What is the Dialogic Classroom?
The Dialogic Classroom aims to introduce dialogue into primary school classrooms to enhance the learning and development of children and their teachers. The programme was launched in January 2024, led by Jane Ball.
Hear about the first phase of this exciting action research programme
Presented at our 2024 conference - The World Needs Dialogue ! 7
Hear about the first phase of this exciting action research programme
Presented at our conference in 2024 - The World Needs Dialogue ! 7
What is the Research?
The research is to determine how best to do this, and in a way that dialogue could become an obvious part of the national curriculum in different countries around the world. Jane is working with school teachers and Academy-accredited dialogue practitioner coaches, using action research and drawing on the Academy's syllabus for Dialogue in the Room. This syllabus was developed over more than three decades through first-hand learning with adults, and it has a proven track record for individual, relational and systemic developmental transformation.
Is the same syllabus relevant in schools, across different countries and cultures, and what impact does it have?
What is the programme trying to discover?
The programme objectives are to:
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work with teachers to develop a dialogic practice that enhances and deepens their existing teaching approach
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learn how dialogic skills in the classroom enhance the learning and development of pupils
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discover how to create a dialogic learning environment within a primary school classroom and recognise what difference that makes to the experience of school
What has happened so far?
During 2024, teachers and schools from four countries joined the programme. They have very different cultures, and each brings their own context and character – along with a commonly-held passion for the development of children and the craft of teaching. Each country has an accredited professional dialogue practitioner (APDP) who coaches the teachers.
These are some of the people and places involved:
ARGENTINA
Buenos Aires
Andrea Dumas
Sofia del Tufo
SOUTH AFRICA
Cape Town
Helena Wagener
Lodize Deysel
IRAN
Tehran
Parvin Daeipour
Mahdi Shariatyrad
Fatemeh Heidari
UK
Merseyside
Jane Ball
Neil Phillipson
David Badley
What has happened so far?
During 2024, teachers and schools from four countries joined the programme. They have very different cultures, and each brings their own context and character – along with a commonly-held passion for the development of children and the craft of teaching. Each country has an accredited professional dialogue practitioner (APDP) who coaches the teachers.
These are some of the people and places involved:
ARGENTINA
Buenos Aires
Andrea Dumas
Sofia del Tufo
SOUTH AFRICA
Cape Town
Helena Wagener
Lodize Deysel
IRAN
Tehran
Parvin Daeipour
Mahdi Shariatyrad
Fatemeh Heidari
UK
Merseyside
Jane Ball
Neil Phillipson
David Badley
What next?
Over the coming year, we intend to continue to extend our presence and understanding from single classrooms to whole schools, and then to neighbouring schools to create local communities to learn together. If this pre-pilot phase of research is successful, we will seek to undertake a pilot research programme at scale that combines educational practice, academic research and policy considerations.
What do we need?
At this stage, our constraint is the limited number of experienced teachers who have been trained to become dialogue coaches. They are needed to train and develop their colleagues. For this we need scholarship funding.
Please be generous in supporting this significant research – it is a big investment in our future.
What can I read?
The report of the first phase of the Dialogic Classroom programme is currently being written by members of the international community of practice and should be available here in August ’25.
Initial reports already written during this first phase include:
Power within the Dialogic Classroom: An International Action Research Programme - Ball J (2024)
The Dialogic Classroom
(presented at a seminar at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge) - Ball J and Garrett P (2025)
Dialogic Classroom Summary
