Understanding the talk patterns in secondary school classrooms

There is a growing body of literature which highlights the relationship between classroom talk and learning. However, despite the growing acceptance of the link between talk and student learning, talk remains an undervalued pedagogical practice by many teachers. This is particularly evident in secondary school classrooms. This paper presents the findings of a research project examining the talk patterns of seven secondary school teachers from a range of learning areas. A video recording of each teacher's lesson was the source of data. The teacher talk behaviours and student responses were coded highlighting 11 teacher talk behaviours and seven student response types. The results showed that over half of the teacher talk behaviours involved either instructing or asking closed questions. We also found the highest proportion of students' responses involved explaining or labelling in response to teachers' talk. Our data indicates that there was variation in the teacher talk behaviours that appeared to directly impact students' responses. While the teachers talk patterns were predominantly instructing, the talk behaviour of the students was mainly labelling (one word or short responses) or yes/no responses. There was evidence of students explaining when the teachers engaged in higher proportions of open questions. Our data suggests that this was a key teacher talk behaviour to facilitate this talk behaviour in the students. The findings from this research have implications for understanding the challenges faced by secondary school teachers as they support students in a mainstream classroom setting.