Participation, elaboration and challenge

This week at the Oracy Cambridge & Voice 21 conference I heard Sara Hennessy speak about her research on classroom dialogue. I enjoyed hearing more detail about this.

The key message we can take into our classrooms is that we need to

1. get multiple students to participate, and

2. ask them to elaborate, and

3. encourage query and challenge.

Important: the research found that it was the combination of these three elements which was found in the classrooms with the highest attainment.

Here are some useful talk moves to help with this:

Tell us more about that.

What makes you think that?

Can you give us some more detail about what you’re thinking?

What do you think about what Janie just said?

Does anyone disagree with that?

Do you agree or disagree with that, Sammy?

What do others think about that?

https://www.educ.cam.ac.uk/research/programmes/classroomdialogue/