A quantitative study of the differences in ideas generated by three different opportunities for classroom talk

Abstract

This paper reports the productiveness of different modes of classroom talk- whole class, pair work and individual. The data collected points to pair work as providing the optimum conditions for participant effort and productiveness of ideas. Whilst whole class talk is more focused, more productive in terms of total ideas and covers a greater percentage of possible ideas, it suffers from a low participation rate. Individual work demands the most effort but produces idiosyncratic results. Pair work, in being both participatory and productive, is most suitable for teachers working under the pressure of time. Teachers with more time to spare should seriously consider planning lessons with opportunities for all three modes of classroom talk, as each offers different benefits. In producing ideas about a burning candle, Egyptian science teachers did not show any differences in the epistemology of ideas produced with different opportunities for talk, but the distribution of ideas categorized according to chemistry topic did vary according to opportunities for classroom talk.