Dialogic Teaching: Professional Development in Classroom Discussion to Improve Students' Argument Literacy

Purpose: Student active engagement in classroom discussion, particularly through reasoned argument, has been linked to improved reading and writing achievement and reasoning in other subject areas. However, in typical classrooms, teachers dominate talk, delivering lectures, and students recite material in response to teacher questions (i.e., monologic techniques). This research team intends to develop, refine, and test a professional development program designed to promote dialogic teaching—an approach which relies on open discussion and supports student comprehension and formulation of arguments through speaking, listening, reading, and writing. In this approach, the teacher facilitates student dialogue by drawing the class's attention to the quality of the reasoning, inclusiveness of their group interactions, and progress of their inquiry from debatable questions to reasoned arguments. The professional development program aims to improve both teacher awareness of dialogic versus monologic techniques and their use of dialogic techniques. In turn, dialogic classroom practices are expected to increase students' argument literacy and reading comprehension.