Dialogue is the core of the Dialogy teaching method. We are not merely learning how to talk; we are learning through talk. Dialogue is a way to recreate knowledge as well as the way we learn. It is a mutual learning process where the teacher poses critical problems for inquiry. Through dialogue, the teacher and students transform learning into a collaborative process to illuminate, better understand, and act on the world.
The #1 goal of Dialogy is to enable students to learn about the world around them and empower them to effectively and respectfully engage with one another. As such, the #1 goal of teachers in the classroom is to encourage and facilitate dialogue and talk, introduce concepts that enable more effective talk, and provide constructive feedback on talk.
Our assumptions:
1. Young people are immensely curious and creative.
2. Young people want to talk about the world around them and the events taking place therein.
3. Young people CAN talk about complicated aspects of the world and society.
4. With specific tools and practice, young people can become even more confident, reasonable, and compelling when expressing themselves.
How do we inspire compelling talk?
Step 1: Inspire thought with Inspiring Content.
Any parent knows that when their children become excited or inspired, they will talk — a lot. When children encounter something confusing, fascinating, mysterious, they want to learn more! We have carefully selected a range of inspiring and interactive content that inspires students and provides “stuff” about which to talk. In the past two decades, there has been an explosion, in the most positive sense, of compelling and interactive content – audio, video, and written – focused on complicated problems and questions in the world. There are thousands of podcasts, blogs, video blogs, video essays, books, and articles that are high-quality, comprehensive, and, most importantly, targeted toward young people. Our international teaching team has selected the very best of such content that is sure to inspire critical thinking and talking on a range of subjects. Students watch/listen/read before coming to class. During class, our teachers facilitate an interactive “close-reading” of the content.
All young people possess the knowledge to debate about their daily lives, their schools, home, and their friends. There is a range of essential and accessible topics that students of all levels can debate today. It is also vital to expand awareness of issues outside of students’ immediate social lives to enable them to debate about a wide range of topics. In doing so, young people must develop the habit of consuming and engaging with news and current events. It is also essential to introduce questions, issues, and controversies that may not be directly related to young people’s lives. In this way, students can gradually develop the confidence and competence to engage in debates on increasingly sophisticated topics.
Step 2: Introduce “Talk-Tools” and Concepts.
The Dialogy experience is a series of organized talk activities. As such, full participation requires the continuous introduction of vocabulary and concepts to aid and facilitate talk. Concepts and vocabulary empower students to frame, construct, deconstruct and compare ideas. For those students beginning their journey in debating, “talk tools” and concepts are essential in enabling them to get started in a potentially unfamiliar communication context. Like all vocabulary, students learn and relearn the concepts and terms, practicing them in different settings and at varying levels of abstraction and sophistication. Each concept is introduced and reintroduced throughout the learning journey.
Step 3: Create Contexts of Dialogical Engagement.
Questioning is at the heart of dialogical teaching. Dialogy teachers are trained in methods of critical interrogation and facilitating small group dialogue about essential questions. Students explore exciting content and begin to use vocabulary and critical reasoning tools to talk about the content. We give students problems that push them to think harder and more profound.
Step 4: Facilitate Debates on Pressing Controversies.
Reading + Writing + Listening + Speaking + Thinking = Debate [IMAGE NEEDED HERE TO REFLECT THIS]
Debate is a powerful educational tool precisely because it brings together the core practices of reading, writing, listening, thinking, and speaking all in the same activity. All the while, it provides a powerful motivator for students to learn more and talk about the world around them.
Ironically, debate is the opposite of dialogue. The purpose of dialogue is understanding. The purpose of debate is persuasion. Debate is an educational activity that requires students to defend a particular position against disagreement. Debate is valuable because it provides a venue to test and experiment with persuasive skills. It is also helpful because each participant is guaranteed a set amount of speaking time that is protected. Research shows that a small number of students typically dominate classroom discussions. Debate necessarily evens this out.
Debate is dangerous; however, if it encourages students to manipulate and dominate others. Dialogue is a collaborative process whereby we seek to express ourselves, listen to each other, and better understand each other. In a dialogue we do not assume we are sole owners of the whole truth. In debate, we play the role of advocates who assume, temporarily, to have truth on our side. There are no winners and losers in a dialogue. There are winners and losers, albeit subjectively chosen, in a debate. The goal of dialogue is not necessarily persuasion, though persuasion often happens organically in a dialogue. In a debate, both sides agree that they will suspend self-doubt for some time and attempt to persuade.
Step 5: Develop “Metacognition” Through Critical Reflection on the
Learning Process.
After the debate, we take special care to return to dialogue! Debate was a game we agreed to play to help us to test and sharpen our skills of public speaking and critical reasoning. The debate itself provides us more “stuff” to talk about. We can question each other and ourselves about the decisions made during the debate. We can return to the critical questions posed at the beginning of the session and see what new questions emerged in the course of our debate experience. We then continue this “discussion” independently, through writing. After students have gone through a series of dialogues and debates and have had a chance to work through their ideas, they can then better articulate themselves in writing. Writing is a powerful method of clarifying our thoughts, focusing on specific questions, and reflecting on the learning process. Students are given short writing assignments after each debate that focuses specifically on an idea or concept that they had difficulty articulating in an organized and coherent manner. Writing assignments are personalized, short, and focused.