“Talking to Learn”: Focussing teacher education on dialogue as a core practice for teaching and learning.

Classroom interaction, as a core practice of teaching and learning, remains a ‘taken-for-granted’ and under-examined dimension of teacher education. This paper reports preliminary findings from an empirical investigation of pre-service teacher’s development of skills in classroom interaction as core educational practice. Specifically, the paper presents findings from a faculty-wide initiative involving first year Bachelor of Education students from one rural/regional university in NSW, Australia. The research investigated the impact that a focus on the role of dialogue for learning - both in university subjects and practising in classroom sites - has on 124 first year education pre-service teachers’ interaction practices with students in their professional experience placements. Findings show that if pre-service teachers experience classroom interactive practices as the object of overt focus during their undergraduate studies, understandings about effective pedagogy and teacher development will develop from beyond a ‘taken-for-granted’ dimension of teaching practice.