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  • On Teaching and Learning: Putting the Principles and Practices of Dialogue Education into Action
  • Barbara L. Licklider
Jane Vella. On Teaching and Learning: Putting the Principles and Practices of Dialogue Education into Action. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008. 232 pp. Cloth: $38.00. ISBN: 978-0-7879-8699-5.

Despite decades of research about learning uncovering the limited effectiveness of traditional models of teaching, most postsecondary educators continue to teach as they were taught—to focus on the teaching, which typically means conveying information. But the evidence is clear. To fully educate today’s students to become the professionals and citizens we need them to be so that they can address complex problems now and in the future, the primary focus for educators must be learning.

Indeed, the basic assumption underlying renowned educator Jane Vella’s practice of dialogue education is that teaching is for learning. Dialogue education, appropriate for all levels of education and for professional learning within any organization, is clearly elucidated in Vella’s book Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach (2008) This new volume illustrates how dialogue education has been applied in settings around the world, clearly shows how to put the principles and practices of dialogue education into action, and invites all educators to participate in dialogue education. Unlike some books about learning and teaching, the suggestions, stories, illustrations, and varied examples that Vella shares allow thoughtful and reflective educators to transfer this pedagogy to their own learning situations.

In her introduction, Vella makes the case that this book is for any educator concerned about learning. Writing with the assumption that readers of this book are novices related to dialogue learning, she asserts that what can emerge for the reader “are both (1) a new understanding of learning and teaching and (2) a grasp of congruent skills that will enable you to begin to use this system” (p. 1).

She also exhibits the 12 principles and practices presented in her earlier Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach: learning needs and resources assessment; safety; sound relationships; sequence, praxis (action/reflection/action; respect; ideas/feelings/actions; immediacy; clear roles; teamwork); engagement; and accountability. These notions come to life in the 15 chapters organized in the book’s five parts.

Particularly helpful to novices who truly want to focus on learning are the implementation challenges at the end of every chapter. These challenges guide readers in transferring their understandings to their own learning environments, whatever its forms. Unlike many books about learning and teaching, Vella has presented clear applications for online learning and teaching situations.

Part 1: “Structured” includes three chapters. The first explains that dialogue education is a “structured system that evokes spontaneous and creative responses to the open questions in a learning design” (p. 11). The structures are useful for “framing focusing, freeing, forming, setting limits, fusing functionality, and uncovering the frequently forgotten.” In addition to explaining each of these concepts, this chapter presents an overview for structuring content and process.

Chapter 2 discusses the dialogue that begins long before the course: learning needs and resource assessment (LNRA). This chapter clearly illustrates the underlying value of respecting the learner and applies the assumptions of equity and constructivism in the learning process. The three-step LNRA approach, ask-study-observe, is conveyed with examples from many learning situations including both face-to-face and online. The last chapter in this part, “The Seven Design Steps,” supports the reader in designing learning to meet both the learner’s needs and the purpose of the learning situation. The mindful reader of this chapter will be able to effectively apply the seven design steps: Who? Why? When? Where? What? What for? and How?

The two chapters in Part 2, “Social,” make clear that “the dialogue in dialogue education is not between the teacher and the learner but rather among learners, of whom the teacher is one” (p. 51). The first chapter, “The Learning Task in a Small Group,” focuses the educator on the learner and what the learner will accomplish. Clear explanations, illustrated with real-life examples, help the reader progress through the steps of developing learning tasks. Again, the implementation challenges at the end of the...

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