic Teaching in
practice - Alexander (2008)
•
•
•
•
•
•
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More probing questions from teachers
Pupil-teacher exchanges longer
More flexible of use of different types of talk
More (and longer) pupil responses
Increase in speculative answers
More pupil-pupil talk
Pupils comment and build on each others’
questions and ask new questions
Three Types of Talk
Mercer (1995)
1. Disputational Talk
– Lots of disagreement; individualised decision
making; short exchanges; assertions and counterassertions
2. Cumulative Talk
– Speakers build positively but uncritically on what
others have said; common knowledge accumulated;
repetitions, confirmations and elaborations
3. Exploratory Talk
Features of Exploratory Talk
• Exploratory talk is seen less often; more
sporadically
• Partners engage critically with each others’
ideas
• Statements and suggestions are offered for
joint consideration; these may be challenged
and counter-challenged
• Alternative hypotheses are suggested
• Reasoning is more visible in the talk
Encouraging Exploratory Talk
Mercer (1995)
• In research examples there has been shown
the need to guide both teachers and students
to encourage talk
• Mercer introduced ‘Talk Lessons’
• Need to stress the importance of:
– Sharing ALL relevant ideas and suggestions;
providing reasons for comments; asking others’
questions; trying to reach an agreement;
accepting the responsibility of the whole group to
engage
Dialogue, Thinking and Technology
Wegerif (2010)
• In Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates rejects writing for
fear of it’s negative impact on the thinking
associated with the process of engaging in
dialogue; he sees thinking and teaching as
inseparable but with words as ‘living’ things
• Dialogue as important as a way of interacting
with the ‘spark across difference’ and enabling
‘interthinking’ (Mercer, 2000)
• Perhaps we might see technology as having a role
in making ‘new and better kinds of thinking
possible’ by using it as a tool?
Technology and talk in Education
Wegerif (2010)
• Involved in exploratory talk research, Wegerif
noted that talk becomes better due to the
relationships between individuals
• He noted the importance of silences – they
usually preceded a leap in thinking
• In order to use technology we need the same
ground rules as for any other dialogue
• We need to use technology that allows for these
dialogues – with all the features of useful,
educational talk
Talk, Literacy and Writing
• Much talk of the need for student literacy
• Literacy as a feature of all lessons
• Much concern with text-speak and the effect of
technology on writing
• Students are digitally literate
• Might we be seeing the emergence of new
literacies?
• How concerned are we with literacy in group
discussions?
Some of the Issues
• ‘Talk and collaboration (group work) are not
inevitably useful’ (Mercer, 1995)
• Time needs to be invested in ‘learning to talk’
• Teachers need to be technologically literate
• Students need to be trusted and trustworthy
• Schools can be resistant to the use of these
technologies
Some of the Possibilities
• Students engaging with each other in a new
medium that they access regularly
• Students engaging in more productive dialogues
with each other and with the teacher
• Students learning to think through talking
• Students taking learning conversations beyond
the classroom
• Students using technology in an educational and
mature way
Thank you for listening.
Please feel free to follow up via
email: kathryn.clemmey@kcl.ac.uk
Any Questions?
References
• Alexander, R. J. (2008) Towards dialogic teaching:
Rethinking classroom talk. Cambridge: Dialogos.
• Mercer, N. (1995) The guided construction of
knowledge: Talk amongst teachers and learners.
Multilingual matters.
• Wegerif, R. (2010) Dialogue and teaching thinking
with technology. Educational dialogues:
Understanding and promoting productive
interaction, 304.