Identifying 'Quality' in Classroom Talk: An Enduring Research Task

After 20 or more years of classroom research using recorded talk-data, many of the substantive as well as the methodological issues addressed by pioneers in the field remain only partially rn the climate of recent educational politics, carefully gathered insights have been marginalised, and impetus for fresh enquiry has been reduced. The present paper therefore sets out, first, te validity of a manyfaceted agenda to which qualitative analysis of classroom talk remains central, as well as the need for a firmer evidence-base upon which to argue the continuing significan. Second, a brief review of advances made in the gathering and interpretion of talk-evidence is offered; so that, third, possible lines of further development can be indicated. These bear espen long-established issues in respect of (e.g.) interaction, discourse and cognition, upon discourse cohesion and upon the discourse competences of teachers and (especially) pupils.