Good teachers are charismatic and enthusiastic about their chosen vocation. School should be about students learning, not about teachers teaching. Michael Medland in Self-Management Strategies suggests that the goal of teaching is to give students the skills necessary to cope with problems the will encounter once they leave school (Medland 1). Teaching is a combination of science and art. Over time, it has been demonstrated through experimentation including trial and error that certain forms of discourse, in addition to certain processes, techniques, devices, strategies and patterns of behavior by teachers are more effectively than others.
This paper explores the role of classroom discourse. Mark Aulls in Journal of Educational Psychology explains that classroom discourse is both oral and written. Classroom discourse shapes the opportunity to learn. During classroom discourse, a teacher may constrain what students learn by controlling the topics of conversation and by determining who can enter into the discourse. A teacher can also place limits on the student's freedom to interpret the content. Aulls suggests that the academic context of classroom discourse may be viewed to be embedded in the social organization and social norms of the classroom (Aulls 56).
Teachers use a variety of forms of classroom discourse, including oral, written, pictorial, symbolic, and graphic. In addition, teachers can and should provide students with the opportunity to gain experience using many different tools that enhance discourse. Teachers should recognize that some modes of communication may not be accessible to students and take steps to encourage and nurture students' efforts to develop new means of expression.
According to Ira Shor in Empowering Education, one of the most common forms of classroom discourse can be described as vertical discourse - meaning the teacher provides information and the students absorb information. This trad...