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Past events

Previous CEDiR Events and Seminars

Recent Events

Lent Term 2021

Wednesday July 7th 2021 - 12:00-15:00 - CEDiR Review 2021: Dialogue in Different Contexts. This internal event provided a forum to share new and evolving educational dialogue related research in a stimulating and friendly environment.  The main aim was to provide a supportive environment for sharing dialogue-related work-in-progress research. The theme of this year’s event was: Dialogue in Different Contexts. Over 45 participants signup from a range of international contexts.

Thursday April 29th 2021 – 12:20-13:30 (via Zoom): Cultural Literacy as a Dialogic Social Practice. In this session Fiona Maine shared the progress of the DIALLS project (DIalogue and Argumentation for Cultural Literacy Learning) which is now coming to the end of its three year run. She  explored the central themes of the project, that dialogue is a central tool to enabling culturally literate citizens who can listen to and respond to each other with tolerant, empathetic and inclusive behaviours. She shared the tools developed by the project for assessing and planning for dialogue in the classroom and how dialogue as a social practice can be enacted within communities through the sharing, building and evaluation of ideas together.

Thursday March 25th 2021 – 12:30-13:30 (via Zoom): Virtual Peer-Review Writing Group

Thursday March 4th 2021 – 12:30-13:30 (via Zoom): Virtual Work in Progress “SLAM” Meeting II

Thursday February 25th 2021 – 13:00-14:00 (via Zoom): What Can the Humanities Bring to the Study of Dialogic Education? Based at the University of Sussex, the AHRC-funded 'Speaking Citizens' project launched in early 2020 to provide new evidence for how citizenship education can be taught through a focus on speech. Speaking Citizens is a group of historians, linguists and social scientists working together to discover what a deeper knowledge of the past, present and future of speech education and its relationship to citizenship can bring to the crisis in speaking in contemporary Britain. In this experimental interdisciplinary session, members of the Speaking Citizens initiative shared methods, questions and ideas, in order to discuss what the project might add to CEDiR’s work on dialogic and oracy approaches.

Monday February 22nd 2021 – 16:00-17:00 (via Zoom): Reading Group I

Tuesday February 16th 2021 – 17:00-18:30 (via Zoom): Round Table on Dignity and Education. In this roundtable discussion, chaired by Dr. Daniel Moulin-Stożek, a range of contributors will discuss the importance of dignity to education. This event is convened by CEDiR’s Cultural, Religious and Philosophical Traditions strand.

Michaelmas Term 2020

Thursday December 3rd 2020 – 16:00-17:00 (via Zoom): End of Term Event

Friday 27th November – 13:30-15:00 (via Zoom): CEDiR/PELS Methodological Seminar 3: Content and conceptual analyses of existing documents in learning research

Tuesday 24th November – 17:00-18:30 (via Zoom): CEDiR/PELS Methodological Seminar 2: Re-analysing existing quantitative data

Thursday November 19th 2020 – 13:00-14:00 (via Zoom): Virtual 'Work in Progress' Meeting

Tuesday November 17th 2020 – 17:00-18:30 (via Zoom): Research Methods for Educational Dialogue Book Launch (with invited guest speakers).

Friday 13th November – 17:00-18:00 (via Zoom): Michaelmas reading group (Session 1)

Friday 13th November – 10:00-12:00 (via Zoom): CEDiR/PELS Methodological Seminar 1: Review Methods

Thursday November 5th 2020 – 12:00-13:00 (via Zoom): Virtual Peer-Review Writing Group

Thursday October 22nd 2020 – 09:00-10:00 (via Zoom): Virtual 'Work in Progress' Meeting

Monday October 12th 2020 – 17:00-18:00 (via Zoom): CEDiR Doctoral Student Reception
Our first event of the term - a welcome meeting for for all current, and new, doctoral students and their supervisors. At this meeting we welcomed newcomers and also planned some events for the term, especially group supervisions and events led by students.

Lent Term 2020

Thursday June 25th 2020 12:30-13:30 (via Zoom - email cedir@educ.ac.uk for joining details): 2nd Work-in-Progress meeting.

Monday July 13th 2020 09:30-11:30 (via Zoom - email cedir@educ.ac.uk for joining details): SEDA Coding Workshop.

