Chapter 12 page 263
Why is this a problem? Students learn by actively processing ideas. As you learned in the chapter on
metacognition, students learn the most when they are explaining and elaborating ideas. A student who
utters just 21 words during a discussion is not doing a lot of explaining or elaborating, and therefore she
will learn less than if she had more opportunities to speak.
In addition, if students have more opportunities to talk, they will say things that will help the teacher
understand their preconceptions and misconceptions. And students will likely articulate ideas in ways that
other students find helpful.
In addition, when teachers talk less, they will give students a chance to work to explain themselves. As
other students observe this, they will likely learn something about how to think about hard questions. To
see this, consider these two brief transcripts, a traditional recitation transcript and a transcript in which the
teacher aims to get the students to do more of the thinking and talking.
Recitation:
Teacher: What is the answer to the next problem: 1 / 2 + 3 / 4 =?
Student: Five fourths.
Teacher: Right. You convert the half to two fourths so that you can add them together and then add
the 2 and the 3.
Alternative Discussion:
Teacher: What is the answer to the next problem: 1 / 2 + 3 / 4 =?
Student: Five fourths.
Teacher: How did you get that answer?
Student: Um. ... I made two fourths and added it to three fourths.
Teacher: Why did you decide make two fourths?
Student: Well, I didn’t think I could like add the numbers together if they were different. Like you
can add 1/8 and 1/8, because they have the same bottom numbers, but you can’t add 1/8
and 1/9 without changing one of the bottom numbers. So I had to change the bottom
numbers to the same, so that I could add them.
By encouraging the student to articulate her thinking, that student has of course benefited from the
opportunity to engage in explanation. Other students have noticed that the teacher cares so much about why
one carries out a particular step that she will ask for an explanation, so they will be encouraged to pay
attention to explanations as they continue to work on math problems. They have also had a chance to
observe a successful student explanation, which gives them insights into how to construct explanations
themselves.
We will explore many of these ideas later when we talk about teaching cognitive strategies.
You have probably noticed that even if a teacher speaks just 25% of the time, each student in a class of 20
will still only be able to speak a few times in a 20-minute discussion. This is one reason why researchers
recommend extensive use of collaborative groups in schools. In a group of two, three, or four students,
each student will have many opportunities to explain, elaborate, and use other cognitive strategies during
the conversations. You will learn more about this in the chapter on Collaborative Learning.