A productive educational dialogue

In traditional classroom discourse, the teacher speaks most of the time, while students respond briefly and their participation is generally limited. This pattern of discourse has been criticized for decades. Yet despite numerous attempts to change it, it remains remarkably persistent.

In recent decades, researchers have increasingly emphasized the potential of dialogic forms of classroom discourse. This type of discourse gives students multiple opportunities to “think aloud” about claims, evidence, challenges, and alternative perspectives, and encourages them to develop ideas and reach shared conclusions together. In the context of language instruction, many researchers have shown that dialogic learning can improve literacy skills—reading, writing, and speaking—as well as second-language thinking and overall cognitive abilities, while strengthening students’ independence.

These advantages of dialogue guided a collaborative research and development process involving teachers, pedagogical instructors, and researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, and the Center for the Study of Pedagogy. The development process included a continuous cycle of research, classroom implementation, and revision.

The development team, which included teachers, language instructors, and researchers, created learning units, tools, and resources for implementing dialogic instruction in Grades 4–6. The work drew on programs and tools developed and tested around the world. The learning units focused on texts that form an integral part of school curricula and addressed the achievement requirements of the national curriculum. The units were implemented in schools and classrooms over several years and were continuously revised and improved based on the findings.