Also in July, CEDiR's Dialogue, Professional Change and Leadership strands is presenting a mini-summer seminar series: "Creating Inclusive Dialogues for Learning", organised by Riikka Hofmann, with a particular focus on HE. The Zoom seminar series involves panel discussions by a range of experts, followed by an audience Q&A. All Faculty staff and students are invited, as well as CEDiR partners. Sign-up is required. Colleagues are welcome to attend one or all events. The events in this seminar series are:

  • Listening and Hearing in Dialogues (Tue 7th July, 4-5pm - SIGN-UP by Fri 3 July: https://forms.gle/Y4jiQHBwtzzYYwHg8)
  • Transformative Inclusive Learning Dialogues in the HE Classroom (Tue 14th July, 1-2pm - SIGN-UP by Weds 8 July: https://forms.gle/dQcZBNcjjhPBEJsBA)
  • Disability and Inclusion in Remote Teaching and Learning in HE (Thu 16th July, 11-12pm - SIGN-UP by Fri 10 July:  https://forms.gle/xzY8Ux8F7eUauuv69)

Friday June 12th 2020 09:15-10:30 (via Zoom): Sign-up mandatory by 4 June (tinyurl.com/CEDIRPhDseminar). Organiser: Riikka Hofmann

To support doctoral students' planning in the current circumstance, CEDiR is offering a seminar to PhD students on multi-study PhDs which some students are contemplating as a way of managing barriers and risk due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The key to successful multi-study doctorates is conceptual coherence of the research questions. This seminar addresses the development of research questions and conceptual frameworks in multi-study PhDs. The seminar offers brief presentations by two guest speakers, Dr Anna Pauliina Rainio, a CEDiR affiliate and established academic in educational psychology at the University of Helsinki, and Anika Radkowitsch, a doctoral student in educational psychology at the LMU University of Munich. The presentations will be followed by a small-group Q&A with the speakers and a discussion. The seminar is open to all Faculty PhD students. The seminar (presentations and discussion) is also open to PhD supervisors and other staff, but the small-group Q&A part (breakout rooms) is restricted to doctoral students.

Please bring your own coffee/tea to Zoom and join us. Numbers are restricted and given on first come first served basis so please sign up by Thursday 4 June so we can establish discussion groups. Zoom link will be sent in advance of the seminar to signed-up participants. (Seminar will not be recorded.)

Thursday June 11th 2020 12:30-13:30 (via Zoom - email cedir@educ.ac.uk for joining details): Peer-review writing group meeting in which people can share completed drafts of abstracts/papers /chapters and receive feedback from one or a couple of peers from CEDiR.

Thursday May 28th 2020 12:30-13:30 (via Zoom - email cedir@educ.ac.uk for joining details): 1st Work-in-progress meeting, PhD student Lydia Cao will be presenting ‘Measuring responsiveness in science discussion’.

Thursday May 14th 2020 12:30-13:30 (via Zoom - email cedir@educ.ac.uk for joining details): Introduction to CEDiR's Easter term sessions and discussion around dialogic teaching in times of Covid-19.

Thursday 30th January - 12:30-13:45 (DMB GS1): Seminar & Visitor - Characterising and developing pre-service science teachers’ ability to make on-the-fly teaching decisions in dialogic interactions (Dr Kennedy Chan - University of Hong Kong)

Dialogic teaching uses classroom talk to engage students in sharing, discussing, arguing, and reasoning about academic topics, and has a positive impact on student learning. However, dialogic teaching is challenging to enact as teachers often need to make on-the-fly teaching decisions in response to emergent student thinking in dialogic interactions. This presentation described ongoing research effort to characterise and develop pre-service science teachers’ (PSTs’) on-site teaching decisions in dialogic interactions. In particular, Kennedy described how to use video-based interviews to elicit PSTs’ in-the-moment teaching decisions for characterisation. He also explained how to support their’ ability to notice and respond to emergent student thinking using authentic classroom videos.

Michaelmas Term 2019

End of Term Event - Fri 13th Dec - From 16:00 – DMB GS5

Peer Feedback on Writing Session – Fri 13th Dec 12:00-13:15 – DMB GS5

Book Launch: The Routledge International Handbook of Research on Dialogic Education – Weds 13th November (17:30-18:30) – DMB GS5. Edited by Neil Mercer, Rupert Wegerif and Louis Major, this Handbook contains 47 chapters from authors based around the world (including a number from Cambridge).

