ABSTRACT
Becoming aware of the communicative approach we are using with children is part of becoming a creative teacher, since it requires us to move beyond the standard ‘initiation-response-feedback’ (IRF) model of classroom discourse, where the teacher asks a question, a pupil responds and the teacher provides feedback on their response (Sinclair and Coulthard 1975). Diversifying our ‘communicative repertoire’ – particularly making more use of ‘interactive/dialogic’ teaching – is more likely to offer space for children’s creativity. Rojas-Drummond and Mercer (2004) found that Mexican primary teachers employing more ‘dialogic-interactive’ approaches were more effective in developing pupils’ learning. Dialogic approaches in primary science lessons can help to link children’s everyday language with the language of scientific procedures and draw attention to salient features of their experiences of a phenomenon while also valuing the children’s observations. They also provide a supportive forum in which children can apply their scientific ideas to new situations (McMahon 2009). Consider these two excerpts from Zoë Lowe’s lesson on ‘gravity, weight and mass’ with 10-and 11-yearold children at Wribbenhall Middle School, Worcestershire (available online at www. teachers.tv/video/1451). In the first, using a giant inflatable globe and a teddy bear in a
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space suit (‘astrobear’), Zoë is teaching the concept that gravity pulls us towards the centre of the Earth.
