Conversation, collaboration and connectedness to community are hugely important for learning, but also for thriving. The mental health statistics in Australia are a significant concern, not only for our young people, but also for the adults who support them.

As at 2022, almost 1 in 7 children and adolescents aged 4–17 years are estimated to have experienced a mental illness in the previous 12 months, while 1 in 5 Australians aged 16-85 have experienced a mental health challenge in the previous 12 months.

Anxiety disorders (such as Social Phobia) are the most common type of disorder, affecting 1 in 6 (17%, or 3.3 million) Australians, followed by Affective disorders (such as Depressive Episode) (8%), and Substance Use disorders (such as Alcohol Dependence) (3.%).

Covid-19 has contributed to these statistics and exacerbated feelings of social anxiety and disconnection. Many of our young people missed out on significant socialisation experiences with their peers and mentors. It highlights the central importance of schools as communities - schools as places where young people develop their social skills, learn to connect with themselves and their society and where they begin explore the ways in which then can contribute.

Control approaches to classroom management and oversight of schools sustains an insidious legacy. These top-down, hierarchical approaches of authority and control position schools as machines and the teachers in them as classroom managers whose job is to plough through curriculum and assessment checklists to reach benchmark targets.

Control approaches also position students as subordinates whose behaviour must be managed and whose learning outcomes are driven towards mandated targets. Our young people become behaviour cards, box graphs of data, or points on a normative curve.

Our students deserve better.

They deserve to be known, to be valued, and to be given space to share their interests, ideas and wonderings.

If we want to nurture our democratic society, our young people also deserve to be given the tools that will help them participate in democratic processes in the classroom, and take responsibility for their contributions to their learning communities and society.

Our students deserve to have a voice, and to be heard. We cannot continue to talk at, and about our nation's students. They need to be part of the conversation.

We still encounter perceptions that quiet classrooms are productive classrooms. While we need spaces for quiet, individual learning, reflection and flow, there is great power in the creation of dialogic classrooms. Classrooms where discussion and dialogue makes students' thinking visible also allows them to contribute to, and benefit from the group's collective knowledge and skills.

Encouraging students to learn together in conversation rich, collaborative communities of learning can challenge the competitive models of education that pit schools against each other to place students in box plots and on normative curves that allocate ranking in league tables. The squabbling for position on these league tables, and a commitment to sustaining the competitive model that feeds them also perpetuates cycles of inequity.

Dialogic practice that emphasises collective knowledge not only promotes more equitable means for engaging with and evidencing learning, it can also be lifegiving. It can energise and empower. It can create a sense of connectedness, belonging and responsibility. There is something very powerful about the equity created by learning communities that value student agency, voice and collaboration.

But how do we make this happen?

Creating conditions for conversation

• Build a positive climate of trust, inclusion and equity

• Value student voice and risk taking

• Consider social needs and dynamics in the group

Preparing for, and participating in conversation

• Clarify the purpose of the conversation

• Provide stimulus material and graphic organisers to prepare thinking

• Explicitly teach and rehearse strategies for participating in discussion

Providing students with a written, visual or audio stimulus prior to the discussion will help them engage with the thinking, language and ideas that will help them participate effectively.

Use a notice wonder and question routine, or a text rendering strategy or provide a list of discussion questions ahead of time to help students undertake some pre-thinking.

Use graphic organisers for students to prepare and record their thinking prior to, during and after the discussion.

These organisers are a great source of feedback about what students think and understand.

It is also powerful to simply observe the conversation and make your own notes about misconceptions you need to address, and the strengths you can build on.

While students often share conversation with friends, a robust academic discussion with people outside your friendship group requires specific strategies and skills. Being confident about understanding and using these strategies and skills also requires rehearsal.

Talk moves are strategies that can be used by students and teachers to participate in, and guide discussion.

It is a wonderful moment when students become confident enough with the moves that they can take ownership of the conversation without looking to the teacher as a guide or facilitator.

Reheasing talk moves in low stakes ways helps students to understand the purpose of the moves. 

Choose a low stakes topic in which students have common ground and feel confident, favourite movies or foods, or a 'would you rather' scenario for example. 

Cut out some talk move cards and hand them out to students. Their challenge is to focus on using the talk move they have been given, or that they select as a move they want to practice and rehearse.

Create space to connect with students by making space for low-stakes informal interactions or a play based activities.

Build a classroom community that encourages camaraderie, risk taking and problem solving. Model being comfortable to ask, and explore questions rather than knowing answers.

Affirm the knowledge and skills of all members of the classroom as shared knowledge and skills from which we all benefit.

Look for voices that are silent, or silenced by the more dominant voices in the group. Elicit these students' voices during independent student work time, or by directing questions to them.

Let students know that there will be a discussion as part of the lesson so they can ready themselves to participate and consider their responses.

Provide feedback that clearly identifies positive contributions and specific learning behaviours.

Learn with students. Do not position yourself in the classroom as the gatekeeper of expert knowledge. Be courageous enough to share your own lack of knowledge and model the strategies you take to pursue your own learning when you don't understand something.

Create opportunities for students to 'be the expert' and teach you and their peers. Express gratitude for the ideas and thinking students share. 

Take a democratic approach to managing your classroom by inviting students to participate in decision making about the activities occurring during the lesson - show students that you value their voice by acting on what they share.

During group tasks, when the group needs to report back, ask all students in the group to stand, even if they are not the one speaking - this is a symbolic act that represents the shared learning.

Affirm positive learning behaviours and identities to support students' perceptions of themselves as learning capable. Create 'small wins' within a lesson and congratulate learning effort.

Students' perceptions of themselves as learners can significantly influence their engagement with learning and classroom conversation.

Students' beliefs about that it means to be intelligent or a 'good student' can significantly influence their outcomes and engagement with learning.

Pay attention to how learners position themselves in the social dynamics of the classroom. Include a social goal and activity in a lesson to support students to mingle and rehearse social skills.

The key indicator is when you see students moving away from a reliance on seeking answers from the teacher and instead working together to generate and extend on ideas and questions raised during the focus of a lesson.

You may find this checklist of dialogic teacher and student behaviours useful to help you look for, observe and reflect on the dialogic practices occurring in your classrooms.

http://21stcenturylearners.org.uk/?p=1361