Toolkit for Systematic Educational Dialogue Analysis (T-SEDA): An impact acceleration project
This project bridges and capitalises upon the outcomes of two recent research projects about classroom dialogue. ‘Classroom dialogue’ refers here to productive forms of student-teacher and peer group talk that stimulate students’ critical thinking and help to develop learners' deep knowledge and understanding in different subject areas.
Our large-scale ESRC-funded project encouragingly demonstrated that certain features of whole-class dialogue are strongly linked to student learning and positive attitudinal outcomes. This significant finding calls for widespread teacher professional development to promote this practice. British Academy funded research with Mexican collaborators produced the Scheme for Dialogue Analysis (SEDA), which provides a framework for identifying key features of classroom dialogue.
The T-SEDA toolkit is an extensive set of open resources that supports practitioners at all educational levels in developing dialogic teaching and learning and in leading their own inquiries and impact activities. It has at its heart a teacher-friendly version of SEDA that helps practitioners to observe and develop the quality of dialogue between students and staff.
T-SEDA has been developed by a team at the University of Cambridge that includes researchers and practising teachers. It has been used by over 360 practitioners beyond the team in a range of schools and higher education institutions in different countries, across age groups and subject areas. This ongoing trialling has generated useful feedback which continues to improve the toolkit. A summary of the customisable contents is as follows:
T-SEDA: A User's Guide
T-SEDA Resources
- Section 1: Coding framework
- Section 2: Developing dialogic practice
- Section 3: Identifying aims, interests and inquiry focus
- Section 4: Observation methods including technical guidance for audio/video recording and transcribing
- Section 5: Templates for observing and coding
- Section 6: Case studies
- Section 7: References to other research on dialogue and links to related resources
Our ESRC-funded Impact Acceleration Account project aimed to scale up impact by employing the T-SEDA resources to support practitioners working independently of a research team. The project team has established partnerships with groups of teachers and clusters of schools, spanning early years providers to secondary schools in England, New Zealand, Australia, Israel, Spain and Pakistan.
We have also linked with a further education college and multiple practitioners in higher education institutions in England, Mexico and Hong Kong. Activities included in the impact project included practitioner workshops, classroom videoing, and the creation of additional online resources and video training guides.
This project relates to the current public policy push for teacher inquiry and aimed to engage in wider capacity building in schools. Our approach concurs with what is already known about factors that support impact, including:
- Furthering of existing networks and relationships with teachers
- Acknowledging the expertise and active role of teachers
- Developing good understanding of policy/practice contexts and encouraging teachers, as users, to bring their knowledge of local context to adapt the approach for their own purposes and enhance sustainable impact.
One of our main findings so far has been that local research leaders and facilitators have a key role in embedding and sustaining impact in different contexts.
Some outcomes and outputs of our impact project include:
- evidence of changes in the participants’ practice towards more dialogic lesson activities, teaching strategies and classroom interactions
- increased students’ participation in class activities and engagement with peers’ ideas evidence of practitioners’ awareness and understanding of productive classroom dialogue
- impact case study materials including openly available illustrative video exemplars
- a briefing report for schools
- partnerships with groups of teachers and clusters of schools
- a workshop that brought teachers and practitioners together to discuss the impact of using T-SEDA in their own contexts
- dissemination of the project findings at national and international academic events
- journal publications
- a resources website for practitioners
Video examples of dialogue in diverse educational contexts
A collection of video resources from the CEDiR research group is available. These clips show teacher and student dialogue in the classroom from a number of research projects, analysed using different coding schemes.
Would you like to try out T-SEDA?
Our first formal trial has now finished. However, we invite any interested teachers, lecturers school leaders and professional development leaders from any country, age group or subject to try out T-SEDA.
No prior knowledge needed. You can use T-SEDA in order to address your own inquiry questions, adjusting it to your available time and resources. We would welcome feedback from your work with T-SEDA so please complete a short feedback form and send it to us using the email address below.
If your institution requires an ethical clearance approval before you start your trial, please contact us and we will send you the approved form from the University of Cambridge accompanied by a covering letter.
To register your interest please email us at t-seda@educ.ac.uk
Information and materials
We are pleased now to have T-SEDA materials translated into Spanish, Chinese, French, Italian, Arabic and Japanese. A Dutch version and updating of an older Hebrew version are underway too.
