Thinking and talking

last updated:September 2010

How can we accelerate pupils’ thinking through talking?

Research evidence

The process of working together with pupils to solve a challenge or problem is called social construction, because the conversation between the pupils and the teachers helps them to build new knowledge and understanding together.  Engaging in discussion with others, helps pupils create a ‘dialogue’ within themselves in which they check and refine their own thinking.

Your evidence

You might like to explore how well you support your pupils’ thinking when working and to focus on a pupil with whom you feel you have extended dialogue.  Your colleague could observe a lesson you feel confident about and identify examples of where you talked to a child as s/he was working on a problem. Your colleague could record his/her observations using an observation schedule using such headings as:

• Pupil’s problem
• Your assistance
•  Pupil’s response

After the lesson, you could discuss with your colleague when and how you were successful at helping pupils to solve a problem for themselves and to move their thinking forward.

Next steps

Now that you have a picture of how teacher-pupil conversation can contribute to the development of an extended inner dialogue for pupils you might like to review how you could further develop the support you offer other pupils. You might like, for example, to offer your pupils a 'talking frame' on some ground rules for helping each other develop their own inner dialogue. You might also consider opportunities for supporting children to solve more complex problems than they could tackle alone.  Could you be missing opportunities where you might address this?