Dialogic activity and fostering the understanding of concepts: "Dialogue" in Bakhtin's theory

Abstract

The present study investigated effects of an educational practice called "dialogic activity," which aims at promoting learners' understanding of concepts by interpreting the relation between a concept and the learners' everyday experiences dialogically, following Bakhtin's theory. Participants in the study were fifth graders in elementary school (20 boys, 20 girls). Some of the pupils were required to make presentations about task concepts, whereas the other pupils, after listening to the presentations, were asked to devise questions from the perspective of their everyday experiences. Comparison of the presentations performed in between the lessons suggested the efficacy of dialogic activity: (a) the presenters came to interpret the concepts by adopting the standpoint of their everyday experiences, and (b) the dialogic attitudes of the presenters toward the audience questions changed from rejecting to responsive. © Wertsch (1991 EH A flfiiR 2002).