Chapter 7: Classroom Discourse and its Associated Impact on Student Identity

Over the last several chapters I have tried to build a case for the differences between Mr. Hill and Mr. Smith’s belief systems, pedagogical decisions and general classroom practices. Mr. Hill’s teaching relied heavily on the construction of dialog and how members of the classroom community were able to connect their ideas and experiences to the curricular goals of his classroom. Conversely, Mr. Smith’s teaching was defined by careful and clearly bounded discourse expectations where he alone constructed what counted as meaningful contributions to the classroom community. Mr. Smith’s teaching closely paralleled Lemke’s (1990) notion of triadic dialog where teachers, as the knowledge authority, ask questions, call on students and evaluate student responses. It was up to students to match their use of scientific discourse to those expectations of the teacher. The students made numerous references to the class being out of touch with their needs and how the course missed opportunities to excite them about Earth Science. By contrast, Mr. Hill’s discursive expectations were often co-constructed within the classroom community where he scaffolded scientific language from ideas brought up during classroom discussions. The students continually remarked on the beneficial approach to the discussion format and how their ideas were universally respected with the classroom community. It is essential, at this point, to demarcate the important discursive practices that were taking place in these contexts and how their classroom practices impacted the discursive identities of the students involved. This chapter will build on the notions related to the special nature of scientific discourse, as depicted previously in chapter two. To do this, we must take a deeper look into the ideas of social constructivism and how both language and thought is generated within a social space as opposed to constructed within the mind of the individual. Furthermore, there is a need to consider the potential impacts that the development of scientific discourse has on students. These notions influence how we should consider the context of the classroom and the nature of talk that should be undertaken to provide a rich learning experiences for all students.