Developing a coding scheme for analysing classroom dialogue across educational contexts
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The research reported sought to develop a framework for systematically analysing classroom dialogue for application across a range of educational settings. The paper outlines the development and refinement of a coding scheme that attempts to represent and operationalise commonalities amongst some key theorists in the field concerning productive forms of educational dialogue. The team has tested it using video recordings from classroom settings in the UK and Mexico, across age phases, subject areas, and different interactional contexts including whole class, group and paired work. Our Scheme for Educational Dialogue Analysis (SEDA) is situated within a sociocultural paradigm, and draws on Hymes' Ethnography of Communication to highlight the importance of context. We examined how such a tool could be used in practice. We found that concentrating on the ‘communicative act’ to explore dialogue between participants was an appropriate level of granularity, while clustering the 33 resulting codes according to function of the acts helped to highlight dialogic sequences within lessons. We report on the application of the scheme in two different learning contexts and reflect on its fitness for purpose, including perceived limitations. Development of specialised sub-schemes and a version for teachers is underway.
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The analytic scheme for dialogue was based on work reported by Hennessy, Rojas-Drummond and colleagues (Hennessy et al., 2016).
“Video-recorded dialogue was analyzed using a scheme based on work reported by Hennessy, Rojas-Drummond and colleagues (Hennessy et al., 2016).”
From Teacher–Student Dialogue During Classroom Teaching: Does It Really Impact on Student Outcomes? (2019) · cites this paper as Hennessy et al., 2016
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BackgroundTHE ROLE OF TUTORING IN PROBLEM SOLVING <sup>*</sup>
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“Rojas-Drummond et al. also drew explicitly on the literature on guided participation (Rogoff, 1990) and scaffolding, beginning with Wood, Bruner, and Ross (1976) and Vygotsky (1978) and developed in the extensive subsequent body of work reviewed by Van de Pol, Volman, and Beishuizen (2010).”
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- Authors
- Hennessy, S., Rojas-Drummond, S., Higham, R., Márquez, A. M., Maine, F., Ríos, R. M., García-Carrión, R., Torreblanca, O., & Barrera, M. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (MX)
- Universidad de Deusto (ES)
- Corresponding author
- Hennessy, Sara
- Venue
- Learning, Culture and Social Interaction
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2016-06
- Volume
- 9
- Pages
- 16-44
- ISSN
- 2210-6561 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2300065122
- Cited by
- 348
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 42 · 2025: 41 · 2024: 40 · 2023: 46 · 2022: 39 · 2021: 40 · 2020: 47 · 2019: 20 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 4
- FWCI
- 112.46
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Learning Culture and Social Interaction (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- DeustoTeka (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
- Greater South Information System
- Funders
- British Academy International Partnership and Mobility Scheme (RG66509)
- Economic and Social Research Council (RES063270081, RES000230825)
- Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (DGAPA-UNAM) (IN303313, PE305814)
- National Council of Science and Technology (160873)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Language and Linguistics › Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies
- Social Sciences › Education › Evaluation of Teaching Practices
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Linguistics and Education Research
- Keywords
- classroom dialogue, coding scheme, educational dialogue, communicative acts, sociocultural perspective, classroom interaction
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