Experience of pre-service science teachers on dialogic interaction

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to elicit pre-service science teachers’ experiences related to dialogicinteraction, one of the dimensions of communicative approach. The research employed the casestudy design, which is one of the qualitative research methods. The study was conducted on sixpre-service science teachers doing their practicum teaching in state schools with differing socio-coltural levels. As of the beginning of the practicum teaching, an instructional program wasadministered to the pre-service teachers by the researcher for 7 weeks. The data of the studywere collected by means of semi-structured interviews. The collected data were analyzed byusing the content analysis technique. The participating pre-service teachers have mentioned theirviewpoints about dialogic interaction, required conditions for its application, problems that canbe experienced during its application and some other related points they have recognized. Someof the pre-service teachers stated that the teacher’s lack of experience, content knowledge andtime can cause some problems in the application of dialogic interaction. While some of theteachers pointed out that suitable classroom environments should be established for them to usedialogic interaction, some others mentioned the classroom arrangement and ideal number ofstudents for effective use of dialogic interaction in the classroom environment.