ABSTRACT
One of the reasons we ask children to work together in groups during science lessons – as discussed in Chapter 6 – is so that they can talk to each other. Children’s talk, we are increasingly discovering, is fundamental to developing their scientific learning. Through talking to each other they can rehearse their own scientific explanations, debate different ideas about a phenomenon and construct shared understandings. Some teachers in our education system tend to socialise children out of talking in class, because there is a belief that a quietly industrious classroom is the most effective. Yet, far from being a distraction from learning, allowing children to discuss their science actually increases the percentage of the time they spend ‘on task’ (Alexander 2004). Our understanding of the social nature of learning and the role that language plays in thinking derives from the work of Vygotsky (1986), but this has been taken a stage further by the introduction of the ‘socio-cultural’ perspective on learning (see Chapters 1 and 2), which seeks to explain the relationship between human action and the cultural, institutional and historical contexts in which this action occurs (Wertsch 1998). From a socio-cultural view, every classroom embodies a set of cultural practices (e.g. calling out the names on the register and expecting everyone to be silent during that time; asking a question and expecting a ‘hands-up’ response) that shape and influence the ways that children behave, and a set of cultural tools (such as specific vocabulary and ways of expressing themselves in speech and writing) that children need to appropriate in order to participate in joint meaning-making. These classroom cultures reflect the wider culture of society; for example, in a comparison between primary classroom culture in different countries, Alexander (2001) observed that there was more robust debate in Russian and French classrooms than in England, where concerns for children’s self-esteem and well-being tended to avoid controversy or labelling ideas as ‘wrong’. Science too has its own culture and its own specialist vocabulary, which children need to make their own in order to participate in the social learning of the classroom. In other words, learning science can be learning to talk science (Lemke 1990). This idea that ‘talking about science’ and ‘learning science’ are mutually supportive is recognised in the National Curriculum for England:
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The quality and variety of language that pupils hear and speak are key factors in developing their scientific vocabulary and articulating scientific concepts clearly and precisely. They must be assisted in making their thinking clear, both to themselves and others, and teachers should ensure that pupils build secure foundations by using discussion to probe and remedy their misconceptions.
