TalkFactory

What is Talk Factory?

Talk Factory is designed for use on an Interactive Whiteboard and supports whole class plenary discussions. It is designed to support ‘exploratory’ talk, which is defined as “a joint, co-ordinated form of co-reasoning, in which speakers share relevant knowledge, challenge ideas, evaluate evidence, consider options and try to reach agreement in an equitable manner” (Mercer, 2008). Research in recent years has found that this kind of classroom dialogue is effective for promoting children’s talking, thinking and listening skills (see Mercer and Littleton, 2007 and the Thinking Together website for details).

Talk Factory displays six ‘rules for talking’. Three are positive, or desirable, features of discussion (e.g. ‘explains reasons’ and ‘explains disagreement’) and three are negative, or undesirable features of discussion (e.g. ‘interrupts others’). The teacher can tap on a rule every time a child follows it during a plenary discussion. Teachers can edit these rules to suit the needs of their class. Talk Factory includes a bar graph which represents the teacher’s taps on the rules. It also includes a sum of desirable and undesirable events, and a timeline. These features can be used by the teacher and the children to evaluate how well their discussion adheres to the rules for talking. Talk Factory is a tool that has a dual role: it helps teachers to model and encourage the positive features of discussion and argumentation, and it enables students to take part more effectively in argumentation by increasing their understanding of how to talk together effectively.

Download TalkFactory

This material is available under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

There are 3 versions of Talk Factory:

1. Talk Factory Primary Science, which is designed to support whole class discussion around the design, implementation and analysis of fair tests.
   TalkFactory Primary Science Software - for any computer with Java enabled. 
   TalkFactory Primary Science Instructions - MS Powerpoint. 
   An example set of lessons plans which support lessons on investigating evaporation are available for free download from this website. These lesson plans can be adapted for other topics.
   Primary Science lesson plans_evaporation - MS Word
   Lesson1: clothes drying - MS Powerpoint
   Lesson1: puddles - MS Powerpoint
   Lesson1: our Investigation booklet - MS Powerpoint
   Lesson7: which container - MS Powerpoint
    
2. Talk Factory Primary Generic. This version of the software can be used to support whole class discussion in any subject area and any topic in primary schools.
   TalkFactory Primary Generic Software - for any computer with Java enabled. 
   TalkFactory Primary Generic Instructions - MS Powerpoint. 
    
3. Talk Factory Secondary Generic. This version of the software can be used to support whole class discussion in any subject area and any topic in secondary schools.
   TalkFactory Secondary Generic Software - for any computer with Java enabled. 
   TalkFactory Secondary Generic Instructions - MS Powerpoint. 

To date, a previous version of Talk Factory has been evaluated in a study carried out in year 5 science lessons on evaporation. This research was funded by the ESRC. The main findings from this study are:

• During lessons where Talk Factory was not used, students did not seem to recognise the importance of backing up their claims with reasons (e.g. they would say ‘I think the water in the plastic cup will evaporate the fastest’, without explaining why). In contrast, in the lessons in which Talk Factory was used during plenaries, the students used reasoning words (e.g. I think\I agree\ disagree because) to provide a series of arguments and counter arguments building and elaborating on what had been said previously.
• In classes which used Talk Factory, teachers initiated discussions and followed this with requests to their students for reasons and opinions. Teachers encouraged students to challenge each other's ideas. Such techniques were not common during lessons where Talk Factory was not used.
• Teachers using Talk Factory used the rules diagram to initiate whole class discussions about the importance of argumentation in science learning. In this way they made the talk rules explicit to students and part of the common language of the class.
• Teachers and children using Talk Factory used the graphical representations generated by the software (i.e. the bar chart etc.) to assess the quality of their discussions. This helped the students to improve their understanding of how well the class was doing and helped them to think about how they improve further. Similarly, when the teacher tapped on the negative features it reminded the class of the types of utterances and behaviours which are conducive to productive class discussions.

Please note that the generic versions of Talk Factory available for download above are currently being trialled in schools. Publications are forthcoming.

Publications of previous research:

Kerawalla, L., Petrou, M., and Scanlon, E (under review), The Talk Factory: Supporting 'exploratory talk' around an Interactive Whiteboard in primary school science, Technology, Pedagogy and Education.

Kerawalla, L. Petrou, M. and Scanlon, E. (2010), Talk Factory: the use of graphical representations to support argumentation around an interactive whiteboard in primary school science, in Z. Zacharia, C. Constantinou and M. Papaevripidou (eds.), Computer based learning in science, conference proceedings. Warsaw, 7-10 July.

Petrou, M., Kerawalla, L. & Scanlon, E. (2009) The 'Talk Factory Software': scaffolding students' argumentation around an Interactive Whiteboard in primary school science. In A. Dimitricapoulou, C. O'Malley, D. Suthers, P. Reimann (Eds.), Proceedings of the 9th Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning Practices (Vol. 2, pp.129-131). Rhodes, Greece

References

Mercer, N. (2008) Talk and the development of reasoning and understanding human development, 51, 1, 90-100

Mercer, N. and Littleton, K. (2007) Dialogue and the development of children’s thinking, London and New York; Routledge.

Feedback

Comments and questions about the project can be sent to talkfactoryfeedback@gmail.com.