English v9
T-SEDA additional materials (v9)
T-SEDA toolkit (v9) Editable templates
- Editable Template A for transcript coding
Teacher self-assessment and student assessment of dialogic teaching scales
T-SEDA Inquiry Report and case study template
Feedback is welcome about any elements of the T-SEDA materials, and is incorporated into the toolkit on an ongoing basis. Please contact us with your suggestions, comments or adapted resources at T-SEDA@educ.cam.ac.uk.
A series of short video guides support use of the T-SEDA materials. Feedback welcome!
Italian v9
T-SEDA Additional materials v9 Italian
T-SEDA Editable templates v9 Italian
Editable template A for transcript coding (Italian)
Espanol v8a
T-SEDA v8a Version en espanol PDF
TSEDA Plantillas Editables Version en espanol
TSEDA Recursos Adicionales Version en espanol
Como equipo T-SEDA, apreciamos su retroalimentación respecto del esquema de codificación así como los demás componentes de los recursos educativos T-SEDA. No dude en contactarnos con sus sugerencias o comentarios al correo electrónico del proyecto T-SEDA@educ.cam.ac.uk
Chinese (simplified) v8a
教师对话教学分析方案资源包_版本v8a_additional resources_附加资源.pdf
教师教学对话分析方案资源包_版本_可编辑模板_editable templates.docx
用于转录编码的可编辑模板_EditableCodingTemplateA.xlsx
教师教学对话分析方案 探究报告和案例研究模板_inquiry report_and_case_study_template.docx
Chinese (traditional) v8a
教师对话教学分析方案资源包_(版本)_additional resources_附加资源.docx
教师教学对话分析方案资源包_(版本7c)_可编辑模板_editable templates.docx
用于转录编码的可编辑模板_EditableCodingTemplateA.xlsx
教师教学对话分析方案 探究报告和案例研究模板_inquiry_report_and_case_study_template.docx
Français v8a
T-SEDA pack v8a en français PDF
Japanese v8a
Arabic v8a
T-SEDA editable templates v8a Arabic
T-SEDA additional materials Arabic
Hebrew v6
Project Information
Investigators
Sara Hennessy
Ruth Kershner
Other T-SEDA team members:
- Farah Ahmed
- Elisa Calcagni
- Ana Laura Trigo-Clapes
- Meaghan Brugha
- Camtree team: Alison Twiner, Maria McElroy, Ying Ji, Patrick Carmichael, Pete Dudley
Earlier collaborators: Maria Vrikki, FLora Hernandez, Nube Estrada, Ana Rubio Jimenez
Publications
Hennessy, S. (2023). Analysing educational dialogue around shared artefacts in technology-mediated contexts: A new coding framework. Preprint. https://edarxiv.org/9e32k
Calcagni, E., Ahmed, F., Trigo Clapés, A.L., Kershner, R., & Hennessy, S. (2023). Developing dialogic classroom practices through supporting professional agency: Teachers’ experiences of using the T-SEDA practitioner-led inquiry approach. Teaching and Teacher Education. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2023.104067 (open access)
Brugha, M. & Hennessy, S. (2022). Educators as Creators: Lessons from a mechanical MOOC on educational dialogue for local facilitators. Irish Educational Studies 41(1), 225-243. https://doi.org/10.1080/03323315.2021.2022527 (open access)
Hennessy, S., Kershner, R., Calcagni, E. & Ahmed, F. (2021). Supporting practitioner-led inquiry into classroom dialogue with a research-informed professional learning resource: A design-based approach. Review of Education 9 (3). http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/rev3.3269 (open access)
Kershner, R., Hennessy, S., Dowdall, K., Owen, H. & Calcagni, M.E. (2020). Teachers as ‘natural experimenters’: Using T-SEDA to develop classroom dialogue. In Rolls, L. & Hargreaves, E. (Eds.) Reimagining Professional Development in Schools (Chapter 8). Routledge. Accepted version.
Vrikki, M., Kershner, R., Calcagni, E., Hennessy, S., Lee, L., Estrada, N., Hernández, F., and Ahmed, F. (2018). The Teacher Scheme for Educational Dialogue Analysis (T-SEDA): Developing a research-based observation tool for supporting teacher inquiry into pupils' participation in classroom dialogue. International Journal of Research and Methods in Education 42(2), 85-203.
Funder
ESRC Impact Acceleration Account
May 2018 - Sept 2020
Contact details
t-seda@educ.cam.ac.uk Cambridge Educational Dialogue Research Group