How dialogue with teachers helps children learn

The reading from Mercer, N. & Littleton, K. (2007) Dialogue and the Development of Children’s Thinking. talks about the importance of dialogue and how this can help our pupils to learn. The author claimed that questions is the most important part of a classroom because kids can express their ideas and also how teachers guide the pupils.


3 Main ideas of the article and why they are important for me:

-Ask children to verbalize their options: It is co common in class that just few students talk or that they don't know how to tell the class what are they thinking. It is important as teachers to underline the 

-The dialogue with the teacher enables students to appreciate the aim of the activities and how these activities make sense within a meaningful sequence: If the students understand why they are doing something then it will become meaningful and they would learn from it.

-They use dialogue to effectively establish and maintain a collective IDZ for the duration of an activity: When they are talking and expressing their opinions they aresharing with the rest of the class and that creates a feeling of group and a good atmosphera.

5 key Expressions:

1. Community of enquiry.
2. Dialogic teaching.
3. Scaffolding.
4. Intermental Development Zone.
5. Meaningful questions.

This reading helped me to understand better the importance of askkng kids. We worked on this with our practicum teacher at her subject and I think this is the best way to discover their previous knowledge.