Complete thesis - Murdoch University

The importance of dialogueLearning is seen as a meaning-making venture with culturally developed tools and symbols;meaning is negotiated through cooperative social activity, discourse and debate (Mayes,1992), or through individual coherence.The learning nature of conversation has been described in the literature of learning (Harri-Augstein and Thomas, 1991; Senge, 1994; Baker et al, 2002; Garrison and Rud, 1995; Tharpand Gallimore, 1991). This perspective is underpinned by the concept that conversation canevoke reflection that results in learning. The concept of teaching/learning as conversation wasformalised through Pask (1976)’s Conversation Theory. This describes learning as occurringthrough conversations about a subject matter, which serve to make knowledge explicit.Senge (1994) coined the term ‘learningful conversation’ to distinguish conversation that engagesthe process of reflection, in particular reflection on the mental models that are afoundation for personal action. The discipline of working with mental models starts withturning the mirror inward; learning to unearth internal pictures of the world, to bring themto the surface and hold them rigorously to scrutiny. It also includes the ability to carry onlearningful conversations where people expose their own thinking effectively and make thatthinking open to the influence of others. He also contends that learningful conversation ismore likely if it takes the form of dialogue rather than discussion. Discussion is defined asconversation confined to participants stating and giving reasons for their positions (advocacy),whereas dialogue also involves participants in exploration and critique of the reasonsand assumptions associated with their positions (inquiry). He proposes several reflectionactivities that can help expose such misconceptions. Some of these activities are based onconcepts and processes originally proposed by Argyris and Schön (1974) and Schön (1983).This is in line with his belief that the ability to engage in such conversation is a pre-requisiteto professional learning – conversation has been explicitly identified as a key feature of severalprofessional learning initiatives. Sinceconversation is a meeting of minds with different memories and habits. Whenminds meet, they don’t just exchange facts; they transform them, draw differentimplications from them, engage in new trains of thought. Conversation doesn’tjust reshuffle the cards; it creates new cards(Zeldin, 1998, p 14)conversation may also be seen to be an ideal context for the gestation of new ideas andtherefore conducive to creativity.136