Dialogic Teaching Move Generator

What This Skill Does

Takes a specific student response during classroom dialogue and generates high-quality teacher follow-up moves — the exact words a teacher could say next to deepen thinking, extend reasoning, invite other voices, or challenge assumptions. Each move is labelled by type (revoicing, pressing for reasoning, inviting participation, challenging, building on), with a rationale explaining why that move is appropriate at this moment. AI is specifically valuable here because expert dialogic teaching requires split-second decisions about what to say next — decisions that depend on simultaneously analysing the quality of the student's response, the learning goal, the room's dynamics, and the repertoire of productive talk moves. Even experienced teachers default to evaluating ("Good answer!") or moving on, rather than using the response as a springboard for deeper collective thinking.

Evidence Foundation

Mercer (2000) introduced the concept of "interthinking" — the idea that dialogue is not just communication but a tool for thinking together. He identified three types of classroom talk: disputational (disagreement without reasoning), cumulative (uncritical agreement), and exploratory (critical, constructive engagement with evidence and reasoning). Only exploratory talk consistently produces learning gains. Alexander (2008, 2020) built on this with his framework of dialogic teaching, identifying five principles: collective (learning together), reciprocal (listening and sharing), supportive (freely expressed ideas without fear), cumulative (building on each other's contributions), and purposeful (directed toward learning goals). Michaels et al. (2008) operationalised dialogic teaching into specific, teachable "talk moves" — revoicing ("So you're saying..."), pressing for reasoning ("What makes you think that?"), inviting others ("Who can add to what she said?"), and challenging ("Does anyone disagree?"). Resnick et al. (2015) demonstrated that systematic use of these accountable talk moves produced significant gains in reading comprehension and mathematical reasoning, particularly for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Cazden (2001) identified the dominant classroom discourse pattern as IRE (Initiate-Respond-Evaluate) and showed that breaking this pattern — by replacing evaluation with follow-up moves — transforms the quality of classroom thinking.

Input Schema

The teacher must provide:

• Student response: The exact or paraphrased student response to follow up on. e.g. "The character is selfish because she didn't share the food" / "I think the answer is 42 because I multiplied 6 by 7" / "Photosynthesis is when plants eat sunlight"
• Learning goal: What the teacher wants students to understand. e.g. "Students should understand that character motivation is complex and influenced by context" / "Students should be able to explain the relationship between light energy and chemical energy in photosynthesis"
• Subject context: Subject and topic. e.g. "Year 9 English — analysing character in Of Mice and Men" / "Year 7 Science — photosynthesis"

Optional (injected by context engine if available):

• Student level: Age/year group and verbal confidence