Learning conversations: Teacher researchers evaluating dialogic strategies in early years settings

This article is based on an original research article published in the International Journal of Early Years Education (Boyd, 2014a). The full article can be found here. This paper presents findings from a project completed within a collaborative practitioner research partnership between a nursery school and a primary school, and a university-based educational researcher. The purpose of the project, commissioned by the schools, was to build practitioner research capacity within the early years teaching team in both schools through the completion of a collaborative research project. The two schools are located close together near the centre of Liverpool. It is important to note that it is an inner city area with child poverty levels at two and a half times the national average. The focus of the research was to investigate teacher strategies for developing dialogue in everyday interactions with young children, of three to five years in age, in order to develop speech and language skills