‘Work-in-Progress’ Lunchtime Brown Bag (1) – Weds 6th Nov 12:30-13:45 – DMB GS4

Tech-CEDiR Reading Group (Session 1) – 6th Nov 11:30-12:30 – DMB GS4

CEDiR Doctoral Student Reception – Tues Oct 15th DMB 1S3 – 18:00-18:45

Our first event of the term - a welcome meeting for for all current, and new, doctoral students and their supervisors. At this meeting we welcomed newcomers and also planned some events for the term, especially group supervisions and events led by students.


Easter Term 2019

Mon July 22nd (DMB 1S3): CEDiR Writing Workshop

Our third informal session where people brought along completed draft papers / chapters and received oral dialogic feedback on the spot from a couple of peers.

Thurs July 4th (DMB 2S5): Seminar & Interactive Workshop: Dr Alexander Gröschner (University of Jena)

Alex Gröschner, Professor in the Institute of Educational Science, Friedrich-Schiller-University of Jena, Germany visited CEDiR during June and July. Alex delivered a talk during a lunchtime seminar followed by an interactive workshop. Abstract below...

Research on productive classroom dialogue underpins the relevant role of teachers to verbally engage students and scaffold their learning. Although we know a lot about effective “formats” and “moves”, only a few studies have addressed this knowledge regarding productive classroom dialogue in (video-based) teacher professional development. The presentation and interactive workshop will contribute to this lack of research.

In the first part of the presentation, Alex will summarize recent (international) research that has been led to a collection (“toolkit”) of activities and strategies supporting teacher learning on productive classroom dialogue. In the second part, he will introduce the “Dialogic Video Cycle” (DVC) as an effective video-based teacher professional development programme and share some of the main findings of the intense research that has been done to investigate the effects of the DVC on teacher beliefs, practice and student motivation and learning.

Following a short break before the workshop begins, facilitation moves and video examples from the PD workshops will be presented to discuss in more depth how teachers talk about teaching and productive classroom dialogue and how this talk can be purposefully facilitated.

Thurs June 27th (DMB GS1): Seminar - Dr Andy Cavagnetto (Washington State University)

Dr Andy Cavagnetto, currently on sabbatical (from Washington State University) and working with Prof Steve Higgins at University of Durham, visited us on June 27 to share some of his work at an informal CEDiR lunchtime session. Abstract below...

In this Brown Bag session, Dr. Cavagnetto will share his work examining student-student small group talk in undergraduate biology settings. A key component of his currently funded project is to examine grain size in discourse analysis, in particular, linking broad characterizations of talk (e.g., Exploratory/Deliberative, Disputative, and Co-consensual) with profiles or clusters of talk moves. Plans for the current study will be discussed and key points of uncertainty - including coding dilemmas! - will be highlighted for discussion.

Tues 11th June (Faculty of Education): CEDiR Day Conference

Our inaugural ‘CEDiR Review’ conference. Intended as a forum to share new and evolving research on educational dialogue in a stimulating and friendly environment, it was an extremely successful day. Over 60 colleagues attended, including from Cambridge, other areas of the UK, and international CEDiR associates from the USA, Germany, Spain and Hong Kong. Particularly encouraging was to see how the dialogic approach has been interpreted and implemented in different ways in diverse educational contexts.

Thurs 21st March (GS5 in DMB, 16:00-17:30): Workshop - Educational Design Research (II)

A second workshop on Educational Design-based research. Whereas during the first workshop we discussed the practicality and suitability of DBR as a research method in the field of Education, exploring some of the key issues and challenges in light of specific DBR approaches that colleagues in the Faculty have adapted for their own projects, this workshop had a greater focus on how actually to apply this exciting (but challenging) methodological framework in educational research. Speakers included Professor Rupert Wegerif (Faculty of Education) and, via video link, Dr Arthur Bakker (Utrecht University and author of the 2019 book 'Design Research in Education: A Practical Guide for Early Career Researchers') among others.

