Empirical research continues to demonstrate the effectiveness of increasing classroom talk. A recent meta-analysis in the Journal of Educational Psychology synthesizes 71 research studies that suggested peer-to-peer interaction increases children’s learning. Even better? One-to-one with the teacher interaction showed more significant results. Another finding was that the classroom talk and interaction had to be structured. The findings of the research study reminded me of Structured Academic Controversy as a pedagogical practice in high school classrooms. Although focused on history/social science, this structured collaboration can become pedagogical practice across the single-subject curriculum.
OutSpoken ELA 