The Talk-Rich Teaching Project

The Talk Rich Teaching project ( 2021 – 2022) focused on raising the attainment of multilingual pupils in mainstream primary school classrooms. We used an adapted form of The Enduring Principles of Learning to train and coach teachers in four linguistically diverse schools over six months.

This talk-oriented pedagogy has been developed by Professor Annela Teemant of The School of Education, Indiana University, Indianapolis USA. Teaching in this way has been shown to raise the attainment of all learners, but particularly the attainment of multilingual pupils. Moreover, it champions pupils’ individual and community identities and enhances social well-being. Click here for The Enduring Principles of Learning

Teachers’ practice is measured and scored using a rubric which sets out what teachers and children are doing when practice reflects the EPL.

For The Talk Rich Teaching project Prof Naomi Flynn worked with schools to provide locally-relatable training matching the intentionally dialogic approach to teaching in the EPL.  She delivered staff meetings and observed and coached individual teachers in three schools, while the fourth acted as a control school. Alongside side her, Dr Aniqa Leena devised tests that would explore if and how multilingual learners might make progress related to their teachers’ changes in teaching.

Teachers in the experimental schools changed their teaching to include more talk-based classroom activities, and as a result their multilingual pupils made greater gains in speaking, listening and reading comprehension that those in the control school.

This project’s outcomes lend us exciting evidence about the ways in which this US-designed approach to teaching and bear fruit in the UK. Importantly, it is cost-effective and can be aligned with schools’ other development priorities. It is a pedagogical approach and a mindset rather than an ‘add on’.

You can read about the detail of our successes in our related project blogs