Tues 11th March (1S3 in DMB, 12:30-13:30): Reading Group - Inclusion and Dialogue II

Tues 5th March (GS4 in DMB, 12:45-13:45): CEDiR Lunchtime Meeting

One of our regular lunchtime meetings. After a general review of CEDiR activities, the discussion focused in particular on the application of Design-based research in education in preparation for the second workshop on DBR that follows later in the month (see above).

Tues 5th March (GS4 in DMB, 11:30-12:30): Reading Group - Inclusion and Dialogue I

Our first reading group on 'inclusion and dialogue', where we discussed:

  • Snell, J., & Lefstein, A. (2017). “Low Ability,” Participation, and Identity in Dialogic Pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 55(1).
  • Martin-Beltrán, M., Guzman, N. L., & Chen, P. J. (2017). 'Let’s think about it together:’ how teachers differentiate discourse to mediate collaboration among linguistically diverse students. Language Awareness, 26(1), 41–58.

Tues 26th Feb (MAB 104, 14:00-16:30): Philosophy with Children: new research and approaches to practice

This session brought together a number of academics for the seminar 'Philosophy with Children: new research and approaches to practice'. Key themes were inclusive education, language development and play, plus a launch of a new project, Philosophy of Science in Primary Schools, taking place in the Faculty.

Weds 13th Feb (GS4 in DMB, from 16:30): SILENCE: (Re-)Viewing the concept of silence across multiple perspectives by an interdisciplinary panel of researchers

Colleagues were invited to attend the CEDiR and Arts & Creativities collaborative seminar, SILENCE. This featured a panel discussion with six interdisciplinary researchers on how they research and theorise the concept of silence from a variety of perspectives.

Tues 5th Feb (GS1 in DMB, 11:00-12:30): CEDiR & CPERG Joint Event

A dialogic session that explored the work of two academics working in East Asia who address issues of conflict and peace through education.

Visitor – David Williamson Shaffer (Jan 2019)

Seminar - 'Quantitative Ethnography'

Tuesday 22nd January 2019 - 17:00-18:15

In the age of Big Data, we have more information than ever about what people are doing and how they are thinking. However, the sheer volume of data available can overwhelm traditional qualitative and quantitative research methods, leading to research that finds significance without meaning. The science of quantitative ethnography connects the study of culture with statistical tools to understand learning, taking a critical step in learning analytics and the social sciences and humanities more broadly: going beyond looking for patterns in mountains of data to tell textured stories at scale.

Interactive Workshop on Quantitative Ethnographyː Open source tools for analysing large sets of discourse data

Wednesday 23rd January 2019 - 10:00-13:00

This workshop introduced participants to Quantitative Ethnography, a set of tools for modeling complex and collaborative thinking. A central premise of Quantitative Ethnography is learning is a process of enculturation in which students learn to make relevant connections among the skills, concepts, and/or practices in a domain. Quantitative Ethnography models the structure of these connections in large- and small-scale datasets, and logfiles of many kinds, including transcripts of structured and semi-structured interviews or video data, games and simulations, chat, email, and social media. By modeling patterns of connections in discourse, Quantitative Ethnography helps researchers quantify and visualize the development of complex and collaborative thinking.

David Williamson Shaffer is the Vilas Distinguished Professor of Learning Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Department of Educational Psychology, the Obel Professor of Learning Analytics at Aalborg University in Copenhagen, and a Data Philosopher at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research. He is the author of How Computer Games Help Children Learn and Quantitative Ethnography.

Visitor - Anna Rainio (Jan 2019)

Seminar - 'Theorising and Analysing Markers of Sustained Change in Professional Dialogues in Interventions' with Dr Anna Rainio and Dr Riikka Hofmann.

Thursday 17th January 16:00-17:30

Michaelmas Term 2018

Fri 7th Dec (11:30-12:30 in DMB 1S3 and then from 12:30 in a nearby restaurant): CEDiR Dialogic Peer Feedback on Writing Session and Christmas Lunch - Our second informal session where people bring along completed draft papers / chapters and receive oral dialogic feedback on the spot from a couple of peers. The Peer Feedback session was followed by lunch in a nearby restaurant to celebrate CEDiR's achievements in 2018.

