Ian Wilkinson

Student active engagement in classroom discussion, particularly through reasoned argument, has been linked to improved reading and writing achievement and reasoning in other subject areas. However, in typical classrooms, teachers dominate talk, delivering lectures, and students recite material in response to teacher questions (i.e., monologic techniques). This research team intends to develop, refine, and test a professional development program designed to promote dialogic teaching-an approa...

In this project, the researchers proposed to identify which types of communication during group discussion enhance grade 4 and 6 students' high-level comprehension and develop instructional approaches and necessary supporting materials to facilitate the use of group discussion to improve such comprehension and, ultimately, reading comprehension.