Conversation Analysis in the Classroom

This conversation analytic study basically aimed at uncovering the role of classroom interaction in the construction of classroom order. Rooted in the theoretical and methodological principles Conversation Analysis, it investigated the mechanisms of how the order in the classroom was established, organized and sustained mutually by the teacher and students. From three classrooms in three high schools in Ankara, the study collected a 47 hour video-recording database from 69 different sessions with 15 teachers. The analysis focused on the scenes of trouble that revealed the interactional organization of order, with particular reference to the participants' demonstrable actions. The scenes of troubles were taken from four particular moments in the classroom life: class beginnings, transitions between activities, laughters and specific-student calls. The results demonstrated, in the details of recordings, how the participants in the classroom attributed meaning to order, how they showed their understanding of classroom order through their demonstrable action, and through their actions how they applied their mechanisms of classroom order to other contexts.