Thurs 6th Dec (15:00-16:30 in DMB 1S3): Design Based Research (DBR) Workshop - A workshop focusing on approaches to Design-based research (DBR). Following several short and informal presentations by students and staff who are using DBR, there were a number of activities and discussions around the concept of undertaking DBR in educational research.

Weds 5th Dec - 12:30-14:00: CEDiR Intercultural and Conflict-transformation Strand Reading Group – Selected chapters from ‘Interculturalism, Education and Dialogue’ edited by Tina Besley and Michael Peters’. Chapter 22 – Intercultural dialogue, Education and Transformation: An African Perspective – Peter Rule.

Thurs 29th Nov - 17:00-18:00 (DMB 2S8): CEDiR Dialogue & Digital Technology Seminar
Dr Andrew Joyce Gibbons (School of Education, Durham University)
Contingent scaffolding: analysis of teacher utterances and group success in collaborative mathematics tasks using multi-touch tables

Contingent scaffolding, ad hoc interventions by teachers during learning activities based upon their on the spot assessment of the needs of one or more learner, in technology rich environments has been shown to have been effective in supporting communication and discussion (Major, et al., 2018). However, of the many studies exploring scaffolding processes in the classroom the majority are descriptive studies. Few focus on the effectiveness of the strategy (Bakker, Smit and Wegerif, 2015). The goal of this study is to explore the different kinds of scaffolding which may be appropriate to supporting learning at different times of a learning process and to explore the productive ways of providing that scaffolding. It explores the impact of contingent scaffolding strategies on the success of groups working on collaborative Mathematics tasks. The utterances made by the teacher were coded using an adapted form of the Engle and Conant (2002) framework for fostering productive disciplinary engagement. Results presented indicate the importance of both the teacher's decision making process in selecting appropriate scaffolding strategies and the ability of the learners to internalise the implications of what the teacher is saying to them.

Weds 21st Nov - 12:30-14:00 (DMB GS1): CEDiR Intercultural and Conflict-transformation Strand Reading Group – Selected chapters from ‘Interculturalism, Education and Dialogue’ edited by Tina Besley and Michael Peters’. Chapter 2 - Averroes Revisited: Intellectualism, Interculturalism and Dialogue in Medieval Spain – Driss Habti

Thurs 15th Nov - 12:45-13:45 (DMB 2S8): CEDiR Lunchtime Meeting - This regular CEDiR meeting had a particular focus on dialogue coding. Chris Bailey, a teacher from Australia who has been trialing T-SEDA (see http://bit.ly/T-SEDA) visited.

Weds 7th Nov - 12:30-14:00: CEDiR Intercultural and Conflict-transformation Strand Reading Group – Selected chapters from ‘Interculturalism, Education and Dialogue’ edited by Tina Besley and Michael Peters’. Chapter 1 - Western Models of Intercultural Philosophy – Michael A. Peters

Thurs 25th Oct - 12:45-13:45 (DMB 1S3): CEDiR Lunchtime Meeting - A regular CEDiR group meeting. This meeting offered colleagues an additional opportunity to introduce themselves and to finalise CEDiR's plans for the 2018/19 academic year.

CEDiR DOCTORAL STUDENT MEETING & DRINKS - Thursday 4th October (16:30-17:30 with drinks after - DMB 1S3). A meeting for all current, and new, doctoral students and their supervisors. At this meeting we welcomed newcomers and also planned some events for the term, especially group supervisions and events led by students.

WORKSHOP - Friday 28th September (1:30-3:15pm in DMB GS1)
Methodologies for Building Peaceful Communities in and through Schools (Facilitated by Rupert Higham (UCL), Tony Booth & other colleagues). A dialogue led by: Community Relations in Schools, which has enabled constructive dialogues between school across cultural divides in Northern Ireland for 30 years; the University of Leuven, which supports teachers in Belgium to develop schools using the Index for Inclusion; and CEDiR’s inter-cultural and conflict transformation strand.

WORKSHOP - Monday 24th September (all day)
Joint CEDiR & ‘Dialogue and Learning Network’ (Norway) Workshop. Rupert Wegerif and Louis Major from CEDiR's Theory & Methodology strand led a workshop involving colleagues from several institutions, based in the Western Norway, who are part of the newly established 'Dialogue and Learning network'.

