Improving the quality of students’ talk, questioning and

thinking during group work

Key issue addressed by the study

The researchers explored the effects of coaching staff on how to structure and model students’ higher-order group talk in English

They also assessed the impact on students’ learning

What changed when the teachers guided group work? The students:

– were more focused– participated more

equally– asked a greater

number of questions including high-order questions

– engaged in less off-task talk

– improved the quality of their reasoning through

group talk

What did the students think about the group work?

Students felt they:– spoke more and were

more on task– had improved their

questioning– could expose their

thinking without worrying about negative consequences: ‘you don’t have to hide your thoughts’

The five teaching and learning approaches that engaged students

Setting ground rules Guided learning Avoiding evaluation Allowing time Encouraging

autonomy

How did teachers set ground rules and guide learning? Ground rules for group work included ‘involve everyone’

and ‘ask for reasons’ Teachers repeated the rules to help students get in the

habit of asking questions and including everyone Guiding learning, for example, meant re-reading key lines

of a text to frame students’ analysis

Avoiding evaluation, allowing time and encouraging autonomy Teachers

– did not evaluate students’ contributions so they turned to each other for responses

– waited for all students to stop talking before intervening

– allowed students to lead the discussion as they gained confidence

What did effective dialogue look like? Student 1: I think he is angry here. Student 2: I agree. We also need to say why he is angry. Student 1: Don’t know. Because District 6 got ruined? Student 3: Or perhaps because it’s still the same –

nothing has really changed and he is angry and frustrated about it.

Student 1: Is he feeling... discrimination? Student 3: Mm, discrimination is not really a feeling, is

it? Could it be disappointment? Student 2: I think it’s stronger than that. I would feel

stronger.

Who were the children in the study?

Six classes at five secondary schools in Sussex

The groups were mixed-sex ability groups (high, middle and low)

How was the information gathered?

The researchers based their findings on– recordings of students’ talk – notes from observations– interviews– teacher lesson evaluations

The researchers used four indicators of higher-order thinking to compare pupils’ talk at the beginning and end of the 10-week period– analytical thinking, eg identifying implied meanings in a text– evaluation, eg using phrases such as ‘I think’– synthesis, eg extrapolating from whole text to assess the extract

at hand– hypothetical thinking, eg using phrases such as ‘if’ and ‘may’

How can teachers use the evidence in this study?

One of the main challenges for teachers promoting effective group talk was refraining from dominating the discussion.

You may find it useful to record a group discussion in your lesson. What are the features of your interventions that encourage students to ask questions of each other, and what features dampen it?

How can college leaders use the evidence in this study?

Do you have a good understanding of the kinds of talk that take place in classes in your college?

You may want to encourage teachers to video group discussions in their classes to build a detailed picture of the extent to which students ask questions and highlight possible next steps.

Follow-up reading

Study reference: Sutherland, J (2006) Promoting group talk and higher-order thinking in pupils by coaching secondary English trainee teachers in Journal of Literacy 40 (2) pp. 106-113

You might like to read a longer summary of effective teachers of literacy on the GTC website:

http://www.tla.ac.uk/site/SiteAssets/RfT2/06RE016%20Effective%20early%20literacy%20teaching%20in%20the%20first%20years%20of%20school.pdf