2008/02/15 by Neil Mercer · 3 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Early Childhood Education and Development #Educational and Psychological Assessments #Teacher Education and Leadership Studies
paper · doi:10.1080/10508400701793182
openalex publication_date 2008/02/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
The process of teaching and learning in school has a natural long-term trajectory and cannot be understood only as a series of discrete educational events. Classroom talk plays an important role in mediating this long-term process, and in this article I argue that more attention should be given to the temporal dimension of classroom dialogue, both empirically and theoretically, if we are to appreciate how children gain an education from their classroom experience. I explore this topic using data from recent applied, interventional research in United Kingdom primary schools and examine how classroom talk is used to represent past shared experience, carry ideas forward from one occasion to another, approach future activities, and achieve learning outcomes. The article ends with a discussion of the theoretical, methodological, and educational implications of making this kind of temporal analysis.