SEMINAR - 19th September (5-6pm in DMB GS1)
Nigel Calder, The University of Waikato, New Zealand - Using mobile technologies in the teaching and learning of mathematics. Mobile technologies are everywhere in our lives. We use them to communicate, research, process, record experiences, and for entertainment. They influence the way we interact in the world, the way we live. We use them in work and play. How might they change the teaching and learning process? This presentation explores the ways that using mobile technologies have the potential to change teaching and learning in mathematics – with both student engagement and mathematical thinking. A particular focus was on the dialogic affordances of mobile technologies and how these interact within socio-material assemblages. Co-organised with the Cambridge Mathematics Education Research Group - MERG.


Easter Term 2018

23rd August (DMB GS1, 14:00-15:30): Dialogic Peer Feedback on Writing Session. An informal session where people brought along completed draft papers/chapters and received oral dialogic feedback on the spot from a couple of peers.

11th July (DMB 1S3, 10:00-16:00): This Tech-CEDiR Research Workshop focused on the role of technology in knowledge building and dialogic teaching, and how to analyse it. A number of external Tech-CEDiR collaborators (Gary Beauchamp, Andrew Joyce Gibbons, Simon Knight & Jill Jameson) joined us.

9 July (DMB 1S3, 13:00-14:30): Taro Fujita (Exeter University) and colleagues from Shinshu University (Japan) and elsewhere joined us. They presented work relating to their Group Thinking Measure (used in the context of mathematics education).

VISITORS - July 2018: Carol Chan and Jan van Aalst from Hong Kong University (HKU) visited CEDiR during July on a British Academy Fellowship along with several colleagues. They worked closely with the T-SEDA and Tech-CEDiR teams during their visit. A number of research presentations were also given by various CEDiR colleagues throughout the month, and several well-attended social events held.

23 May (DMB 2S4, 15:00-16:30): Strategic Partnership for Innovation in Data Analytics in Schools (SPIDAS) Sibel Kazak (Pamukkale Universitesi, Turkey) and Manoli Pifarré (Universitat de Lleida, Spain) visited CEDiR colleagues to talk about their large ERASMUS+ SPIDAS project. During this open meeting, Sibel and Manoli presented an overview of their project, the main conclusions of state of the art, and their intentions in relation to the design, implementation and evaluation of the school-based pilots they are planning to undertake.

3 May (DMB GS3, 11:00-12:30): Sylvia Rojas-Drummond and Maria Jose Barrera visited for a week as part of a collaborative BA/Leverhulme project. The session was not a formal presentation, but offered an opportunity to hear about the research processes to date and to share ideas about it.

23-27 April: Visit from Sabine Zorn Prompted by Sabine's visit, a number of events were held throughout the week including a reading group and presentations (including by Sabine - 'Social interactions in the classroom: the case of students with an autism spectrum disorder and their teachers in French lower secondary school' and Sara Hennessy - 'Analysing educational dialogue: Methodological issues'). A workshop on coding classroom dialogue, including comparison of the affordances of different coding schemes, was also well attended.


Lent Term 2018

26-27 March: Tech-CEDiR events The Tech-CEDiR strand welcomed around 20 colleagues from around the UK (and overseas) during a workshop to consider the role of technology in supporting dialogue.

1 March (DMB GS1, 13:00-13:45): Doctoral students Elisa Calcagni and Leo Lago presented on recent work they have undertaken (“The Three Domains for Dialogue: a framework for describing and analysing dialogic approaches to teaching and learning”).

Bakhtin Reading Groups - organised by CEDiR's Theory & Methodology strand in collaboration with the Faculty's Children's Literature Research Cluster (CLRC). 25 January and 8 February *please note, the regular CEDiR group meeting followed these sessions (at 13:00-13:45)


Michaelmas Term 2017

23 November: CEDiR Reading Group & General Meeting (Donald McIntyre Building Room 1S7, 11:45-13:45) In advance of launching our more comprehensive programme of reading groups next term, we held a one-off session where we considered an article suggested by Prof Rupert Wegerif: “What is Dialogism?” by Per Linell. Following the reading group (at around 12:45), there was an additional opportunity for staff and students to discuss CEDiR's plans for 2018.

