Abstracts - Earli

thinking. Video recordings of thinking lessons were conducted with a sample of 21 teachers whowere teaching 8-9 year old children. Analyses of the videos showed that the ACTS teachersarranged their classrooms in ways that supported opportunities for children’s talk and createdconditions for mediating metacognition. They engaged children in cognitively demanding tasksand made thinking more evident in classrooms by developing a vocabulary for talking aboutthinking and by modelling thinking in more concrete situations. What made good thinking lessonsdistinctive was that learners were given opportunities to talk about thinking, to jointly constructmeaning, to evaluate their thinking and to make connections to contexts both within and outsidethe curriculum. The evidence from the video recordings was corroborated by teachers’ reportsabout changes in their classroom practices. A larger sample of ninety-four teachers whoparticipated in the ACTS professional development programme completed questionnaires. Theyreported substantial changes with regard to both the quantity and quality of group work, increasesin children’s talking and listening, in the quality of questioning and, overall, more pupilinvolvement and independence. They also reported significant changes in their images ofthemselves as teachers – an increased awareness of the importance and value of teaching thinking,being more open to alternative approaches and allowing children to be more independent in theirlearning.An exploration of instructional discourse in PBL learning environments: Nuances of monologismand dialogism uncoveredStefanie Chye, Republic Polytechnic, SingaporeRichard Walker, University of Sydney, AustraliaRecent years have witnessed the ready embrace and recognition of Problem-Based Learning (PBL)as a valuable pedagogical method. While its underlying benefits are clear, what is equally apparentis that not all PBL learning environments are effectual. This attests to a need for insights into howthe learning affordances inherent in PBL can be maximized. A key factor determining the efficacyof PBL is the instructional discourse employed during facilitation. Yet, instructional discourse inPBL is with few exceptions, typically neglected as a resource of student learning. The objectivesof the present study are two-fold. Firstly, it seeks to explore the types of instructional discoursethat are employed during PBL facilitation, and secondly, to identify the relationship between theinstructional discourse employed and students’ learning processes. The overarching theoreticalframework is informed by what may be broadly termed a sociocultural perspective. Althoughsociocultural theory provides a firm basis for examining the general role of instructional discoursein education, it does not specify the types of discourse that may occur. As such, the Bakhtinianderivedconstructs of monologism and dialogism are used as theoretical heuristics to describe thetypes of classroom instructional discourse. The study is situated within a tertiary institution thatemploys PBL as the sole instructional methodology. The classrooms of eight facilitators and theirstudents were video-recorded and the interactions transcribed. Transcripts were analysed formonologic and dialogic episodes and how these support or constrain student learning processes inPBL. Preliminary results indicate that dialogism is a layered and hybrid construct with varyingdegrees of divergence and characteristics. Dialogism may also vary depending on the context ofuse with different implications for students’ learning processes. Overall, the study suggests thatcurrent research on instructional discourse may need to fine-tune the constructs of monologismand dialogism to avoid oversimplifying pedagogical dialogue.– 345 –