Is ‘exploratory talk’ productive talk?

Abstract

This chapter is about the effective use of talk by children as a social mode of thinking and as a medium for their education. It also deals with the role of the classroom teacher and the use of computer-based activities in school. We put forward a characterisation of an educationally productive kind of talk, derived mainly from observational research on children working together at the computer in classrooms. This characterisation involves the concept of exploratory talk, a concept which we will explain in due course. We also deal with some issues of methodology, suggesting that new tools are needed for the investigation of the role of spoken language and joint activity in collaborative learning: tools which address the ways that intersubjectivity is pursued through dialogue, and which allow applied educational researchers to evaluate the quality of collaborative activity. The results of a recent classroom-based study are used to illustrate the utility of our conception of exploratory talk as educationally productive talk, and to demonstrate how qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis can complement one another in this field of investigation.

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