Week 3: Neil Mercer - Interthinking through exploratory talk

‘Spoken language enables us to do much more than share information - it enables us to think together. But as educators, do we always use it to our best advantage? And do we give enough attention to enabling children to use language as a tool for learning and problem-solving?’ - Thinking Together Website

This week we build on taking a ‘dialogic stance’, by exploring the mechanisms of how thinking happens and is developed through dialogue. To do this, we look at Neil Mercer’s use of the term ‘interthinking’ to explain how dialogue enables knowledge and understanding to be co-constructed, in particular through learners working in groups. We also consider how interthinking can be mediated through technology.

Reflective Journal Template

Use the Week 3 reflective journal template to make notes as you work through the following tasks.

Watch

Watch the following video for an overview of the week’s theme:

You can download the video transcript here.

Watch this video where Neil Mercer joins us to discuss his work:

Note that this interview is also available as an audio resource (you may prefer to listen to the interview whilst on a walk!):

Read

This week’s readings and resources for you to review are as follows:

• Core Reading 1: Developing the capacity to collaborate by Lyn Dawes and Claire Sams
• Core Reading 2: Classroom Talk and Teaching - Digitalised Dialogues webpage

Optional further readings and resources:

1. Education and the social brain: linking language, thinking, teaching and learning by Neil Mercer. If you are not used to reading research papers, this reading may be daunting. Don’t worry, it won’t be essential for completing the course, but is a very useful resource for advanced understanding.
2. Here are some books that you may wish to purchase. Sections of these books are available for free in the following links:
   • Littleton, K., & Mercer, N. (2013). Interthinking: Putting Talk to Work. Routledge.
   • Mercer, N., & Hodgkinson, S. (2008). Exploring Talk in School: Inspired by the Work of Douglas Barnes. SAGE.
   • Mercer, N., & Littleton, K. (2007). Dialogue and the Development of Children’s Thinking: A Sociocultural Approach. Routledge.
3. Here are other multimedia resources to support your learning:
   • Thinking Together Website: https://thinkingtogether.educ.cam.ac.uk
   • Digitalised Dialogues with Talkwall Website: http://digitaliseddialogues.no
   • LANSI Virtual Lecture: It’s Only Words: Why Classroom Talk is Important by Neil Mercer
4. Podcasts:

Naked Scientist - Reflecting on Communication

Do

1. Watch Video 3 on Ground Rules on the edudialogue.org website.
2. Work with your students to devise ‘Ground Rules’ for educational dialogue in your setting. These can be whole-school, for a group of classes, for one class, or even for one type of activity/lesson that you lead. Examples include:
   • Only one student can talk at a time, and the rest of the group/class need to be listening carefully.
   • Students must back up any claim or counterclaim they make with reasons or evidence. This is easy to encourage if students use the sentence starters and use connectives such as ‘because’, ‘however’, ‘therefore’.
   • Everyone is prepared to accept challenges and queries.
   • When students do disagree with their peers, it must be done respectfully and to encourage further dialogue. Asking challenging questions is more productive than confrontational assertions (not saying ‘no’, ‘you are completely wrong’, ‘that’s garbage’ but ‘Are you sure about that?’, ‘Isn’t there some evidence against that too?’, etc.)
3. In your reflective learning journal for Week 3, write a reflective account of the process through which you and your students devised the ground rules. What issues came up and how did you build consensus? Reminder: the weekly accounts you are asked to write in your reflective journals do not need to be submitted. Rather, they are meant to help you record your thoughts and should be drawn on when writing your final learning product. Your final learning product is the only piece of writing you are asked to officially submit for this course.

Discuss

In the Week 3 channel, please post a response to at least one of these questions.

• What are your thoughts on Mercer’s conceptualization of interthinking? Is this how we think? Is this how we learn?
• How does exploratory talk facilitate interthinking?
• In what ways does devising shared ‘ground rules’ support taking a dialogic stance and how might they generate exploratory talk?

Now, read through others’ responses to these questions and reply with your ideas to at least one person.

Discussion forum

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