Discourse activity in the science classroom: a socio-cultural analytical and planning tool for teaching

In this paper an analytical tool, or framework, for charactersing the ways in which teachers interact with students to promote meaning making, on the social plane of high school science classes, is introduced. The development of the framework is based on sociocultural theory and each of the five aspects of the framework is outlined before being applied to the analysis of a short science teaching and learning sequence. Some fundamental points for science teaching arise out of this analysis, particularly in relation to what is identified as being the central aspect of ‘communicative approach’. Finally the potential of the framework as both an analytical and a planning tool is discussed in the context of teacher professional developmen