ABSTRACT
In recent work on classroom group discussion and its role in learning 2 an idealized view of classroom discourse frequently appears. In this idealization, content-related meaning is continually negotiated and created in the moment by peers who respect each others' views. Within the participant structure of small or large group discussion, students purposefully appropriate each others' ideas and utterances to further their own thinking and that of the group. In this scenario, students have the right and responsibility to function as equal members in a "discourse community" characterized by frequent instances of dialogic discourse.
