COMMUNICATIVE CONDITIONS FOR LEARNING IN PRIMARY SCHOOL: A MULTIMODAL, DIALOGIC, AND FUNCTIONAL LOOK AT THE CLASSROOM
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Date
2016
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Abstract
The present study was intended to observe and describe the multiple modes of communication employed in the classroom for fostering the learning of students from 7 fifth grades belonging to 3 subsidized private schools in Santiago de Chile, in the areas of Language and Mathematics, during one academic year. This was the specific objective of a wider research project that, by means of a mixed methodology, seeks to establish connections between the communicative conditions of the classroom and students' learning outcomes.
The full research project involves the observation and analysis of approximately 84 lessons, video-recorded and observed in situ with the set of guidelines generated. Preliminary results, based on approximately 37% of the sample, reveal public verbal participation, dominated by the teacher; the most usual mode of work involves the whole class; a low level of cognitive challenge; predominance of academic and cumulative talk. In most sessions, no scaffolding is observed; when it is present, it predominantly concerns conceptual aspects. With respect to materials, the most frequently used formats are "paper/cardboard" and the board, which are mostly prepared by the teacher. Their use is mostly "canonical" and "monomodal" in nature. There is little promotion of dialogicality in classrooms; nearly no strategies of collaboration promotion are observed. In most sessions, there is no socio-emotional scaffolding; when it is present, it predominantly concerns the identification of results and the explicit verbalization of the expected response.
The full research project involves the observation and analysis of approximately 84 lessons, video-recorded and observed in situ with the set of guidelines generated. Preliminary results, based on approximately 37% of the sample, reveal public verbal participation, dominated by the teacher; the most usual mode of work involves the whole class; a low level of cognitive challenge; predominance of academic and cumulative talk. In most sessions, no scaffolding is observed; when it is present, it predominantly concerns conceptual aspects. With respect to materials, the most frequently used formats are "paper/cardboard" and the board, which are mostly prepared by the teacher. Their use is mostly "canonical" and "monomodal" in nature. There is little promotion of dialogicality in classrooms; nearly no strategies of collaboration promotion are observed. In most sessions, there is no socio-emotional scaffolding; when it is present, it predominantly concerns the identification of results and the explicit verbalization of the expected response.
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Keywords
Communicative Conditions, Learning, Semiotic Mediations, Primary, Dialogicality, TALK