Manwara Uddin-Ahmed

Module - EPDM09 – Introduction to Criticality

Title: Reflect upon your practice and identify a visual resource that would stimulate the use of talk-
based pedagogy.

14th November 2021

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 (Browne, 1989)

The above image was illustrated for the book The Tunnel (Browne, 1989). I used this image to
allow pupils to consider feelings of anxiety surrounding friendships and isolation with a series of
PSHE lessons in year 3. A culturally diverse school with a large percentage of children born
outside the UK meant that there were cultural biases that often left children isolated, unfriended
leading to an anxiety. The aim was to open dialogue between the children to identify what could be
happening and to problem-solve for solutions in a collaborative manner.

This image was chosen as it is very open to interpretation. It allows for pupils to think about what is
happening and why it is happening. It also draws similarities between areas within the school
playground that pupils will be able to relate to.

Dialogical pedagogy creates an opportunity for all to talk and a collective, collaborative approach to
learning can help nurture pupils and encourage confidence (Blackwe, Trzesniewski and Dweck,
2007). Promoting the importance of dialogue in a purposeful way with support, gives pupils
ownership of their learning, questioning to problem-solving (Pelligrino and Hilton, 2012) which is
self-directed and improves positive self-belief (Dewey, 2012).

In line with Socrates view of primary dialogic (Alexander, 2006 cited in Davies and Sinclair 2014) it
is important that differences in opinions are talked about to value different perspectives. Dialogue
also deals with the exchange – listening, tone, pace, volume and expression (Jefferson and
Anderson, 2017) (Boler, 1999 cited in Aultman, 2005). This allows children to further understand
the perspectives of others. This method of pedagogy supports promoting good progress and
outcomes guidance within the Teachers’ Standards (Department of Education, 2012).

The use of effective pedagogies can promote a higher order of thinking and metacognition (Dwyer,
Hogan and Stewart, 2014) encouraging analysis, evaluation and inference. In some circumstances
one form of pedagogy will not suffice in achieving the aimed result in discussion. Using a Dialogic
pedagogy allows both a collaborative and constructivist approach; combined with a cultural literacy
(Porter, 2006) helps lessen the divide in cultures, reducing biases that then allow for an
understanding and collaboration (Ramirez et al, 1998). Cultures encompass values, beliefs and
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social norms (Betancourt and Lopez, 1993) incorporating these is imperative in a classroom where
cultures collide. Pupils can have assumptions that come from the knowledge they hold (Jefferson
and Anderson, 2017), these assumptions are not based on evidence and so need to be further
subjected to Socratic questions of why? Or why so? - this allows an inquiry-based approach where
ideas can be contested and jointly collaborated over.

To provide a stimulus, that would invoke a response for the pupils; a contentious visual image was
used (Davis and Sinclair, 2012) to encourage dialogic opportunities. The image could provoke a
negative response and create a pedagogy of discomfort (Zembylas and McGlynn, 2012) due to
incidents that have occurred in a tunnel-like area of the school playground. This is a critical
pedagogy that works alongside the dialogic pedagogy to allow discussions confronting
uncomfortable situations and emotions. The subjective self can be challenged to reform their
beliefs (Rosch, 2020).

Examples from the lesson would include:

P: That boy is hiding?

T: Why do you think it’s a boy?

P: Because he is wearing trousers?

T: Do girls not wear trousers?

P: Not in my house.

T: Do you know if any girls wear trousers?

P: Mrs.X

T: So do you still think it’s a boy?

The pupil has had to question what they think they know, creating an arena for deeper thinking.
Which is what was aimed for. Art allowed for the student to rethink what he understood (Rosch,
2020).

Alongside discomfort comes emotions. Emotions are often disregarded in Education (Reygan,
2015) and need to be more engaged in (Zembylas, 2012) – this visual stimulus allows more
emotional engagement when we think about what the people in the image could be thinking and
what the thought process could lead to. In a social-justice scenario such as this one it is important
to consider the affect this will have and how it supports an effective Pedagogy.

Elkins (2009) argued that Visual Literacy was not given enough prominence in the educational
setting. The Media states that in popular culture we see everything and visualise so if this is the
case then pupils can engage more through what they see. Giving credence to the use of a visual

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stimulus. Furthermore Medina (2016) states ““Visual process doesn’t just assist in the perception of
our world. It dominates the perception of our world.” This runs true with the fact that 90% of the
information transmitted to and processed by the brain is visual (Dunn, 2019) meaning that visual
learning as a style will aid all pupils and help retain learning. Providing a visual stimulus has a high
impact on learning irrelevant of a pupil’s literary ability (Paul and Tay, 2016) , which supports the
class demographic of a high percentage of EAL learners.

Encouraging dialogue through Socratic questioning allowed pupils to further develop their critical
thinking skills. To create a fuller lesson and allow for an independent pupil-centered approach a
catalogue of pedagogies were applied.

Re-visiting a similar lesson model it would be beneficial to have a bank of questions to ask the
pupils to consider before entering the discussion so that they are not on the spot and can self-
direct their learning more.

Overall time wise the lesson was not long enough to allow the pupils to think about why something
happened. It is important to allow the pupil to have enough time to be able to think deeper as to
why? something is happening (Churchill et al, 2016). This will further engage the pupil and allow
them to think of the impacts of the surroundings on the topic and consider emotions.

Word Count: 967

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