ABSTRACT
The idea of talking about learning might seem to be an obvious and fundamental part of the teaching process but this kind of discussion is actually quite a rare feature of classroom life. As Britton suggests, talking about learning offers an opportunity for teachers to examine both sides of the teaching-learning coin, providing insights into how learning takes place and what factors can make a difference to pupils’ achievement:
If the teacher could be more certain what learning looked like, in some at least of its many guises, he [sic] might find it easier to ‘monitor’ his own teaching. Since learning doesn’t take place to numbers, however, and will probably sometimes take place in a very disorderly fashion, it is impossible to set it out, marshalled and docketed like the exhibits in a museum. Glimpses of it are to be found, first, in what people say to each other.
