Reporting on a Grade 4 teaching and learning sequence, we highlight foundational constructs of measurement and data modelling which are fundamental to competence development in both science and mathematics. The sequence involved students generating and representing measures of their teacher's arm-span, with a focus on the invention and refinement…

Science education in the Arab world is conducted in various multilingual contexts. When science is taught in Arabic, diglossia -- the coexistence of the formal language of literacy alongside a local spoken variety -- constitutes a multilingual setting the pedagogical implications of which need to be understood. This study compares teacher--student…

This study highlighted the characteristics and patterns of preservice teachers' informal formative assessment conversations woven into mathematics classrooms. Participants were four preservice teachers from an elementary mathematics methods course whose videotaped lessons were analyzed using an analytic framework based on Initiation, Response and…

This paper reports on a conversation analytic study into the pass-on turns that teachers produce to return the floor to the class following one student's contribution, in the context of whole-class discussions around texts in 4th grade history and geography lessons. These pass-on turns are remarkable, as the teachers take the turn in order to…

What is the appropriate unit of analysis for the study of classroom discourse? One common analytic strategy employs individual discourse moves, which are coded, counted and used as indicators of the quality of classroom talk. In this article we question this practice, arguing that discourse moves are positioned within sequences that critically…

Being challenged by opposing views in a controversial discussion can stimulate the production of more elaborate and sophisticated argumentations. According to the model of argument reappraisal (Leitão, 2000), such processes require transactivity, meaning that students do not only give reasons to support their own position (e.g., pro/contra…

The paper proposes a theoretical and methodological framework based on a pluralistic, concerted approach to the study of activities that take place in and through speech interactions. The framework has a general scope, applying to any collective activity taking form through language interactions. It contributes to a fuller understanding of the…

Background: A sequential analysis of classroom discourse is needed to investigate the conditions under which the triadic initiation-response-feedback (IRF) pattern may host different teaching orientations. Aim: The purpose of the study is twofold: first, to describe the characteristics of classroom discourse and, second, to identify and explore…

The 7th International Conference on Education Data Mining held on July 4th-7th, 2014, at the Institute of Education, London, UK is the leading international forum for high-quality research that mines large data sets in order to answer educational research questions that shed light on the learning process. These data sets may come from the traces…