‘Stretch your answers’: Opening the dialogic space in teaching and learning

Abstract This article focuses on the opening of dialogic space in the classroom as a means to promote effective teaching and learning. Using Burbules' typology of dialogic teaching as an overarching analytical framework which differentiates dialogue variously as instruction, conversation, inquiry and debate, this article looks closely at three lessons from a Social Studies classroom in Singapore. The purpose is to examine how the teacher structures classroom talk to engender a dialogic environment and, ultimately, a disposition in students to view texts/knowledge as socially situated and constructed, as open to question, with multiple, at times conflicting viewpoints and/or solutions given. The analysis reveals how students are encouraged in different ways to interact, participate and engage in classroom talk and tasks aimed at developing their skills in thinking, questioning and co-constructing knowledge. The article closes with a critical discussion of the dialogic quality of teaching and learning as seen through the lessons and the challenges that confront the implementation of dialogic teaching.