Under the premise that language learning is bidirectional in nature, this study aimed to investigate syntactic coordination within teacher-student interactions by using cross-recurrence quantification analysis (CRQA). Seven teachers’ and a group of their students’ interactions were repeatedly measured in the course of an intervention in early science education. Results showed changes in the proportion of recurrent points; in case of simple sentences teachers and students became less coordinated over time, whereas in case of complex sentences teachers and students showed increasing coordination. Results also revealed less rigid (more flexible) syntactic coordination, although there were no changes in the relative contribution of teacher and students to this. In the light of the intervention under investigation this is an important result. This means that teachers and students learn to use more complex language and coordinate their language complexity better in order to co-construct science discourse. The application of CRQA provides new insights and contributes to better understanding of the dynamics of syntactic coordination.
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This study aimed to describe verbal student–teacher interactions in vocational education from a socio-cultural perspective on negotiation of meaning. Teaching as part of these interactions is addressed by a combination of diagnosing, checking and intervening strategies. A study was conducted in which students (n students = 20) and teacher (n teachers = 5) from Social Work (SW) and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) worked together in small groups (n groups = 5) discussing vocational core problems. Each group held five discussions (n discussions = 25). All discussions were audio recorded and transcribed before they were analysed for negotiation of meaning including teaching strategies. The results showed that 5–8% of the interactions include negotiation of meaning. Interactions in SW groups revealed more negotiation of meaning than in interactions in ICT groups. Teaching strategies mainly included checking and intervening activities in favour of diagnosing activities. Furthermore, teachers used meta-cognitive and conceptual interventions most frequently. The implications of these results are discussed by reflecting on occupational differences and on how negotiation of meaning including teaching strategies can be enhanced.
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This paper highlights the use of State Space Grids (SSGs) for studying real-time classroom discourse in an intervention targeting professional development. State Space Grid analysis is both a powerful way to visualise patterns in interactional data, and a starting point for further quantitative analysis. In the present study SSGs were used to explore patterns in teacher–student interactions. The study shows the importance of using micro-level time-serial data and illustrates how change in interactions during and after an intervention can be studied. SSG analysis was applied to study interaction in terms of the coupling of a teacher and a student variable: autonomy support and musical creativity. Video data from 40 music lessons of five teachers and their classes was used as input for plotting teacher–student interactions in SSGs, consisting of two dimensions. SSGs allow visualising change in the situation of interactions in the grid and identifying change in patterns to different grid areas. The findings show how interactions tended to settle in areas representing more productive interaction for all but one class. We discuss the benefits of using SSGs in intervention studies and the implications for educational practice and research of using this time-serial approach.
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