Conversation in the Classroom

Conversation, dialogue, discussion… whatever you want to call it (I personally have no preference) is one of the most important aspects of a classroom, if not the most important. Over the years, I have without a doubt, learned more from having conversations within the classroom than reading from a textbook or hearing a lecture from a professor. The article describes conversation/dialogue/discussion as incorporating “reciprocity and movement, exchange and inquiry, cooperation and collaboration, formality and informality” and that it is “unrehearsed intellectual adventure”. As students and future teachers, isn’t that our main goal for our students and ourselves? We strive to teach them about cooperation and collaboration, and our goal is for them to have many intellectual adventures through exchange and inquiry. Conversation within the classroom provides all of that and more. So why don’t more teachers employ it? True, not all classrooms have a feeling of safety and community, which is absolutely necessary for open communication and dialogue, but shouldn’t every classroom be working toward that? And how do you work toward that without having some sort of conversation daily? Answer: you don’t. And without it students will not automatically be willing participants, which is necessary for conversation to work well. “Conversing critically implies an openness to rethinking cherished assumptions… and requires people to be flexible enough to adjust their views in the light of persuasive, well supported arguments and confident enough to retain their original opinions when rebuttals fall short.” I personally think that above all, this is the highest goal to reach for. Graduating students who have the ability to research thoroughly, investigate many sides of the same issue, and then to stand firmly for what they believe to be true is what we need in order for the future to be successful. And as teachers, it is our job to facilitate this behavior and model it for our students so that they have an example to learn from. We cannot expect our students to demonstrate this sort of behavior and mature thinking without exhibiting it ourselves. When our students move on into the real world, these are necessary traits to have to work well with others, to be a contributing member of the community, and to show the future generations how to get along with others while still being your own person. 

Conversation, as well as teaching students to be valued members of society, really allows them to be in control of their own learning. If they are present and participatory in these classroom discussions, they have an uncapped potential for learning and discovering new things. They will see new perspectives, new ways of thinking, deeper understanding of old and new issues. They will be able to discover who they are as individuals and how they can work and contribute in their own communities. They learn empathy and compassion, as well as determination and how to stand up for what they believe in. Conversation alone will not, however, teach students all of the necessary ideas, attitudes, and knowledge that they will need to understand. Classroom conversation needs to be used along with other teaching methods for it to be successful and teachers need to give it a chance to work, and not give up the first time something goes wrong.