This study is a qualitative study conducted to examine the effect of socioscientific issues (SSI) on discourse patterns used in the classroom. The research was conducted with four elementary science teachers working in a public school. The research was designed as case studies of these four teachers and data resources were video recordings of…

This study identified the accumulated distributions of the enacted discursive moves during classroom inquiry to demonstrate how a science teacher reacted to the existence of two mutually exclusive social languages: everyday social languages of the students vs. social languages of school science. The participants were a science teacher and 26…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA, 2015), which replaced the federal government's education policy called the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB, 2002), takes full effect in the 2017-2018 school year with renewed focus on accountability systems established by each state. States must have for their middle schools rigorous accountability systems in…

Encouraging students to participate in collaborative discourse allows students to constructively engage one another, share ideas, develop joint understanding of the course content, and practice making scientific arguments. Argumentation is an important skill for students to learn, but students need to be given the opportunity in class to engage in…

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…

Complex adaptive systems theory served as a framework for this qualitative study exploring the process of how meaning emerges from the collective interactions of individuals in a synchronous online discussion through their shared words about a topic. In an effort to bridge levels of analysis from the individual to the small group to the community,…

This study used the Quality Talk and dialogic teaching approach with a group of secondary school teachers (N = 7) to train their facilitation of dialogical discussions by small groups of students. The study used video and audio analysis to assess the teachers' observable behaviours during these discussions, before and after professional…

In this article, we examine the ways in which an ESL instructor constructs contextually relevant meanings through the synchronization of speech and gesture during unplanned vocabulary explanations. Video recorded data are analysed, with focus on an in-class homework review in which students demonstrated difficulty in comprehending several key…

Learning a language in a formal context is not the same as learning a language in a natural setting, in that the goal of one of the participants in the communicative events that occur in the classroom, the teacher, is to teach a language. For this reason, the majority of the actions undertaken by the participants are directed at achieving that…

This article reports a case study on classroom interaction in teacher education in Norway. It addresses how teacher students in the school subject Norwegian constitute scientific talk in a student-led discussion. First, the analysis reveals tension in the classroom conversation between "mundane talk"--that is, where students make claims…

Conceptualised from a range of sociological perspectives, and theorised extensively over the last 50 years, human agency is an integral element to lifelong learning. Poststructural theory with its decentred discursive construction of the learner offers a vibrant conception of classroom dynamics. This paper envisions how learner agency can be…

This study examines teacher discourse strategies used in kindergarten inquiry-based science learning as part of the Scientific Literacy Project (SLP) (Mantzicopoulos, Patrick & Samarapungavan, 2005). Four public kindergarten science classrooms were chosen to implement science teaching strategies using a guided-inquiry approach. Data were…

In his model of classroom social identification and learning, Wortham (2006. "Learning Identity". New York: Cambridge University Press) conceptualizes identity processes as enveloped within multiple timescales unfolding simultaneously in varying paces. For Wortham (2008. "Shifting Identities in the Classroom." In "Identity…

We investigate the instructional coaching interactions between a kindergarten teacher and an experienced coach using the analytic lens of dialogic teaching. The data were collected in the context of a US professional development project that supports urban elementary school teachers in enacting critical sociocultural teaching practices. We…

In every society, language plays a vital role in communicating with each other as it allows speakers to expand their knowledge, deliver their ideas, opinions and feelings in the society. English, as a global language, provides a platform for communication for people who speak the language. Due to the growing trend in linguistic globalisation,…