Education Commons^™

Teacher-Involved Conversations With Young Children During Small Group Activity, Tonia Renee Durden, Julie Rainer Dangel

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

This qualitative study examines the conversations of two preschool teachers with two- and three-year-old children during small-group activity settings in two high-quality child development centers. Using interviews, observations and videotaping of small-group activities, the conversations are characterized in terms of the kind and function of language, the usage of cognitive demands and the reciprocal nature of these conversations. The findings indicate that teachers use declarative statements primarily to manage instruction and encourage language development. While teachers control most conversations, teacher–child reciprocity is evident and more genuine in authentic, teacher-guided activities. In both classrooms, the language during small-group activities is characterized …