The interactive whiteboard (IWB) and dialogic teaching : cases studies from science classrooms in a private school in Northern Lebanon

Abstract

Of particular interest in this study was to investigate and examine Lebanese science teachers questioning practices as they pertained to promoting or hindering dialogic teaching, and how they made meaning of such practices. This study also aimed to explore the role that Interactive White Boards (IWB) can play in advancing or hindering dialogic teaching in classroom science activities. Qualitative case studies were conducted with two upper elementary science teachers. It was found that mostly lower to middle questioning prevail in the science classrooms. Results also show that the affordances of the IWB that help foster dialogicity in classroom science activities were not being fully exploited. It was concluded that the efficient use of the IWB as a learning tool that promotes dialogic teaching in science education is not intrinsic to the hardware or software; rather, it is based on the teachers conceptions about what they believe to be the best approaches to motivate students and engage them in the learning process, especially in light of set curricula and traditional assessment methods. We invoke a finer and more synergistic relationship between instructors pedagogic perspectives and their evolving perceptions of the significant affordances of the IWB. Implications for teachers pre- and in-service training and professional development are discussed.