Student-teachers' verbal communication patterns during their teaching practice in 'Studies for the Environment' subject in early Greek primary classes

• Published in: European journal of teacher education Vol. 39; no. 4; pp. 491 - 506
• Main Authors: Malandrakis, George, Karagianni, Aggeliki, Pani, Dimitra
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 07.08.2016; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Class Size; Classroom Communication; contextual factors; Educational Practices; Elementary School Students; Elementary School Teachers; Emotional Response; Foreign Countries; grade level; Greece; Instructional Program Divisions; Observation; Qualitative Research; Questioning Techniques; Science and Society; Statistical Analysis; Student Teachers; Student teaching; Student-teachers classroom verbal communication; Studies for the Environment; Teaching Methods; topic of instruction; Verbal Communication; Greece
• ISSN: 0261-9768; 1469-5928
• DOI: 10.1080/02619768.2016.1225716

This study explores the quality of student-teachers' (STs') verbal communication during their teaching practice on the 'Studies for the Environment' subject, and identifies potential factors affecting it. Forty-one teaching sessions were analysed revealing that STs dominate classroom talking by having almost an equal number of utterances with their students. Moreover, only about one-third of STs' sentences are questions, with the majority of them being factual (38%), while probing (18%), higher order (18%) or divergent (6%) questions were much less frequent. In addition, although teaching sessions were addressed to very young children (6-9 years old), only a minor percentage of questions were stimulating their emotions (5%). STs' questioning seems to be independent from the class size, grade level and topic of instruction, while STs' expressed utterances are significantly higher in smaller classes. A classroom verbal communication pattern was also developed from the available data; however, it is confined within the Greek context.