Classroom Interactions and the Construction of

 Knowledge at School

University of Lille, 6 and 7 October 2022

UMR 8163 STL - ULR 4354 CIREL

Since the early 2000s, research data have shown the fundamental place of language in the scaffolding of knowledge at school, regardless of the subjects concerned (Babault, 2015; Bigot et al., 2017; Gajo, 2007; Garcia-Debanc et al., 2009; Jaubert, 2007; Hache, 2019; Schneeberger & Vérin, 2009, Volteau & Rançon, 2015). Paradoxically, teachers are generally not trained to consider the different aspects of language activity in their subjects (Babault, 2018). At the same time, other research has shown that a significant proportion of the school population is weakened by an insufficient mastery of the fundamentals of the language of education, whether they are migrant pupils or pupils whose first language is the language of education  (Klein, 2012; Mendonça Dias & Millon Faure, 2018).

These various studies highlight the need to reflect upon the linguistic aspects intertwined in the scaffolding of a subject. Within the language set, classroom interactions play a predominant role in learners' conceptualisation of knowledge (Filliettaz & Schubauer-Leoni, 2008; Munford & Zembal-Saul, 2002; Rivière, 2012; Silveira & Munford, 2020; Skovholt, 2017). However, classroom interactions in school subjects, other than modern foreign languages, are still insufficiently explored. It could be assumed that this is linked to their position at the intersection of several research fields. Thus, some relevant issues still need to be explored by further studies. We can ask ourselves the following questions : how do classroom interactions support the scaffolding of knowledge? What role does teacher discourse play in these interactions? Are classroom interactions characterised by specific features for each subject? How can students with very diverse profiles all benefit from these classroom interactions?

Furthermore, after two years of adapting classrooms to the conditions imposed by COVID, these questions also apply to distance classroom interaction situations. In response to time, location or sanitary constraints, distance learning tends to offer teachers numerous ways of developing their presence in distance interactions (Jézégou, 2010) so that they can maintain social and pedagogical interactions with their learners. However, due to multiple constraints, it is quite a difficult task  to "tame the distance" (Jacquinot, 1993) in order to achieve fruitful exchanges in the service of learning. As a matter of fact, distance changes and minimises non-verbal communicative activities (Develotte et al., 2011) or collaboration between learners (Crinon et al., 2003; Connac, 2017) to the point of increasing the degree of heterogeneity between students.

We need a multi- and interdisciplinary perspective in order to answer these questions. We invite interactionists, specialists in discourse analysis, researchers in educational sciences and didacticians from all disciplines (mathematics, history, geography, science, etc.) to contribute to a cross-sectional view of classroom interactions by comparing their conceptual and methodological tools.

During this conference, we welcome papers from multidisciplinary work. Papers may also be rooted in a specific disciplinary field, while opening the debate based on different points of view.