Pauline Jones

Socio-emotional connections: identity, belonging and learning in online interactions. A literature review

This review focuses on three interconnected socio-emotional aspects of online learning: interaction, sense of community and identity formation. In the intangible social space of the virtual classroom, students come together to learn through dialogic, often asynchronous, exchanges. This creates distinctive learning environments where learning goals, interpersonal relationships and emotions are no less important because of their ‘virtualness’, and for which traditional face-to-face pedagogies are not neatly transferrable. The literature reveals consistent connections between interaction and sense of community. Yet identity, which plausibly and naturally emerges from any social interaction, is much less explored in online learning. While it is widely acknowledged that interaction increases the potential for knowledge-building, the literature indicates that this will be enhanced when opportunities encouraging students’ emergent identities are embedded into the curriculum. To encourage informed teaching strategies this review seeks to raise awareness and stimulate further exploration into a currently under-researched facet of online learning.

Talking to learn: dialogic teaching in conversation with educational linguistics

Research into classroom talk has a rich history in Anglophone countries. In the United Kingdom, notable examples include Britton’s (1970) exploration of the relationship between talking and thinking; Barnes and Todd’s work on exploratory talk (1977) – work subsequently further developed by Mercer (2000); and the recent emphasis on dialogue in pedagogy (Alexander 2008; Wegerif 2011). In North America, Cazden’s (2001) research has shaped understandings regarding the centrality of language in learning and its role in constructing knowledge in classrooms. Wells’ (1999) pioneering work in psychology and linguistics in dialogic inquiry has inspired many; and Resnick, Michaels, and O’Connor (2010) have proposed the notion of ‘accountable talk’ as a means of achieving productive classroom discussion. In Australia, Christie’s (2002) work, with its descriptions of curriculum genres, has highlighted the structured nature of classroom interactions, while Hammond and Gibbons (2005) (Hammond 2014) have addressed the role of talk in mediating pedagogical practices that both challenge and support students in their engagement with curriculum concepts. The papers in this Special Issue build on such traditions to focus on the place of talk in learning, and its relationship to literacy education. In particular, they focus on the relationship between the ‘dialogic turn’ that is evident in much of the recent literature on classroom talk (Myhill 2006; Skidmore 2006; Mercer and Littleton 2007; Alexander 2008; Mercer, Dawes, and Staarman 2009; Wegerif 2011) and contemporary educational linguistics. The notion of dialogic teaching resonates, in particular, with language-based approaches to learning such as that espoused by Halliday and colleagues (Halliday 1993, 1994, 2008; Christie and Martin 2007; Christie and Derewianka 2008). Proponents of dialogic approaches argue that teaching is a discursive act in a dialectical relationship with a sociocultural context comprising classroom, school and system – a relationship that is best understood by paying close attention to the actual talk between teachers and students in the moment-by-moment unfolding of classroom interactions (Alexander 2001). The papers in this Issue demonstrate that educational linguistics provides powerful tools for making dialogic moves more visible so that they may be better understood with respect to their educational consequences. The contributors – all of whom are language researchers and educators – draw on a range of recent empirical studies to demonstrate that dialogic approaches have particular relevance to language and literacy education as teachers across the world work to engage students from diverse backgrounds with increasingly complex fields of knowledge. The writers share an interest in talk about language as well as in the role of talk in learning, and they recognise the importance of teachers’ expertise in orchestrating dialogue that fosters students’ reflection on texts and meanings. A common theme and a number of questions emerge from papers in this Issue. Perhaps most obviously, the papers share a concern with making the role of language more explicit and more visible

The role of dialogic pedagogy in teaching grammar

Abstract The inclusion of the Knowledge about Language strand in the recently introduced Australian Curriculum: English (AC:E) is both promising and challenging. For the first time, students across primary and secondary years of schooling are expected to develop ‘a coherent, dynamic, and evolving body of knowledge about the English language and how it works’ (ACARA 2009). Yet, it has been documented that teachers are not well equipped with their linguistic and pedagogic knowledge to translate that knowledge into productive pedagogic practices (Hammond and Macken-Horarik 2001; Jones and Chen 2012). This challenge is confounded by the debate regarding what constitutes an appropriate pedagogy for contemporary grammar teaching. Grammar teaching bears the weight of its own history of practices that were often decidedly ‘undialogic’. Unless new ways of fostering the development of students’ knowledge about language are developed, the potential of the innovative English Curriculum risks being undermined. In this study, we consider what dialogic teaching principles (Alexander 2008) might offer an engaging, productive pedagogy for grammar teaching. We offer a linguistic account of the dialogic principles as they are enacted in this classroom. Thus providing insights into the complexities of the principles in action. We also argue for knowledge of classroom talk as a resource for engaging learners with grammar and for fostering the metalinguistic understandings imagined in this curriculum reform.