Using dialogic diaries to develop student understanding and trainee practice Nicola Walshe University of Cambridge
Mar 28, 2015
Using dialogic diaries to develop student understanding and trainee practice
Nicola WalsheUniversity of Cambridge
Exploring and developing children’s understandings of sustainable development with dialogic diaries•The study
▫25 year 10 students undertaking Edexcel B GCSE
▫11-16 Village College in Cambridgeshire
•Methods▫Dialogic diaries▫Interviews
Exploring and developing children’s understandings of sustainable development with dialogic diaries
•Data analysis▫Analysis of dialogue (after Daniel et al.,
2005)
▫Analysis of general levels of understanding (using revision of Bloom)
▫Analysis of understandings of sustainability
Results
• The metacommunicative dimension
(developing the dialogue)
• The ideational dimension (developing
students’ understanding of the substantive
topic, sustainable development)
• The interpersonal dimension (developing
relationships within the classroom)
“It’s like a sort of a personal connection between the pupil and the teacher ... you can recap what's going on in the lesson and see things from different perspectives. Having that connection with a teacher ... actually gets me more involved with school in general.” Tyler
Issues
•Time▫For students to write the diaries?▫For me to respond?▫For the diary-writing process to continue?
•Writing▫Writing vs drawing▫Blogosphere?
•The ethics of ‘diary-writing’▫Ideological process (pupils need to be
convinced of teacher/researcher’s motives▫Political process (questions orthodox ‘teacher-
pupil’ roles)
Stage 1: Reflection after Faculty Session
Stage 2: Pair Blog Responses
Stage 3: School-based activity
Stage 4: Reflection on School-based activity
Stage 5: Pair Blog Responses
Working with trainees (1):Online Blogs on Sustainability
Reflection(s) before Faculty session
Greater number of school-based activities (at a range of scales)
Increased response by me
Working with trainees (2):Dialogic diaries as a research method for trainees
•PGCE trainee: used dialogic diaries to explore student learning for assignment.
•MEd student: using dialogic diaries to track Year 9 students' understanding of distant place (China).