Macbeth2003

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Macbeth2003
BibType ARTICLE
Key Macbeth2003
Author(s) Douglas Macbeth
Title Hugh Mehan’s Learning Lessons reconsidered: on the differences between the naturalistic and critical analysis of classroom discourse
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Education, Classroom Discourse, Research Methods
Publisher
Year 2003
Language
City
Month
Journal American Educational Research Journal
Volume 40
Number 1
Pages 239–280
URL Link
DOI 10.3102/00028312040001239
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

This article begins with a review of the place of Hugh Mehan’s Learning Lessons in the development of the naturalistic study of classroom discourse studies, and especially the sequential analysis of naturally occurring classroom discourse. It then turns to the emergence of an alternative program for classroom discourse studies, in the particulars of critical discourse analysis. There we find a “formal–analytic” program for discourse studies. The middle section of the article takes up the characterization and the differences between these two programs through a critique of formal—and critical—studies of classroom discourse. The article then concludes with an analysis of a fourth-grade lesson on fractions, to suggest what the sequential analysis of naturally occurring classroom discourse may tell us about the work of instruction in the early grades. My aim throughout is to reaffirm the premise and program of naturalistic inquiry as the central innovation of classroom studies in the last 30 years.

Notes