Dialogic education for classroom teaching: a critical review

Dialogic education has become increasingly appealing due to the recognized value of dialogue for the development of students’ thinking and knowledge. Yet, its appeal has not catalysed widespread adoption of dialogic education in classrooms due partly to teachers’ uncertainty over the conceptualization of dialogic education and the presence of several similar yet different models in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to critically review several well-known models of dialogic education to uncover some of their shared features as well as differences. Four dialogic education models, ‘dialogically organized instruction’, ‘Thinking Together’, ‘Accountable Talk’ and ‘dialogic teaching’, are reviewed, compared and critiqued. Based on the review, a framework of dialogic education that synthesizes the features of the four dialogic education models and hinges on four components – dialogic environment, teaching goal, classroom talk and dialogic moves – is proposed. This will hopefully help to equip and empower teachers to translate the theoretical principles of dialogic education into actual classroom practices.