ABSTRACT
Understanding other people’s perspectives and contributions is a key component of students’ learning in dialogic pedagogy. This skill is important for social and emotional learning, collaboration and problem solving, as well as for academic learning (Lawrence, Crosson, Pare-Blagoev, & Snow, 2015; Romeo et al., 2018; Tomasello, 2000). The precursor for such learning is joint attention—the human capacity to coordinate actions and attention with a social partner on an object (Tomasello, 1995). Joint attention is crucial for students to develop shared goals and shared understanding of specific phenomena. Without joint attention, productive participation in educational settings is difficult to achieve (Bruner, 1995; Mercer, 2013), but to create such a classroom environment requires systematic work from the teacher. This is a complex and challenging task, which demands a broad spectrum of strategies and techniques, including the use of adequate and engaging learning resources and effective classroom management (Engle & Conant, 2002; Furberg, Kluge & Ludvigsen, 2013; Seidel & Shavelson, 2007; Wang, Haertel & Walberg, 1993). Research has shown that establishing routines and procedures is central to manage complex settings such as classrooms (Mercer, Hennessy & Warwick, 2017). This takes both time and effort and constant care maintenance. Teachers have to establish clear rules and good procedures; they have to be able to manage transition between activities and learning resources, as well as to plan, organise and manage disruptions (Dawes, 2011; Emmer & Stough, 2001; Lipowsky et al., 2009).
