Students don’t always speak up in class unless they know the right answer. This strategy encourages them to talk as a way to create knowledge.
As teachers, we often ask questions to elicit a specific correct answer. We get into patterns where we ask a question, the student answers, and we evaluate that answer. However, limiting classroom discussion exclusively to this popcorn style of question, response, and evaluation may also limit learning. When we set up a discussion this way, students only talk when they already know the correct answer, and some students never talk at all.
In my book The Independent Learner, I discuss the topic of metacognitive talk. When metacognitive talk is employed as an instructional tool, students learn to use discussion as a way to build knowledge instead of just participating to display what they already know.
METACOGNITIVE TALK IN THE CLASSROOM
Psychologists have long advocated the idea of metacognitive talk; Jean Piaget believed that children benefited from being active participants in the construction of knowledge, and Lev S. Vygotsky introduced the idea that students can co-construct knowledge through social interactions. Talking with their peers, asking questions, and debating best approaches to problem-solving help students develop more complex thinking and reasoning skills. Conversations can create productive conflict that helps students develop multiple perspectives, leading to deeper learning.
If students are given clear directions and guidelines for their discussions, interacting with peers can be more effective than working only independently and as effective as working one-on-one with an adult.
However, popular techniques like “turn and talk” to your neighbour may not be structured enough to be effective at cocreating knowledge. During discussions, students need to do the following:
- Examine their thinking process and the approach they used in order to identify different ways of solving a particular problem;
- Explore diverse strategies or varying viewpoints;
- Use active listening strategies to take in and then test out ideas and methods that are different from their own;
- Debate or negotiate to reach a consensus in their discussions before presenting to the group.
In practice, this often looks like the teacher talking for a short time at the beginning of the lesson, with students working independently to decide on a strategy and try a skill on their own and then spending the majority of learning time engaged in discussion.
As teachers, we often ask questions to elicit a specific correct answer. We get into patterns where we ask a question, the student answers, and we evaluate that answer. However, limiting classroom discussion exclusively to this popcorn style of question, response, and evaluation may also limit learning. When we set up a discussion this way, students only talk when they already know the correct answer, and some students never talk at all.
In my book The Independent Learner, I discuss the topic of metacognitive talk. When metacognitive talk is employed as an instructional tool, students learn to use discussion as a way to build knowledge instead of just participating to display what they already know.
METACOGNITIVE TALK IN THE CLASSROOM
Psychologists have long advocated the idea of metacognitive talk; Jean Piaget believed that children benefited from being active participants in the construction of knowledge, and Lev S. Vygotsky introduced the idea that students can co-construct knowledge through social interactions. Talking with their peers, asking questions, and debating best approaches to problem-solving help students develop more complex thinking and reasoning skills. Conversations can create productive conflict that helps students develop multiple perspectives, leading to deeper learning.
If students are given clear directions and guidelines for their discussions, interacting with peers can be more effective than working only independently and as effective as working one-on-one with an adult.
However, popular techniques like “turn and talk” to your neighbour may not be structured enough to be effective at cocreating knowledge. During discussions, students need to do the following:
- Examine their thinking process and the approach they used in order to identify different ways of solving a particular problem;
- Explore diverse strategies or varying viewpoints;
- Use active listening strategies to take in and then test out ideas and methods that are different from their own;
- Debate or negotiate to reach a consensus in their discussions before presenting to the group.
In practice, this often looks like the teacher talking for a short time at the beginning of the lesson, with students working independently to decide on a strategy and try a skill on their own and then spending the majority of learning time engaged in discussion.