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Teacher Discourse Moves that Support Dialogic Interactions in Engineering in Linguistically Diverse Classrooms

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Conference

2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Columbus, Ohio

Publication Date

June 24, 2017

Start Date

June 24, 2017

End Date

June 28, 2017

Conference Session

Pre-College: Teacher Impact on Student Mastery

Tagged Division

Pre-College Engineering Education Division

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

7

DOI

10.18260/1-2--28907

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/28907

Download Count

719

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Paper Authors

biography

Amy Wilson-Lopez Utah State University, Teacher Education and Leadership

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Amy Wilson-Lopez is an associate professor at Utah State University who studies culturally responsive engineering and literacy-infused engineering with linguistically diverse students.

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biography

Jared W. Garlick Utah State University

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Jared Garlick is a Graduate Student in the Secondary Education Master's of Education (MEd) program through the Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services. Research interests include argumentation in science and engineering and the benefit they play in developing literacy in specific content areas.

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Abstract

Oral discussion in the classroom is important in learning outcomes for students. Traditional oral discourse has included the initiate, respond, evaluate (I-R-E) pattern of oral discourse, but this pattern is associated with negative student outcomes. Dialogic exchanges, however, lead to positive student outcomes. These exchanges have been proven especially beneficial for English Learners. This study focuses on two middle school teachers’ classes in the Western United States where the population percentage of English Learners was higher than average. A minimum of two engineering units taught by these two teachers were audio-recorded and then transcribed. Dialogic discourse was then identified in the transcripts as occurrences where students spoke without the interjection of the teacher. After determining where dialogic discourse occurred, we identified the preceding oral discourse moves employed by the teacher. When reviewing these discourse moves, we discovered two recurring oral discourse moves used by the teachers that facilitated dialogic discourse in the classroom. First, when teachers asked students to share relevant life experiences, they were more likely to engage in dialogic spells. Second, when teachers asked open-ended questions, students were more likely to engage in dialogic spells. These findings were consistent when teachers engaged with both English learners and students who were not identified as English learners. However, these two oral discourse moves were still used infrequently within the classrooms. We then conclude that dialogic discourse is possible in engineering education, and suggest these findings can improve pre-service and in-service teacher education.

Wilson-Lopez, A., & Garlick, J. W. (2017, June), Teacher Discourse Moves that Support Dialogic Interactions in Engineering in Linguistically Diverse Classrooms Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--28907

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