TY - JOUR
T1 - Opening up and closing down
T2 - How teachers and TAs manage turn-taking, topic and repair in mathematics lessons
AU - Radford, Julie
AU - Blatchford, Peter
AU - Webster, Rob
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Maria Koutsoubou for her valuable work on data collection. We would also like to thank the staff and students of the participating schools for their cooperation and patience. The research was funded by the DCSF and the Welsh Assembly Government . The views expressed in this paper are the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the funders.
PY - 2011/10/1
Y1 - 2011/10/1
N2 - Support for children with special educational needs in inclusive classrooms is increasingly provided by teaching assistants (TAs). They often have a direct pedagogical role, taking responsibility for instruction in mathematics. The quality of TAs' oral skills is crucial for learning but has rarely been researched. Using conversation analysis, this study compares teacher and TA talk in terms of turn allocation, topic generation and repair. From 130 recordings, transcripts of mathematics teaching in four lessons were analysed in depth. We found that teachers open up students whilst TAs close down the talk. Teachers, with whole classes, adopt inclusive teaching strategies to ensure oral participation whereas TAs, working with individuals, emphasise task completion. Teachers use open strategies for topic generation whilst TAs ask closed questions. Teachers withhold correction with prompts and hints whilst TAs supply answers. The findings are interpreted with reference to the TA role and implications for management and training.
AB - Support for children with special educational needs in inclusive classrooms is increasingly provided by teaching assistants (TAs). They often have a direct pedagogical role, taking responsibility for instruction in mathematics. The quality of TAs' oral skills is crucial for learning but has rarely been researched. Using conversation analysis, this study compares teacher and TA talk in terms of turn allocation, topic generation and repair. From 130 recordings, transcripts of mathematics teaching in four lessons were analysed in depth. We found that teachers open up students whilst TAs close down the talk. Teachers, with whole classes, adopt inclusive teaching strategies to ensure oral participation whereas TAs, working with individuals, emphasise task completion. Teachers use open strategies for topic generation whilst TAs ask closed questions. Teachers withhold correction with prompts and hints whilst TAs supply answers. The findings are interpreted with reference to the TA role and implications for management and training.
KW - Classroom discourse
KW - Conversation analysis
KW - Instruction
KW - Mathematics
KW - Teaching assistants
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=79960072339&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.learninstruc.2011.01.004
DO - 10.1016/j.learninstruc.2011.01.004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:79960072339
VL - 21
SP - 625
EP - 635
JO - Learning and Instruction
JF - Learning and Instruction
SN - 0959-4752
IS - 5
ER -