The distribution and productivity of whole-class dialogues: exploring the potential of microblogging

Abstract

Productive whole-class dialogues typically involve few students, meaning that many are not given opportunities to learn and think together through talk in this kind of classroom activity. We applied mixed-methods within a design-based framework to explore the potential of a microblogging tool, Talkwall, for supporting teachers (N=13) and promoting distributed, productive whole-class dialogues in lower secondary classrooms in Norway. We found that Talkwall could promote distributed and productive dialogues and strengthen participation as a collective endeavour through (a) connecting learning activities and (b) helping the teacher facilitate students’ exploration of their thinking. We illustrated how this potential can materialise in a context where ground rules for productive dialogues were explicitly referenced by the teacher.