Dialogic teaching for students with conditions within the autism spectrum

Abstract

This investigation contributed pragmatically and theoretically to the current knowledge of practices that support autistic students in mainstream schools. It focused on the support of the participation of verbal autistic students in formal class activities in mainstream classrooms. This is a relevant topic for investigation due to the growing number of autistic students attending mainstream classrooms in England and reports suggesting they often experience sensory, social and understanding difficulties in this context. Autistic students' social difficulties are frequently salient, hindering their engagement with class activities. As part of this investigation, a set of teaching strategies that could facilitate the participation of autistic students in formal class activities was created to address this issue. These strategies were based on empirically tested ones commonly used as part of dialogic teaching. Dialogic teaching represents a pedagogical approach and stance towards learning that recognises the crucial role of language and social interactions in development and learning. It was deemed as a beneficial pedagogical approach because it promotes a safe class environment in which all voices are valued and makes the class goals and participation expectations explicit for all. Accordingly, this approach can promote openness to different views and forms of participation and provide guidelines for the students’ participation. However, dialogic teaching mainly considers non-autistic cognition and communication, representing a theoretical gap in the literature. Therefore, consistent with the neurodiversity perspective that framed this investigation, these dialogic strategies were adjusted to the communicative characteristics of autistic students drawing on evidence-based practices for supporting autistic individuals. A design-based approach was adopted because it enabled me to create and iteratively test and refine the strategies based on current literature and my collaborations with teachers in mainstream classrooms in England. This approach also permitted the simultaneous development of an underpinning practical theory for the created strategies in the form of design principles. The principles and strategies comprised a design framework that I designed, tested and refined throughout four design cycles. These cycles involved: 1) the development of a prototype of the framework based on literature (Cycle 1), 2) the trial and refinement of the framework in a multiple-case intervention study in which three teachers from different schools put the framework’s strategies into practice in their mainstream primary school classrooms that included one autistic student each (Cycles 2 and 3); and 3) the creation and implementation of a self-paced online professional development course in which 11 teachers took part (Cycle 4). The in-depth analysis of class interactions, teachers’ interviews and feedback obtained in the online course led to the creation of a design framework comprised of 11 design principles and 39 associated strategies. These support teachers’ planning of accessible class discussions for autistic students and guide their contingent support to these students’ participation. The findings of this investigation highlight that class discussions can be accessible if discussions are explicit and teachers conduct them in response to the students’ capabilities and promote accessible ways of participation.