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Running Head: Teacher Talk vs. Student Talk

Teacher Talk vs. Student Talk
Molly Govern
OTL560 Facilitating Learning and Transfer
Colorado State University Global Campus
Dr. Melanie Shaw
January 3, 2015

For purposes of this assignment, I recorded myself teaching a lesson about the Doppler
Effect. The Doppler Effect is the apparent change in the frequency of a wave due to relative
motion between the source of the wave and the observer. This is a concept that is far better
explained when students are listening to examples rather than writing down a definition out of
the book. Therefore, I chose to record this lesson so that I could analyze how much information
the students got out of video examples versus the reading that they did later in the period. The
general frame of the 62 Minute Lesson was as follows:
5min - Warmup and presentation of learning targets
5 min - Pass out handout, pre-demonstration question
5min First video, question based on video
5min Doppler Effect Video and questions
10 min Tuning Fork Demonstration and Question
10 min Doppler Effect Reading - Purpose: Write the definition of the Doppler Effect in your
own words
7 min Draw a picture on the back of your handout of what the Doppler Effect means, share
your answer with your partner
3 min Big Bang Theory video (from the TV show)
Remaining Time: Review Learning Targets and Exit Ticket

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How much time the teacher spent talking and how much time the students spent talking
Teacher Talk: 17.5 Minutes
Student Talk and Think Time: 34.5 Minutes
Independent Reading: 10 Minutes
Identify the types of questions that allowed less teacher talk and more student talk.
In general, the types of questions that will allow for less teacher talk and more student talk are
questions that are not yes-or-no, but rather open-ended questions that allow the students to
expand upon their knowledge beyond yes or no. The following diagram, presented in a
study conducted by Philip Bishop, indicates the most useful teacher questions to the least useful
teacher questions. The most useful teacher questions are the one that will encourage more
student talk, and the least useful questions will encourage more teacher explanation.

Figure 1: Teacher Talk vs. Student Talk (Bishop, 1991).

The following questions were asked during the lesson, and are classified as either teacher talk
questions or student talk questions in the following table.

Question
If a tuning fork is sounding and then swung

Teacher Talk or Student Talk

Student Talk

over a persons head, how do you think it will

sound?
What do you observe about the sound in the

Student Talk

1st 10 seconds?
What can you propose as a reason for this

Student Talk/Teacher Talk (I asked for

observation?

multiple different student responses before

explaining the reason and having the students
copy the answer down)

What do you hear in this video and how is it

Student talk

similar or different than what you saw in the

Doppler Effect video?
After listening to the demonstrations, describe Student talk
what you heard.
Draw a picture or pictures that show how

Student talk

wave fronts (like shown in the Sound sim)

might look while a speaker is moving towards
you. Draw how it would look if the speaker
were moving away from you.
Describe in your own words as you might to

Student talk

your students, how the Doppler effect works.

Determine what encouraged the most student engagement.

The most student engagement was found when students were asked to not only discuss their
answer, but create a drawing or diagram of their understanding of the Doppler effect, such as the
question that asked them to, Draw a picture or pictures that show how wave fronts (like shown

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in the Sound sim) might look while a speaker is moving towards you. Draw how it would look if
the speaker were moving away from you.
Additionally, at the end of the lesson, I showed a clip from the TV Show The Big Bang
Theory that showed Sheldon (an eccentric Physics genius) explaining his Halloween Costume,
which was the Doppler Effect, to Penny (the resident dumb blonde). This was the part of the
lesson where the students wanted to talk the most because they were trying to connect what they
had just learned about the Doppler Effect to understand the clip of the TV show. Ironically, this
was the only part of the lesson that did not have a question on the worksheet for students to write
down their answers first.
What adjustments could be made to foster greater student engagement?
After teaching this lesson and realizing that the part of the lesson that the students were
the most engaged in was the connection to the Big Bang Theory, I believe that I would show
that clip at the beginning of the lesson and ask students to talk at their tables about what they
think Sheldon means when he says the definition of the Doppler Effect. At this point, the
students would have to struggle and push through their confusion, but given enough time to
process through the words that are said in the video, the students could come up with at least
a basis of understanding for the Doppler Effect. They could then use this basis of
understanding throughout the lesson and allow the other activities throughout the lesson to
clarify any misconceptions. Then, at the end of the lesson, I would play the Big Bang Theory
video again and allow the students to discuss with their partners what they learned.

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What data collection systems could teachers set up to better assess teacher and student
talk?
Increasing the amount of student talk in my classroom is one of my professional goals this
year. I am continuously looking for different ways to make changes to the way I informally
assess students based on student talk, and for the next unit, want to develop a system of
monitoring notes based upon the learning targets that I can walk around the room and use while I
am listening to group conversations. If I had these monitoring notes, I could write down
information in a checklist format, rather than trying to type or write down everything that was
said during the discussion. An example of the chart that I want to use is based on the book, 5
Practices for Orchestrating Task-Based Discussions in Science (Carter & Smith, 2013, p. 57).
This table is for the next lesson that I will teach on January 5th, where students are introduced to
the idea of how motion can be modified. This chart would be based on listening to discussions
from one group, but would be completed for every group during every lesson.
Learning Target

Components

Questions for Students, From

Students

How motion is caused

Gravitational potential
energy
Elastic Potential
Energy

How a cars direction is

Driven by a motor
Shift of the wheels

determined

Different types of

How motion can be measured

acceleration
Speed

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Direction
If walking around with this chart, I would be able to quickly check off what students understand
and what they do not understand. I would be able to record what questions they had for me and
what questions I had for them, leading to a far more productive group conversation at the end of
the lesson.

References
Bishop, P. E. (1991). Resources for "Asking the Right Questions: Teacher Talk and Critical
Thinking.".
Cartier, J., & Smith, M. (2013). 5 practices for orchestrating productive task-based discussions in
science. Reston, Va.: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics :.