ques, 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 traditional approach to teaching has serious problems and limitations. Shor believes that the opportunities for learning can be greatly enhanced if teachers encourage horizontal communications in their classroom. Shor expands on this idea by suggesting that not only should peer to peer horizontal communication be encouraged, but students should be made comfortable enough to engage in horizontal communications with their teacher. He adds that this type of discourse might be frightening to some educators because, among other things, it implies that stu...