When pupils engage in talk during groupwork, they display a number of modes of talk including: disputative talk, asking for/adding to information about something, challenge and construction . From the point of view of constructing knowledge together the third of these is the most useful, but it is also the most difficult for pupils to engage in, and the one for which they are most likely to need training.

Evidence and reflection
What is the quality of your pupils’ talk during group-work? You might find it helpful to explore what types of talk your pupils engage in.
Tape record or video a role-play of a group work activity in which pupils have been given secret roles such as ‘always agree’, ‘argue’, ‘say nothing’, ‘ask for information’, ‘ask for clarification’, ‘take up what somebody else has said’  (perhaps you and they can think of others).
Discuss the role-play with the group reflecting on the (un)helpful skills.

Putting the evidence to work
Now you know more about the ways in which your pupils engage in talk could you help them become more enquiry-oriented? Could you work individually with groups to train them to: extend each other’s ideas, ask for clarification, follow up or add to each other’s suggestions, use their imagination to make more elaborate suggestions?

Find out more about the SPRinG project at:
http://www.tlrp.org/proj/phase11/phase2a.html

Find out more about planning and implementing group-work:
The Research Informed Practice website digests:
Gillies, R.M., The effects of cooperative learning on junior high school students during small group learning
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/research/themes/pupil_grouping/ThuAug261107362004/

Wegerif, R., Littleton, K., Dawes, L., Mercer, N. and Rowe, D. Widening access to educational opportunities through teaching children how to reason together
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/research/themes/speakandlisten/wegerif_access/