Agnes Makhene
University of Johannesburg, South Africa
Title: Classroom Conversations and the Use of Dialectical Dialogue to Facilitate Critical Thinking
Biography
Biography: Agnes Makhene
Abstract
Classroom conversation is mandatory in a classroom that aims to develop the learners’ critical thinking skills. Critical thinking is facilitated in general and in nursing education particularly in order to aid learners to render care in diverse multicultural patient care settings. Classroom conversation involves thinking as an interactive process that constitutes the use of dialectics and dialogue. However where the aim is to facilitate critical thinking the conversation cannot be haphazard. Conversation in the classroom must have structure as it happens in dialectical dialogue. This paper aims to explore and describe how dialectical dialogue can be used in classroom conversations to facilitate critical thinking. A qualitative, exploratory research design was used. Purposive sampling method was used to draw a sample and Miles and Huberman methodology of qualitative data analysis was used to analyse data. Lincoln and Guba’s strategies were employed to ensure trustworthiness, while Dhai and McQuoid-Mason’s principles of ethical consideration were employed. The conceptualisation of findings culminated in the formulation of guidelines on how dialectical dialogue can be used to facilitate critical thinking in the classroom.