JoinPerspectives: Making Time for Science Talk
Cognitive scientists (Donovan and Bransford 2005) conclude that when teachers “simply give students the knowledge to incorporate, the practice and skill development of doing one’s own mental search is shortchanged”, but when students engage in classroom talk, they “become better at monitoring and questioning their own thinking”. Science education researchers claim that elementary students have the ability to use science talk to explain, clarify, and justify what they have learned.