118 Marie-Cécile Bertau and John L. Roberts
others, of cultural, symbolic, and dialogic practices, and of material and
psycho-social conditions. Dialogic learning acknowledges the complexity
of this holistic system and in particular the inter-dependency of teachers
and students, without negating the social reality of their power relations.
We elaborate the idea of dialogical learning through four basic themes that
all embody the foundational principle of dialogical learning: Learning
starts in common social and verbal activities – be it in classroom
interactions and conversations, or be it with peers on the playground, at
home, etc. As we argued in section 1, learning happens all the time and
everywhere, and dialogues with others are a key aspect of it. In a nutshell,
human learning starts by thinking together with fellow others through
talking, listening, and carrying out activities – this talking-and-doing-
together leads to learning.
4.1. The Illuminating Cycle of Address-Reply-Understanding
In talking to another, an individual forms an idea and expresses it to a
listening other who will reply, adding his or her understanding of the idea
and giving it back to the first speaker. In this way, the original idea gets
reflected through a different point of view, and this is exactly what enables
the first speaker to grasp her own idea more clearly for herself –
No, this is not what I was saying! Or – Yes, this is exactly what I
mean and I can now understand better what I was talking about!This is especially true for ideas that are hard to grasp, such as one’s
feelings and emotions (e.g., talking to a friend and thereby getting a clearer
notion of what is going on), and also for abstract concepts such as
“semiotic tool.” In talking to each other, students and teachers can
elaborate the meaning of abstract concepts by passing them through each
other’s understanding. The basic idea of the cycle is that a listening and
replying other person will contribute to our own understanding – it is
through others that our thinking becomes clearer to ourselves (Humboldt,