DIDACTICS
New dialogue skills for teachers
School students often play a minor participatory role in their lessons. But researchers at Fribourg University have proven that teachers can make a big improvement if they get the right extra training.
A real dialogue leads to cognitive activation among school students. | Image: Arno Balzarani/Keystone
“Verbal teaching works best when the teacher has a real dialogue with their class”, says Christine Pauli, an expert in didactics from the University of Fribourg. “This leads to cognitive activation”. Despite this, the contributions made by school students in class are often limited to cursory keywords. For teachers to establish a proper dialogue, they need practice. In a pilot project, nine teachers at various secondary schools were provided with extra training in the shape of several workshops, practical sessions and coaching. As a result, there was a significant increase in active student participation in discussions over a single year. Pauli and her team now want to develop their method further to provide in-service training sessions for teachers.
