Dialogic Pedagogy at Scale: Oblique Perspectives

Abstract

Much of the rest of the book responds, albeit not explicitly, to Cazden’s and Mehan’s evidential challenge, to the extent that its cumulative thesis can be characterised thus. First, provided that it is authentically conceived and effectively fostered, the kinds of classroom talk examined here ‐ dialogic, deliberative, argumentative, exploratory, reciprocal, accountable (to pluck but six typical terms from the book’s linguistic lexicon) - provide tools for student engagement, learning and cognitive advancement of unique and undeniable power. In short ‐ to add a triumphant seventh - such talk is academically productive. Second, the resulting cognitive and communicative gains transfer convincingly from one curriculum domain to another, and offer larger benefits for social cohesion, cultural engagement and democratic vitality. Third, the evidence available to support these claims is increasingly of a kind that should make even hardened sceptics take notice, especially those policymakers and functionaries whose vision of schooling rises no higher than how well students perform in standardised tests and how unquestioningly their teachers comply with what the common core ordains. To them this book confidently proclaims: high quality classroom talk raises educational standards, both those that can be tested and those for which more sophisticated forms of assessment are required. Yet contributors also acknowledge that talk of the kind advocated here remains rarer than it should be or than in this era of ‘evidence-informed practice’ one might reasonably expect, and this evidence/practice shortfall has prompted the book’s current section. Since in relation to the traditional diet of recitation/IRE both hard evidence and viable alternatives have been in the public domain for several decades, we have to ask why their impact remains so limited. Certainly, with so much evidence available it cannot be presumed that the problem will be solved by generating even more. The challenge now, contributors agree, is to mainstream what we know and what is done well so as to achieve a critical mass in both practice and evidence that will make wider pedagogical transformation unstoppable. Hence the preoccupation with scale. The practice must be scaled up, we are told, while at the same time research on classroom talk should graduate from a scattered community of singlecase cottage industries, however insightful these may be for those who already care, to a unified drive for data covering large populations. This, by sheer force of numbers and a

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