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A research-informed, school-based professional development workshop programme to promote dialogic teaching with interactive technologies

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Peer-reviewed

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Abstract

The study reported in this article investigated the influence of a researchinformed, school-based, professional development workshop programme on the quality of classroom dialogue using the interactive whiteboard (IWB). The programme aimed to develop a dialogic approach to teaching and learning mediated through more interactive uses of the IWB, through a model of active participation of students, collaborative knowledgebuilding, learning through inquiry and evaluating ideas. Ten professional development workshops based on video-stimulated discussions of practices were co-developed and conducted with an ‘ambassador’ within each of five school clusters. In total, 80 teachers from 15 schools, ranging from infant to secondary schools, participated. Data were collected through surveys, semi-structured interviews with teachers and ambassadors, teachers’ posters created during workshop activities, lesson observations and a portfolio of dialogic classroom practices, mediated by the IWB. Findings strongly support the potential of this ambassador-led workshop model to involve teachers in developing their understandings of classroom dialogue and devising new approaches to support it. The research additionally confirms the potential of the IWB as a tool to support dialogic teaching.

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Keywords

Professional development, classroom dialogue, dialogic teaching, interactive whiteboard, digital technology

Journal Title

Professional Development in Education

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1941-5257
1941-5265

Volume Title

Publisher

Informa UK Limited
Sponsorship
This work was supported by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Impact Acceleration Pilot Programme from February-August 2014. It built on previous work carried out as part of a personal Research Fellowship programme of work by Sara Hennessy in 2007-2010 under ESRC Grant RES063270081; the 'IWBs and Dialogic Teaching' project (http://dialogueiwb.educ.cam.ac.uk/) was conducted in collaboration with Neil Mercer and Paul Warwick.