9 November: CEDiR Meeting (Donald McIntyre Building Room 1S3, 12:45-14:00)  A meeting to welcome new staff and students and to discuss CEDiR’s plans for 2018. There was also be an opportunity to learn more about CEDiR’s newly established research “strands”.

27 September 2017: The Impact of Dialogic Teaching on Student Learning 

Findings from two parallel large-scale projects were presented:

1. Dialogic Teaching Randomised Controlled Trial: Classroom talk, social disadvantage and educational attainment. Jan Hardman (University of York) discussed the findings of an EEF-funded dialogic teaching intervention conducted in Year 5 classrooms in collaboration with Frank Hardman & Robin Alexander.

2. Classroom Dialogue: It Does Make a Difference to Student Outcomes. Christine Howe (University of Cambridge) reported on the outcomes of her ESRC project (conducted with Neil Mercer, Sara Hennessy, Maria Vrikki & Lisa Wheatley) investigating the relationship of classroom dialogue with student learning in core subjects and attitudes to school in Year 6 classrooms.


Easter Term 2017

May 29-June 2: Visit by Marie Dahl Rasmussen, Lecturer in Danish didactics (teacher education), University College Capital and PhD-student, Aarhus Universitet, and Margrethe Sønneland, University of Stavanger in Norway. They gave a joint presentation entitled 'Possibilities of Joint Exploration - Pupils’ Conversations on Literature in a Scandinavian Perspective'. See the Teacher SEDA Talk Poster for further information.

31 May: CEDiR Seminar - A dialogic understanding of inclusive pedagogy: tracing professional conversations
Ruth Kershner, Faculty of Education
See the Dialogic understanding of inclusive pedagogy poster for further information.

June 7: CEDIR Seminar by Chrysi Rapanta (visitor from Lisbon, organised by her collaborator Fiona Maine) on PD for argumentation. See the Chrysi Rapanta Seminar poster for further information.

June 19: CEDIR Annual Picnic We held our annual CEDiR picnic to not only discuss plans for next year, but to say goodbye to Rupert Higham (who departed at the end of June) and to welcome Rupert Wegerif (who started his new post as Professor of Psychology in the Faculty on that day).


Lent Term 2017

May 10: Reading Group: Towards an Ethics of Answerability: Reconsidering Dialogism in Sociocultural Literacy Research by Mary Juzwik. Discussion introduced by Farah Ahmed. Article accessible here: http://juzwik.wiki.educ.msu.edu/file/view/Juzwik_2004_CCC.pdf

March 1: Reading group led by Tristan Igglesden, discussing "Knowledge-building patterns in educational dialogue” by Muhonen et al., International Journal of Educational Research 81 (2017) 25–37.

Wed 7 and Thu 8 Feb: Visit from Prof. David Clarke and Dr Esther Chan, University of Melbourne to discuss multimodal exploration of the nature and role of listening in dialogue. 

Feb 8: Assessing group dialogue: what is good participation in group discussions and how can teachers assess this? by Ayesha Ahmed (Faculty of Education) and Ruth Johnson (AQA).


Michaelmas Term 2016

Wed 7 Dec: A dialogic educational approach to Alzheimer's care - a CEDiR/ELPEC seminar with Nick Andrews. Nick gave details of the exciting DEEP project, and discussing its future development.

Fri 11 Nov: Mining of Social Behaviour in the Classroom with Ragnar Behncke, Universidad de Chile & Founder of SocialMap. This presentation focused on results from the use of glasses cameras to track 10-year-old students' gaze. See Mining of Social Behaviour poster for further information.

Tue 15 Nov: Using ELAN software for the systematic analysis of video data a FERSA/CEDiR/PEDAL workshop led by Marisol Basilio and Aline Frederico. See the ELAN Workshop poster for further information.

Oct 10: Welcome drinks to mark the start of term followed by a meal out.

Oct 10-13: Visit by Prof. Alex Groschner.

