Dialogue in the Lecture Hall: Teacher–Student Communication and Students’ Perceptions of Their Learning

Abstract

Dialogue is often advocated as a way to engage students in active learning. Yet, most studies of dialogic teaching focus on small classes where discussion is relatively easy to encourage. Additionally, very little is known about students’ perceptions of dialogue and its relationship to their learning. This essay draws from Martin Buber's philosophy to describe dialogue as a way of communicating that involves presence, openness, mutuality, emergence, and voice. The case study investigates one instructor's efforts to teach dialogically in an introductory lecture course and her students’ characterizations of the aspects of teacher–student communication that help them learn. Analysis shows that students’ descriptions were consistent with dialogic elements of presence and voice, but not otherness or mutuality. Implications for dialogic teaching and scholarship are discussed.

Keywords:

• Dialogue
• Lecture
• Pedagogy
• Teacher-student communication

The author would like to thank the instructor and students studied here for their willingness to participate in this research. Additional thanks go to Karen Zediker, John Stewart, Lisa Coutu, Don Wulff, Cindy King, Catherine Puckering, and Jo Sprague for their helpful comments.

Notes

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Western States Communication Association 2001 annual convention.

1. To preserve anonymity, the instructor has been given a pseudonym, Kathy C. Her students refer to her as “Dr. C” or “Kathy.”