The Price of Participation: Teacher control versus student participation in classroom interaction

The aim of this article is to further the understanding of how content is learned in classrooms, using conversation analysis (CA) and variation theory for the analysis. Classroom video materials from two mathematics classrooms in Sweden and the USA are analysed. A result of the study is the empirical explication of the tension between the need for teacher content control and the simultaneous contradictory need for student participation in educational interaction. The article also develops variation theory toward a more sensitive understanding of the sequential implications of interaction and suggests CA can benefit from more systematic understandings of content orientation in interaction. In doing so, the presumed gulf between acquisitionist and participation understandings of learning is challenged.

[1]  G. Nuthall,et al.  The Cultural Myths and Realities of Classroom Teaching and Learning: A Personal Journey. , 2005 .

[2]  Fritjof Sahlström.  The interactional organization of hand raising in classroom interaction , 2002 .

[3]  Anna Slotte-Lüttge,et al.  Ja vet int va de heter på svenska : interaktion mellan tvåspråkiga elever och deras lärare i en enspråkig klassrumsdiskurs , 2005 .

[4]  A. Sfard.  On Two Metaphors for Learning and the Dangers of Choosing Just One , 1998 .

[5]  Eva Jablonka,et al.  Making Connections: Comparing Mathematics Classrooms Around the World , 2006 .

[6]  J. Gibson,et al.  Perceptual learning; differentiation or enrichment? , 1955, Psychological review.

[7]  Gene H. Lerner.  Collectivities in action: Establishing the relevance of conjoined participation in conversation , 1993 .

[8]  D. Macbeth,et al.  The relevance of repair for classroom correction , 2004, Language in Society.

[9]  F. Marton,et al.  The University of Learning. Beyond Quality and Competence in Higher Education. , 2013 .

[10]  E. Jones..  The language of the classroom. , 1983, Nursing mirror.

[11]  J. M. Atkinson.  Structures of Social Action: Contents , 1985 .

[12]  E. Schegloff,et al.  The preference for self-correction in the organization of repair in conversation , 1977 .

[13]  E. Schegloff.  Repair After Next Turn: The Last Structurally Provided Defense of Intersubjectivity in Conversation , 1992, American Journal of Sociology.

[14]  Ference Marton,et al.  The space of learning , 2004 .

[15]  Ulf P. Lundgren,et al.  Frame Factors and the Teaching Process: A Contribution to Curriculum Theory and Theory on Teaching , 1972 .

[16]  F. Marton.  Phenomenography — Describing conceptions of the world around us , 1981 .

[17]  Ference Marton,et al.  Classroom Discourse and the Space of Learning , 2004 .

[18]  Emanuel A. Schegloff,et al.  Confirming Allusions: Toward an Empirical Account of Action , 1996, American Journal of Sociology.

[19]  Airi Rovio-Johansson.  Being good at teaching. Exploring different ways of handling the same subject in Higher Education , 1999 .

[20]  H. Mehan,et al.  Learning Lessons, Social Organization in the Classroom , 1979 .

[21]  Yoshinori Shimizu,et al.  Mathematics classrooms in twelve countries : the insider's perspective , 2006 .

[22]  Paul Cobb,et al.  The emergence of mathematical meaning : interaction in classroom cultures , 2009 .

[23]  M. Alexandersson.  Metod och medvetande , 1994 .

[24]  C. Linder,et al.  Reflection and phenomenography: towards theoretical and educational development possibilities , 2003 .

[25]  Jonas Emanuelsson.  En fråga om frågor : hur lärares frågor i klassrummet gör det möjligt att få reda på elevernas sätt att förstå det som undervisningen behandlar i matematik och naturvetenskap , 2001 .

[26]  Ference Marton,et al.  The University of Learning , 1998 .

[27]  Gordon Wells,et al.  Reevaluating the IRF sequence: A proposal for the articulation of theories of activity and discourse for the analysis of teaching and learning in the classroom , 1993 .

[28]  Cathrin Martin,et al.  From other to self. Learning as interactional change , 2004 .

[29]  Jack Whalen,et al.  Sociology as a Natural Observational Science@@@Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis. , 1987 .

[30]  Fritjof Sahlström,et al.  In tow of the blue whale. : Learning as interactional changes in topical orientation , 2009 .

[31]  E. Schegloff.  When 'others' initiate repair , 2000 .

[32]  Ulla Runesson,et al.  Variationens pedagogik. Skilda sätt att behandla ett matematiskt innehhåll , 1999 .

[33]  P. Brown.  Interaction and the development of mind , 1997 .

[34]  E. Schegloff.  Sequence Organization In Interaction , 2007 .

[35]  Michael Billig,et al.  Ideological Dilemmas: A Social Psychology of Everyday Thinking , 1988 .

[36]  Thomas L. Good,et al.  International handbook of teachers and teaching , 1997 .

[37]  F. Sahlström.  Up the hill backwards , 1999 .

[38]  B. Rogoff.  The Cultural Nature of Human Development , 2003 .

[39]  J. Lave,et al.  Understanding Practice: Perspectives on Activity and Context , 1996 .

[40]  J. Sinclair,et al.  Towards an analysis of discourse , 1977 .

[41]  F. Marton,et al.  Learning and Awareness , 1997 .

[42]  F. Sahlström.  Up the hill backwards : On interactional constraints and affordances for equity-constitution in the classrooms of the Swedish comprehensive school , 1999 .