Constructing Meaning through Discussion

This chapter reviews recent research on how classroom discussion fosters reading comprehension, emphasizing student-led and teacher-facilitated dialogic practices. Grounded in sociocultural and sociocognitive theories, the authors explore how meaning is co-constructed through collaborative discourse, highlighting four major approaches: student-led dialogic discussion, facilitated discussion, comprehension strategies, and online communities of practice. The paper synthesizes findings from 24 studies, revealing that while dialogic discussions support high-level comprehension through authentic questioning and reasoning, implementation remains challenging for educators due to competing pedagogical goals. The chapter also underscores the effectiveness of structured interventions like Quality Talk and Questioning the Author, which integrate scaffolding and authentic inquiry. It emphasizes the importance of teacher training, safe classroom environments, and ongoing professional development to ensure successful implementation. Sustained support to bridge research and practice and equip educators with frameworks and tools to foster critical thinking, argumentation, and deep comprehension through purposeful discussion is essential.