Classroom Interaction for LearningDebra Myhill

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Session Focus The quality of participation:

Who participates in classroom talk? How much do they participate? What is the quality of the contribution they make?

The quality of teacher-student interaction: What is the nature of the interactions? How effectively is questioning used? What kind of learning is talk promoting?

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Key Messages Talk is central to students’ learning: a talking classroom

is a learning classroom.

Teachers talk too much; children don’t talk enough.

Developing talk in the classroom is not an added extra: it is quintessentially about how you teach.

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Effective Classroom TalkWhat is effective classroom talk? Individually, write statement strips with your own thinking about classroom talk:

Talk in the classroom is good when…

Talk in the classroom is less effective when…

Move into groups: each person share the thinking reflected on their statement strips, and use this to stimulate discussion about effective classroom talk.Choose the two descriptions of good talk and two of less effective talk with which your group agree most strongly.

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Effective Classroom Talk is inclusive: all learners are involved; involves more student talk than teacher talk; promotes high-level thinking and knowledge

development; is differentiated to match learners’ needs; is varied: whole class; pairs; groups.

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Classroom Talk for LearningTalk as a tool for learning: generates thought (eg my ideas about why countries fight); puts thought into words (eg my feelings about animal

experiments); crystallises ideas (eg how I worked out a Maths calculation); clarifies understanding (eg can I explain photosynthesis to my

partner); creates intellectual knowledge (eg knowledge of soil erosion); develops social knowledge (eg how to collaborate and take

turns).

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THE QUALITY OF PARTICIPATION IN TALK

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Who Participates?

High-achievers offer to answer more and are invited to answer more

Low-achievers are often uninvolved or passive during whole class talk

Disruptive boys are invited to answer (a control mechanism)

Attainment level more significant factor in participation than gender

Teachers have a turn for every alternate utterance Teachers’ contributions to the talk are longer and more

extended

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St James: Participation Pupil Premium students? Ethnic minority students? Boy-heavy classes? Subject differences?

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Fostering Participation create psychological safety (pass; phone a friend; traffic lights

…) seating strategies (varied for purpose) operate a ‘no hands up’ policy (teacher selection) physical resources (whiteboards; cards; counters…) randomising strategies (Talking Hat; bingo numbers..) give thinking time (use IWB timer/egg timer/pair and share…) generate expectation of all responding (write down 2

things…)

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Disrupt whole class talk with quick burst of pair or group talk listening triads talking partners one minute ‘talk about it’ buzz sessions

Make better use of pair and group work focused tasks with clear outcomes presentation and feedback tasks clarity about talk roles

Fostering Participation

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Fostering Participation generating a more inclusive talking classroom is

relatively easy to achieve; the active use of a range of strategies is easy to

implement with rapid effects; students learn what is expected of them and

participation becomes part of the classroom routine.

The strategies are simply tactics for getting a more participatory classroom; it is a necessary precondition for effective talk, but is not enough on its own.

It is easy for this to become superficial and gimmicky: select strategy to match your intentions.

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THE QUALITY OF WHOLE CLASS TALK

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Whole Class Talk Extensive research over 30 years showing that teachers

dominate whole class talk (Edwards and Westgate 1984; Galton 1999).

The National Strategy was predicated on belief that interactive, participatory whole class talk helps learning

Policy advocated interactive participatory talk which involves all students and offers them a chance to think through talk and to elaborate and expand upon their ideas.

‘Every Child a Talker’

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Whole-class Talk Patterns Recitation script: (IRF) interaction-response-feedback Teacher-child-teacher-child (like table tennis) Teachers echo and repeat student responses Student-initiated interactions are rare Teachers get a ‘turn’ every alternate turn Teachers give long responses to students’ answers In primary, the average length of a student response is

4 words

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Why do teachers talk too much?

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What are questions for? to focus on a new topic to stimulate interest or excitement in a topic/idea to create time for reflection to practise a new skill to consolidate understanding to clarify understanding of a concept to assess learning to speculate and hypothesise to develop connections between prior and new learning to explore misconceptions to identify gaps in learning to revise learning to gain feedback on your teaching to share views and opinions …

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Moving away from IRFPose: ask the big question – making sure students are listening

and know that a response is not expected yetPause: give thinking time (don’t rush this)Pounce: select someone to answer; give no responseBounce: bounce to next person, who can add a thought, comment

or new idea to the first response

Beware of the Superficial: it is not the PPPB which is really important here but the underlying practice: making students know the question is important; giving thinking time; not evaluating the first response; taking a range of answers

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QuestioningTypes of question closed - open factual – speculative convergent – divergent lower level – higher level

BUT it is easy to get bogged down in types or classifications of questions: it IS important to answer questions which stimulate challenging thinking. However, it is even more important to develop the ability to listen to student responses and to extend thinking through the way you interact with them.

