Tom Koole

Displays of Epistemic Access: Student Responses to Teacher Explanations

This article presents an analysis of classroom encounters in which teachers explain mathematics problems to individual students. In these encounters, the students produce different displays of epistemic access, including displays of knowing and displays of understanding. This article argues in the first place that displays of knowing and displays of understanding are different interactional objects that come in different sequential positions. In the second place, it argues that some sequences have a preference for a claim of epistemic access, while others have a preference for a demonstration.

The online support group as a community: A micro-analysis of the interaction with a new member

Generally, online support groups are viewed as low-threshold services. We challenge this assumption with an investigation, based on Conversation Analysis and Membership Categorization Analysis, of contributions to an online support group on eating disorders. In this analysis we show how a new member interacts with existing members in order to display legitimacy for membership of the group. The group operates as a Community of Practice, since membership is organized as joined participation in a writing practice. It becomes clear that becoming a member involves subscribing to normative requirements, centrally, displaying the insight that you are ill. In the case we focus on, this involves the requirement to leave pro-anorexia as a membership category behind. The novice does not yet seem ready to subscribe to this norm and thus the threshold for seeking support is heightened.

The reconstruction of intercultural discourse: Methodological considerations

Abstract This paper is concerned with a methodology for the study of intercultural communication. We argue that intercultural communication should be regarded and analyzed as ordinary communication. Intercultural communication is often analyzed as a type of communication in which meanings and communicative practices are not shared between the participants, thus leading to miscommunication. Still, intercultural communication, as any type of communication, is only possible when interactants construct a common ground of meanings and practices that are oriented to as shared, and which we have called ‘intercultural discourse’. We therefore propose an analysis of intercultural communication which aims at the reconstruction of the ‘common ground’ and of the process of its construction. This process can, but need not be characterized by misunderstandings. In this paper, we illustrate this reconstruction method with an analysis of the construction of word meaning in Dutch-Surinamese work-meetings of educational specialists in the Netherlands.

Parallel Activities in the Classroom.

This paper reports on a study of classroom interaction as a multi-party and multi-activity phenomenon. On the basis of video-recorded lessons in secondary education schools in the Netherlands, observational records were made of the behaviour of individual students throughout lessons. The main argument in this paper is that when students engage in parallel activities, and in spite of their very different ways of doing this, they show an orientation to the activity in which the teacher is involved as the central activity. It is argued that one aspect of what makes a lesson recognisable as a lesson is this common orientation to the teachers activity as the central activity.

The Interactive Construction of Heterogeneity in the Classroom

In this paper I will be concerned with differences between students in classrooms. The research I report on is part of a larger project in which linguists, psychologists, anthropologists, and educationalists collaborate to study processes of inclusion and exclusion at the level of interaction in the classroom. We have gone into the classroom and have recorded the interactions that occur there between teacher and students and between students, in order to get a grip on the interactive processes of inclusion and exclusion that occur in the classroom and on the aspects that play a role in these processes. The project focuses on multi-ethnic classes in The Netherlands and aims to study students’ differences in participation in classroom interaction and to see whether these differences are related to linguistic, ethnic, cultural, and gender differences. Figures on educational achievement in The Netherlands show that in the Dutch educational system, students from the immigrant population do not perform as well as native Dutch students. Lowest achievers are the Moroccan students, in particular Moroccan boys (Fase & Kleijer, 1996; Leeman & Phalet, 1998).1 This paper reports on the first phase of this research. It presents an analysis of the ways in which diversity in the classroom is brought about. I will analyze interactional classroom data to demonstrate different interactional processes of constructing heterogeneity in the classroom and argue how the diversity constructed at the local level of interaction can be related to diversity at the more global level of linguistic, ethnic, cultural, and gender diversity. I will analyze interactions between the teacher and individual students, and between the teacher and the class in terms of students’ participation in different activities, and their opportunities

When seconds count: a study of communication variables in the opening segment of emergency calls

The opening sequence of an emergency call influences the efficiency of the ambulance dispatch time. The greeting sequences in 105 calls to a South African emergency service were analysed. Initial results suggested the advantage of a specific two-part opening sequence. An on-site experiment aimed at improving call efficiency was conducted during one shift (1100 calls). Results indicated reduced conversational repairs and a significant reduction of 4 seconds in mean call length. Implications for systems and training are derived.

Using Conversation Analysis to Improve an Augmented Communication Tool

An ALS (amyotrofic lateral sclerosis) patient could only move her eyes and interacted through a MyTobii AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) tool with eye-tracking and speech synthesizing technology. Conversation analysis of 75 minutes of video-recorded talk-in-interaction with her family members revealed a timing problem with turn taking. In response, we provided the tool with keys for direct yes and no answers. We tested the results with further recordings and in experimental settings and found that the new keys facilitated her responsiveness. Moreover, her interlocutors changed how they interacted with her. Data are in Dutch with English translation.

‘And then you can decide’ – antenatal foetal diagnosis decision making in South Africa

Decision making is integral to genetic counselling and the premise is that autonomous decisions emerge if patients are provided with information in a non‐directive manner. The pivotal activity in antenatal diagnosis counselling with at‐risk pregnant women is decision making regarding invasive procedures. This process is not well understood in multicultural settings.

Emotionele 112-gesprekken : emoties, reacties en effecten

Emotion in emergency calls: Emotion, responses, and effects Call-takers in emergency call-centres report that one of their most difficult tasksis todealwith emotionalcallerssincethese haveproblemsincollaborating to achieve the goal of the call, the quick and accurate gathering of required information. This investigation gives insight in the interaction between call-takers and emotional callers. First we map out callers’ emotion acts. Then we look how call-takers respond to these acts. And finally we will discuss the effects of these responses on the emotional caller. The research data consist of 60 calls to the national Dutch emergency call-centre in Driebergen and the local emergency call-centre in Utrecht. After categorising the emotion acts it became clear that only two of them caused interactional problems. Crying callers do not stick to the rules of sequential organization. Screaming callers go against the rules of turn organization. Not only do callers behave differently, also call-takers respond differently to different emotion acts. Crying is more often responded to with sympathetic responses while screaming more often receives directives.

Participation in interdisciplinary meetings on genetic diagnostics (NGS)

Diagnostics using next generation sequencing (NGS) requires high-quality interdisciplinary collaboration. In order to gain insight into this crucial collaborative process, we made video recordings of a new multidisciplinary team at work in the clinical genetics department of the University Medical Centre Groningen. Conversation Analysis was used to investigate the ways in which the team members deal with the disciplinary boundaries between them. We found that the team established different ‘participation frames’ in which to discuss recurring topics. Patients were discussed only by the medical doctors, whereas results of genetic tests were discussed by doctors, molecular biologists and genetic laboratory technicians. Information technology (IT) aspects were discussed by biologists, genetics analysts and bio-informaticians, but not doctors. We then interviewed team members who said they believed that the division of labour embodied in these participation frames contributes to achieving their team’s goals.