Use of questions and feedback to generate discussion

1
Use of questions and feedback to generate
discussion
2
The study in context

• This study looked at how interactive
  classrooms operate and the strategies teachers
  employ to support pupils shared and individual
  learning e.g. through the use of reasoning
  skills, exploration and discussion.

3
Feedback strategies teachers used to create
interactive classrooms

• In primary literacy and numeracy lessons teachers
• built on pupils responses
• encouraged children to feedback to each other
• used pupils input to shape lessons

4
Techniques for building on pupils responses to
establish dialogue

• Teachers used prompts such as oh, ooh, ah,
  gave opinions and drew on personal experiences,
  e.g.
• Pupil Ehm, its a guitar with laser stringsits
  for teenagers that actually know how to play the
  guitar
• Teacher Ah, now I have to say I think thats
  going to appeal to people who play guitar. I know
  my sister plays the guitar, it drives her mad
  every time the strings break

5
Encouraging children to feedback to each other

• Teachers invited pupils to respond to each
  others answers for example
• - Teacher Ok ready three, two, one, show me,
  brilliant, pupils name read it out for me
  please.
• - Pupil Fourfour hundred and twenty thousand.
• - Teacher Pupil thinks shes got four hundred
  and twenty thousand, anybody want to disagree?

6
Drawing on pupils input to shape lessons

• Teachers actively engaged pupils in developing
  the lesson for example
• - Pupil You could rotate it a shape and then
  that would fit.
• - Teacher Ooh rotate it then
• - Pupil Ok, ehm right laughs... pause as pupil
  tries to draw rotated shape
• - Teacher It is a bit tricky isnt it? Can you
  on the whiteboards in front of you try and rotate
  the shape? teacher opens the task to the whole
  class

7
How did teachers use open questions to stimulate
discussion?

• Teachers used open questions which invited
  multiple answers and encouraged children to
  discuss and negotiate a final answer for
  example
• Teacher Ok what things are important in
  instructions? If we were going to write a
  checklist for when I do this with my class next
  year, what things would you say to them? What
  would have to be in your instructions?

8
How did teachers use closed questions to
stimulate interaction?

• Effective teachers used closed questions to build
  on pupils thinking and draw in others
  responses, e.g. the teacher is explaining that
  multiplying by 100 is the same as multiplying by
  10 and then 10 again, a pupil asked the following
  commented
• - Pupil You know when you times it by 20, you do
  two 10s.
• Teacher No, think carefully its not two 10s is
  it, its 1 times 10 and then you?
• - Pupil Double it.
• Teacher Do you see where you went wrong there?

9
Who were the children in the study?

• The researchers observed and analysed teacher-
  pupil interaction in 213 primary literacy and
  numeracy lessons (114 Year 5 literacy and
  numeracy lessons in 2003, and 99 Year 5 and 6
  lessons in 2004)

10
How was the information gathered?

• The researchers observed and analysed classroom
  interactions over a two year period
• They used hand held computers and video to record
  lessons
• They selected five literacy and five numeracy
  lessons that showed the most interaction to
  investigate teacher behaviours in more detail

11
How can teachers use this evidence?

• The study found that teachers played a key part
  in creating and maintaining effective discussion.
  You could reflect on how you use dialogue in your
  lessons. Can you think of a lesson where your
  pupils had a good discussion and learning took
  place?
• What role did you play in helping those
  discussions?
• Are there any particular effective strategies you
  used that you would use again?

12
How can school leaders use this evidence?

• The study found that some teachers were effective
  in stimulating discussion in their classrooms and
  others less so. How effective are staff in your
  school in exploiting the potential of interactive
  teaching and learning?
• Do you have staff members who are effective
  promoters of classroom dialogue?
• Could you engage them in coaching other staff who
  are trying to develop in this area?

13
Follow-up reading

• Study reference Smith, H. Higgins, S. Opening
  classroom interaction the importance of feedback
  (2006) Cambridge Journal of Education Vol. 36,
  No. 4, pp. 485-502
• The GTCs Research of the Month (RoM) website
  presents a number of research summaries that
  cover relevant fields of interest such as
  dialogue and AfL. The RoMs can be found at
  http//www.gtce.org.uk/research/romtopics/

14
Feedback

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• Any feedback on this Research Bite
• would be much appreciated. Please email
• your feedback to
• research.summaries_at_dcsf.gsi.gov.uk