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Questioning ThinkingYEAR 2 SCIENCE: Growing a broad beanTeacher: What they are going to need? A jar?Children: Yes.Teacher: A paper towel?Children: Yes.Teacher: Water?Children: Yes.Teacher: A label?Children: Yes.Teacher: A pencil to write the label with?Children: Yes.Teacher: Is that it?Children: Broad beans.Teacher: You’ll need a broad bean as well, won’t

you

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Questioning ThinkingTeacher: Would anyone like to explain to me how they know their number is in the 5 times table? ….Susie: If it’s in the five times table it means it’s like, the number. Teacher: Come on, Susie, we were just doing it together just then.Susie: If it’s in the fives times table it always has a five in it.Teacher: (The teacher turns back to address the whole class.) Right, Susie was almost there, when she said it’s always got a five on the end. She’s not quite there is she? Who can add just that little bit that she needs to make it quite right? Ryan? Sean? Ok, don’t worry. Olivia? (Hand up.)

Olivia: It’s either got 5 or a 0.Teacher: Or a 0. Well done, do you remember now…….it ends in a 5 or a 0, so if yours ended with a 5 or a 0 (Glances around room.) then you’re bound to be right. Well done. Very good. Ok.

P4C: Year 2-3 children

Teacher: Why did the mother think that her baby was best?

Child: Because it was beautiful. She thought it was beautiful.

Child: She thought it was beautiful because she was the mother.

Teacher: What does it mean to be beautiful? Child: It means someone thinks you are lovely. Child: You are perfect ... Child: Good to look at. Teacher: Can you be beautiful even if no-one thinks you

are lovely? Child: No. You can’t be beautiful if no-one thinks you are

beautiful. Child: You can be beautiful inside, you can feel

beautiful ...

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Effective Questioning?A Questioning Classroom: Students initiate

questions, and query others’ responses;

Students listen to each other’s responses;

Students build on each other’s ideas;

Students’ answers are elaborated;

‘Wrong’ answers are a good starting-point for discussion.

An Unquestioning Classroom: Teachers ask questions,

students answer; Students ‘recite’ answers

to the teacher; Students express own

opinions, but do not listen to others’;

Students answers are single word or very short responses;

Wrong answers are rejected or put down.

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Effective Questioning plan key questions in advance check that open questions genuinely invite open responses know when a closed, factual response is appropriate use higher level questioning (analysis, synthesis, evaluation) allow wait (thinking) time before taking responses use process questions which invite explanation of thinking avoid giving feedback or commentary on every response sustain question through a chain of responses create space for student-generated questions try to generate interaction patterns which avoid repeated T-P-T-P patterns (students centre-stage not teacher)

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PLENARY

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Talk in the new CurriculumSpoken language

Pupils should be taught to speak clearly and convey ideas confidently using Standard English. They should learn to justify ideas with reasons; ask questions to check understanding; develop vocabulary and build knowledge; negotiate; evaluate and build on the ideas of others; and select the appropriate register for effective communication. They should be taught to give well-structured descriptions and explanations and develop their understanding through speculating, hypothesising and exploring ideas. This will enable them to clarify their thinking as well as organise their ideas for writing.

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OfstedInspectors must consider whether ‘teachers use questioning and discussion to assess the effectiveness of their teaching and promote pupils’ learning”School inspection handbook from September 2012

More guidance on good questioning:http://www.fromgoodtooutstanding.com/2012/05/ofsted-2012-questioning-to-promote-learning

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Transforming Talk Using strategies to ensure an inclusive and participatory

classroom; Consciously avoiding table tennis interaction (T-C-T-C-T) and

Initiation-Response-Feedback (IRF) patterns; Developing stronger questioning skills which are more effective

at fostering learning and higher-level thinking; Pursuing a chain of questioning, taking responses from one

student to another, and listening hard to their responses; Using student responses as a starting-point for a line of

thinking; Generating student questions.

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Pedagogic dialogue Dialogic pedagogy

Teacher controlledClosed interactionsLimited participation‘Right’ answers valuedTeacher owns truthTeacher talks mostClosed structure

Teacher managedOpen interactionsHigh participationAll answers valuedShared quest for truthExtended student contributionsOpen structure

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The Student’s Perspective

‘If you can talk about it then you can understand what you’ve got to do.

‘If you don’t understand something then you talk to your friend and he might be able to explain it to you in a way you can understand.’

‘If you don’t understand what the teacher says you can ask a friend how they and you can ask them how to do it and they, like...explain it better to you than they explain it...’

‘I’d like them to explain it rather than, just, someone says the answer then it’s … just move on to the next question. I’d rather they explain how they did it and got the answer.’