Interview: Classroom Communication with Professor of Education

KEVA founder Ken Scheel is joined by a fellow educator: Dr. Donna Hoskins. Dr. Hoskins is a Professor and Department Chair of Health and Human Sciences at Bridgewater College in Virginia. Her research incorporates studying Early Childhood education.

Below is a summary of the first half of their interview:

One common theme Professor Hoskins has noticed as she visits various classrooms is that, while teachers may be good at creating warm, comforting classroom environments, there is a serious lack in student-teacher communication.

Rather than asking open ended questions, teachers use a lot of “Management Talk,” which, while not always bad, when overused can discourage language development among students. “Management Talk” includes phrases like, “Sit here,” “Do it this way,” or “Go to the bathroom.”

It is important to encourage rich discourse among students by having back and forth discussion rather than one-way communication from a teacher. This encourages students to think out loud, which is essential for cognitive development and academic skills.

Although it requires a lot of intentionality, higher level thinking questions are very important to include in everyday classroom discussions.

Also, kids don’t always need words defined for them. Teachers can use large vocabularies with students, and when given context, the students can usually determine what the word means. One way to do this is by labeling students. During an activity, teachers can tell their students, “Wow, you are an engineer because you built your blocks up into a tower.” There’s no need to ask, “Do you know what ‘engineer’ means?” because that disjoints the conversation.

Watch the interview below: