Developing Quality Dialogic Teaching through Philosophical Enquiry

It is commonly understood that the opportunities for speaking and listening that children experience before they enter school vary greatly in terms of potency and quality. This inequity puts some children at great disadvantage to others. Quite rightly speaking and listening is valued as part of the UK primary school teacher's pedagogical repertiore. Even so the quality of talk in UK schools falls short of many other comparable countries. This dissertation draws on the work of Robin Alexander to define 'quality' in Dialogic Teaching and demonstrates the potential of Philosophical Enquiry as a model to achieve this. Specifically it looks at how the quality of dialogic teaching can be assessed and built on and which practical strategies the primary school classroom teacher can use to achieve this.