Sept 5-8: Visit by David Clarke and Esther Chan, University of Melbourne, who were on a European tour to forge partnerships for their newly funded “International network on the social essentials for learning”. CEDiR events included:

  • Sept 6: David and Esther presented on the topic of ‘Investigating the social nature of classroom learning', followed by breakout and plenary discussion debating the issues from different theoretical/disciplinary perspectives, and then lunch at Homerton.
  • Sept 6: Comparative coding of dialogue in a mathematics classroom - a hands-on workshop exploring issues arising in using different kinds of schemes, e.g. the adapted version of SEDA currently being used in the ESRC Dialogue project and tools from the Australian team's projects. (This followed up on the coding workshop run by the ESRC project team in a CEDiR event earlier this year.)
  • Sept 6: Discussion: "Are there distinctive features to mathematical dialogue, or are its dialogic features generic?” We might consider possible research project(s) to explore and test this.
  • Sept 7: Session focusing on CPD and teacher intervention in maths classrooms: How do we improve the quality of classroom dialogue? This session began with a short presentation from Steve Watson's team, and another from Sharon Walker and colleagues from CMEP (Cambridge Mathematics Education Project), again including lots of discussion time.
  • Sept 7: Maths Education Colloquium presentation by David and Esther entitled: "Classroom Learning: Speaking in and about Mathematics Classrooms” followed by meal out with speakers.

Easter term 2016

July 14: a joint event with CPERG (Cambridge Peace Education Research Group) focused on conflict resolution through mediation and dialogue, organised by Hilary Cremin. The event included a visit and demonstration by young peer mediators from Birmingham who are trained in conflict resolution, plus 3 short talks: • Hilary Cremin - A concept of circle time and peer mediation • Toshi Tsuruhara - Turning points in conflict mediation dialogues between students and neighbours in UK and Japan • Sara Greco (Switzerland) - The mediator as an architect of the parties' discussion

July 12: presentations & discussions on self-regulation and dialogue by the British Academy (UK-Chile) team: David Preiss & Valeska Grau Cardenas, Antonia Larrain, David Whitebread & Marisol Basilio, Pablo Torres. A joint CEDiR-P&E event focusing on argumentation, chaired by Christine Howe with two presentations from overseas visitors: • Sara Greco (Switzerland) - "Implicit argumentation in adult-child discussions” • Antonia Larrain (Chile) - "Argumentation among peers and concept learning: when individual cognition makes a difference”.

July 7: twilight event - "Teacher professional development for and through dialogue" involving visitors Adam Lefstein from Israel and Klara Sedova & Zuzana Šalamounová from Czech Republic. Presentations included: • Professional development for dialogic teaching (Adam Lefstein; Klara Sedova & Zuzana Šalamounová) • Lesson study (Steve Watson) • Dialogue - the central Leadership for Learning principle (Sue Swaffield) • Teacher-SEDA scheme for teachers investigating their own practice (Lisa Lee)

May 31: Reading Group - Article by Pehmer, Gröschner & Seidel (2015). Fostering and scaffolding student engagement in productive classroom discourse: Teachers' practice changes and reflections in light of teacher professional development. Learning, Culture and Social Interaction 7, 12–27.

April 22: Launch of Oracy Centre at Hughes Hall. Led by Neil Mercer.


Lent Term 2016

March 8: "Coding workshop: ESRC Classroom Dialogue project"

Convened by Sara Hennessy, Christine Howe, Neil Mercer. The research team working on the ESRC Classroom Dialogue project outlined progress to date, showed videos and transcripts of classroom interaction, and invited members of CEDIR to try out and discuss the coding scheme. This was a hands-on workshop, with discussion centred around practical activities.

February 5: 10-12.30 - "Principles of inter-faith and secular educational dialogue"

Speakers: Hanan Alexander, Tony Booth, Rupert Wegerif. Presentations were 20 mins each, followed by an extended discussion exploring both the ideas raised and potential avenues of research and collaboration that emerge.

Reading group

March 10: The paper, chosen by Sara Hennessy, was: Lefstein, A et al. (2015) From moves to sequences: expanding the unit of analysis in the study of classroom discourse.

Michelmas Term 2015

Dialogue and transformative learning in STEM Education: the case of Mexico and the UK. Prof. Juan Manuel Fernández-Cardenas, Tecnólogico de Monterrey, Mexico; Prof. Catherine Montgomery, University of Hull

Reading group

Kazepides, Tasos (2010) Education as Dialogue. In Educational Philosophy and Theory 44(9).