Dialogic Classroom

The term ‘dialogic teaching’ is now in regular use but it means very different things to different people. 

Dialogic teaching is not just any talk. It is as distinct from the question-answer and listen-tell routines of traditional teaching as it is from the casual conversation of informal discussion. It harnesses the power of talk to engage children, stimulate and extend their thinking, and advance the learning and understanding. It helps the class teacher to use assessment for learning effectively, to diagnose students’ needs, differentiate tasks and assess their progress. 

Dialogic teaching is part of a large repertoire of classroom talk and as part of their cognitive development children need to gain competency in a range of forms of talk such as:
  • Teacher-pupil interaction
  • Pupil-pupil interaction
  • Questioning
  • Feedback
  • Pupil talk
This course focuses on the use of dialogic teaching to harness the power of talk to stimulate and extend children's thinking and advance their learning and understanding.
Close Window