Dialogic teaching in Google Classrooms

This paper outlines the initial findings of a practitioner research project into the ways in which Google Classroom can be used to support classroom dialogue. These findings are taken from the first phase of a doctoral (EdD) study at Cambridge University. The setting for this ongoing project is an independent preparatory school that is making use of the Google Classroom platform to deliver curriculum materials to students in a range of subjects, with the focus here on Year 7 lessons. There is a growing interest in schools currently in exploring the potential for dialogic teaching to increase students’ capacity for reasoning and reflection (Faculty of Education, 2018). Through lesson planning, surveys and interviews, participants in this phase of the project help to identify some of the ways in which Google Classroom can be used to open up new spaces for such dialogue. Dialogic pedagogy Talk is a natural tool used by teachers to encourage learning, through direct instruction, que