Lifelong Learn. 2015, 5, 75-94
Student Participation in Communication as a Product of Teacher—Student Interaction
Goal of this study is to explore whether the way of teacher—student interaction influences student’s participation in the educational communication. Research has proved that students participate in the educational communication unevenly and that the level of their participation strongly correlates to their school performance. In this study based on the microanalysis of videorecords of educational communication we show that participation patterns are socially constructed and they are a product of interaction of students and their teachers. We analyze two examples of students with similar characteristics (lower school performance), one of which participates in a very limited way and he is not able to participate in discussions about more difficult topics, the second then participates in a large extent and he is able to introduce new ideas and to formulate sophisticated arguments. On the collected data we show that difference is caused by the different behaviour of their teachers, who differ in the level of assistance provided to the students and also in the way they label the students in communication.
