Baruch B. Schwarz

An analytical framework for observing ethical learning in schoolchildren during social interaction has been recently developed. It comprises two tools for appraising ethical thinking and behaviour: dialogue on ethics (DoE) and ethics of dialogue (EoD). Studying the effectiveness of a project aimed at promoting ethical learning of socially-oriented values—empathy, inclusion, and tolerance—within the context of dialogic education, has appeared as providing a complex picture: the relation between children’s DoE and their EoD was positive where the topic posed for discussion presented a dilemma. In contrast, it was negative when the discussion was conceptual, and the teacher was dominant. In the present paper, we describe a case study to illustrate and explain these results. The DoE/EoD analytical framework was adopted to observe when and why ethical thinking and conduct could be coordinated. The case study shows that ethical learning in its epistemological and behavioural dimensions can be promoted or inhibited in contexts of dialogic education, depending on design principles.

Reform‐oriented instruction is advocated in secondary science, encouraging students to engage with the experimental and epistemic practices of science. It is challenging for teachers though, especially for out‐of‐field teachers. This study focuses on biology and chemistry teachers who are called to teach middle‐school physics. These teachers face not only a knowledge gap, but also an epistemic gap arising from the distinct epistemic practices that are applied in the different school‐subjects to construct scientific knowledge. We put forward a professional development (PD) approach for out‐of‐field teachers that capitalizes on the strengths and resources they bring from their original field of expertise, and describe design guidelines for a PD program designed to enable them to carry out inquiry experiences in physics with their students. Given our PD approach, we argue that successful classroom implementation should be framed differently for out‐of‐field teachers. Rather than expecting them to strictly implement the PD activities and thus completely change their familiar practice, successful implementation would entail modifications that integrate new practices with familiar ones. Using the boundary‐crossing framework, we analyze three illustrative case studies in which teachers report on classroom implementation. We show how teachers remained rooted in their former practice ‐ biology and chemistry instruction ‐ and at the same time were inspired to adopt physics‐oriented practices, for example integrating mechanistic reasoning and deductive approaches. Illustrating the different boundary crossing mechanisms the teachers applied and the boundary objects that mediated this process sheds light on new productive avenues for the PD of out‐of‐field science teachers.

We report on a study bearing implications for ethical learning in schoolchildren during social interaction. The study was conducted as part of a project aimed at promoting ethical learning of socially-oriented values within the context of dialogic education. 172 fourth graders from 7 classes participated in an 8-session series designed to foster empathy, inclusion, and tolerance. Two of these sessions (3 and 8) were pre-selected for analysis. We investigated (1) whether students’ discussion of ethical issues and the ethical aspects of their actual in-class interaction with each other can be reliably measured, and (2) what relation holds between students’ ethical thinking during classroom discussions and the ethical aspects of their behavior. We thus developed an analytical framework comprising two tools for appraising ethical thinking and behavior in in-class interaction: dialogue on ethics (DoE) and ethics of dialogue (EoD). This framework was applied to the dialogues taken from the two sessions. The DoE and EoD tools proved reliable, as inter-rater agreement was substantial. Moreover, the relation between children’s DoE and their EoD was positive where the topic posed for discussion presented a dilemma and students’ interaction proceeded under moderate teacher guidance. In contrast, it was negative when the discussion was conceptual, and the teacher was dominant. We conclude that (1) DoE/EoD is a suitable framework for studying children’s ethical learning and development in social interaction, and (2) ethical learning, in its epistemological and behavioral dimensions, can be boosted or inhibited in a context of dialogic education, depending on design principles.

We compare the scheme for educational dialogue analysis (SEDA) to the actor-network theory (ANT) for the analysis of educational dialogues. We show that ANT unearths the socio-material structure of classroom talk as networks in which human and non-human actors (texts, diagrams, instructions, etc.) exert power on each other. The application of ANT to classroom talk led us to identify (non-)dialogic networks when human actors are not subordinated (resp. subordinated) to other actors. Roles in networks are not predetermined but translated in interactions, and networks are often blackboxed, as the original process and circumstances of their creation might be ignored. We show then that the adoption of ANT (resp. SEDA) uncovers phenomena that SEDA (resp. ANT) did not identify. SEDA helps observe the co-construction of ideas and describe shifts from the dialogic to the non-dialogic but does not explain the mechanisms that lead to these shifts. ANT explains shifts from one network to another, as it conveys the change of power relations between the different actors, role of non-human actors, and shows how they shape the dynamics of networks in classroom talk. We draw from this comparison implications both for research and educational practice in dialogic education.

Out‐of‐field teaching is a global educational challenge. In particular, many teachers whose academic background and main teaching experience is in biology are called to teach middle school physics and have limited opportunities for productive professional development. Based on previous studies, we expect these teachers to hold different epistemic cognitions from the in‐field teachers. The present study builds on this epistemic diversity and offers dialogic argumentation as a means to promote mutual learning among physics teachers from different disciplinary backgrounds. We describe guidelines for designinginterdisciplinary dialogic argumentationactivities that aim to encourage teachers to express their disciplinary perspectives in the context of inquiry‐based physics and to facilitate a deliberative discourse among them. We demonstrate in a case study the ways in which the discourse of a group of in‐field and out‐of‐field teachers unfolds under the proposed design guidelines. Using the Actor‐Network methodology and an analysis of power relations, we uncover a complex interplay between the social and the epistemic in the discourse: when interactions become more dialogic and power relations more equalized, the out‐of‐field teachers take an active role in the discussion, foregrounding their epistemic practices and enhancing the epistemic practices of the group, including the in‐field teacher.