Standardized interviewing (SI) and conversational interviewing are two approaches to collect survey data that differ in how interviewers address respondent confusion. This article examines interviewer-respondent interactions that occur during these two techniques, focusing on requests for and provisions of clarification. The data derive from an…

This naturalistic, qualitative study examines the nature of child- and adult-led interactions in a children's museum. Using dialogic learning as a theoretical framework, the study examines how children and adults engage in interactions while learning at a museum. Findings suggest that children and adults are almost equally likely to lead…

This paper describes how early childhood teachers' incorporation of pauses raises the quality of talk-in-interaction during play-based mathematics activities. Responses of both children and teachers are shown to be more contingent and expansive when conversations include protracted pauses than during interactions in which pauses are largely…

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 aim of this article is to further the understanding of how content is learned in classrooms, using conversation analysis (CA) and variation theory for the analysis. Classroom video materials from two mathematics classrooms in Sweden and the USA are analysed. A result of the study is the empirical explication of the tension between the need for…

The purpose of this study was to state several desired teacher behaviors relative to the development of cognitive skills in young children and to determine the extent to which those behaviors could be achieved. The study involved 16 students in a graduate course, all of whom were currently or had been teachers. Each graduate student recorded a…

In a sociolinguistic study of five transcripts of high school discussions, two analyses were conducted. The first was a detailed qualitative analysis of the data, which combined paralinguistic features with three perspectives: a speech act analysis, a conversation analysis, and an interaction analysis. In the second, more quantitative analysis,…

Discovery of which learner characteristics or aptitudes interact with different methods of instruction is the objective of this research study. A model is used to match the cognitive, motivational, value, and sensory orientations of the student with forms of presentation considered compatible with characteristics of the learner. Description of the…

Background: After the failure of several important methods comparison studies in the 1960s, the influence of interaction analysis stimulated interest in foreign language classroom processes. More careful observational studies gradually revealed which process variables were of interest. Also, there has been much research on teacher talk, with a…