Michaels, O’Connor, Sohmer & Resnick (1992)

This paper examines ways that teachers guide the construction of knowledge in the classroom, using particular norms and forms of talk to support rigorous academic learning in ethno-linguistically and socio-economically diverse classrooms in the United States. We characterize the features of this kind of talk, which we call “Accountable Talk” and the challenges teachers face in bringing students from all backgrounds into the conversation. We also explore the role of the task itself (and the participant structure entailed by the task) as well as the cultural tools the students are using in mediating and 

scaffolding knowledge construction. We suggest, in the end, that we have to develop a better theorized notion of a talk/task/tool amalgam, in understanding guided knowledge construction in complex social arenas.

You can find this paper in here.

Key ideas:

We see Accountable Talk as encompassing three broad dimensions:

• accountability to the learning community, in which participants listen to and build their contributions in response to those of others;
•  accountability to accepted standards of reasoning, talk that emphasizes logical connections and the drawing of reasonable conclusions;
• accountability to knowledge, talk that is based explicitly on facts, written texts, or other public information.