There isn’t enough conversation in today’s classrooms. As an early-childhood educator for 26 years, as well as a researcher, author, and teacher trainer, I get to regularly work with teachers all over the country. I increasingly hear of fewer one-on-one conversations and less unstructured play or downtime during which organic conversations would naturally occur.
In her recent observations of kindergarten classrooms across the country, developmental psychologist Susan Engel documented a similar trend.
A conversation is an extended exchange of thoughts and ideas related to a topic or set of topics between two or more participants. This exchange requires many skills to sustain, making conversation an important pedagogical tool that supports both student learning and positive identity formation. So why is it dwindling in our preschool and elementary classrooms?
There are a number of likely contributing factors. First, the well-intentioned flurry of science of reading and other research-informed curricula and initiatives might be squeezing out time for unstructured talk. Secondly, teacher-training programs may not be adequately instilling the importance of give-and-take conversations for children’s cognitive development, well-being, and developing disposition toward learning.
Let’s start with how classroom conversations support teaching and learning. Classroom conversations are mini-bootcamps for oral language development, as children combine and recombine words to make meaning.
There are many built-in motivators for young learners to practice stringing words together in a way that makes sense: They want their teachers and peers to understand them. And they receive immediate feedback from the nonverbal and verbal responses of those around them, their group of listeners.
Receptive and expressive spoken language is not only a lifelong and necessary skill for success in the world but is also a precursor to other critical literacy skills such as reading and writing. Oral language is experience-expectant, meaning our brains are hardwired for it. Reading and writing are experience-dependent skills, meaning certain experiences, like explicit instruction and exposure are necessary for our brains to develop the complicated circuitry needed for reading and writing. Just because oral language comes more naturally, however, does not mean we don’t need to give students plentiful practice becoming skilled listeners and speakers.
Group discussions also help students develop executive function skills as students practice impulse control (raise your hand, don’t get distracted by the sound of Velcro, don’t call out), working memory (keep track of what was said, where the conversation is going, and how you want to contribute), and cognitive flexibility (adjust your thinking and what you might say, consider another’s perspective).
The learning and experiences that young learners have at the very beginning of their educational journeys impact all that comes next. Neuroplasticity is the concept that our brain is constantly rewiring and fine tuning itself to meet the needs of our environment based on our experiences. While this is true for all of us, it is particularly true in early childhood when brains are even more responsive to experiences. Let’s hold this concept in mind for the next few points.
Classroom conversations are not only crucial for the development of literacy skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), but they also foster a healthy classroom culture. Give-and-take exchanges support relationship-building, trust, positive identity formation, and belonging.
As I documented in my recent book exploring the science of learning in early childhood, conversations link us to each other and to the world around us. In a conversational exchange, we create shared meaning while broadening perspective and understanding. Through shared intention of respect and meaning making, classroom conversations honor the thoughts and ideas of the individual while building community.
Conversations can be brought into the very fabric of your curriculum by incorporating more opportunities for “turn and talks,” as well as fitting in small- and large-group discussions between other work. Build in and protect time for students to speak and listen to one another throughout the day. Encourage them to explain their ideas and thinking with others, to consider other perspectives, and to connect one idea to the idea of a peer or a teacher.
We can’t advance a young learner’s conceptual understanding if we don’t know what they are thinking, how they are connecting ideas, and what drives their curiosity. One-on-one, small-group, and whole-group discussions give us windows in. We need these windows every day.
Less conversation means less oral language development and, ironically, less overall literacy competency. The power of classroom conversation cannot be overstated when considering the cognitive development of our students as thinkers, communicators, and collaborators.
Learning is messy and complex. Teachers need to stay attuned to what children are thinking by bringing their voices back into the classroom.
