A Framework for “Dialogue and Learning”

There are hundreds of blog posts, articles, and books that address “dialogue.” They range across age groups (infancy to adulthood), contexts (home, school, business, medicine, politics, public media), content (stories with particular themes or topics, science, history, art, math) and purposes. Some of these sources are simply noting the content of the dialogue, some the type of dialogue, some are critiquing the lack of or tenor of the dialogue, and some address how to teach/develop/learn to engage in meaningful dialogue for the purposes of learning, expanding ideas, and solving problems.
On this blog many of the posts have been related to school success and reading success, particularly as children grow from infancy through elementary school. In an effort to find patterns relevant to school and literacy success the following format will be used for future posts: Reasons, Roles, Rules, Routines and Rewards.

Reasons: What is/are the purposes for focusing on dialogue?

Roles: Who are the participants in the dialogue and how, in the particular context, are they related to each/one another?

Rules: Is there a set of “rules” that participants follow. Are the rules implicit or explicit. If implicit, are all of the participants aware of the rules? Do they all agree to the rules?

Routines: Dialogue entails multiple “turns” among participants. What kinds of “turns” are there? How do participants determine whose “turn” it is and what kind of contribution is appropriate? Meaningful? Helpful? How are the routines influenced by Reasons, Rules and Roles?

Rewards: Can dialogue really achieve the desired/specified “reasons” for all of the participants? How do we know?