TALKING IN THE CLASSROOM Talking to learn: Why biology students should be talking in classrooms and how to make it happen Kimberly D. Tanner * Tanner, K. (2009). Approaches to Biology Teaching and Learning: Why Biology Students Should be Talking in Classrooms and How to Make It Happen. CBE – Life sciences Education, 8, 89-94

Why should learners talk in the classroom? What evidence is there that learners’ talking leads to better learning? From a constructivist view learning is an active process It involves individual and social processses New knowledge is constructed by each single learner, an active process

Why should learners talk in the classroom? What evidence is there that learners’ talking leads to better learning? Talking activates the learner Talking leads to questions. Being able to formulate questions and to respond to questions requires reasoning Reasoning: To think logically and to justify one’s thinking

Those learners who are engaged in explaining something to another experience the strongest effect on their learning

To explain and to discuss something is the same I use to have discussions with my parents, we always disagree In a discussion you sometimes need to explain things In a discussion you only say what you mean. You don’t explain. To explain and to discuss are two different things

Definition of discussion : the act of talking about something with another person or a group of people : a conversation about something : a speech or piece of writing that gives information, ideas, opinions, etc., about something

TALKING IN THE CLASSROOM A B Discussion A and B discuss together, they may explain things to each other Explain A explains something to B A B

THE MOSQUITO NET EXPERIMENT A and B, discuss and explain: How can we explain the phenomena we have observed in the experiment? Did you use models or analogies in your discussion (explaination)? Try to find examples of the same phenomena in daily life

TALKING IN THE CLASSROOM symmetric Classroom talk asymmetric Between teacher and learners Between individual learners

TALKING IN THE CLASSROOM Between teacher and learners Most common: IRF(E) I (teacher invites) R (learners respond) F (teacher gives feedback) E (teacher evaluates the learners’ response )