Next Steps with Academic Conversations

Dr. Jeff Zwiers, an educational researcher at Stanford University, has spent the last 15 years analyzing classroom conversations to see how they can be better used and improved in classroom settings. Teachers who have worked with him report significant growth in students’ engagement, content learning, language, creativity, and sense of agency.

Zwiers introduced his initial vision for classroom conversations Academic Conversations: Classroom Talk that Fosters Critical Thinking and Content Understanding. His follow-up book, Next Steps with Academic Conversations: New Ideas for Improving Learning Through Classroom Talk, expands on the first book with updated classroom strategies and practices including:

• an updated synthesis of converstion work across disciplines and grade levels
• highlights of the most recent classroom-based research and theory on classroom conversations
• answers to questions that have emerged during this work with teachers and administrators, and
• new classroom strategies and practices for fostering and assessing classroom conversations.

This resource is the product of his extensive research, co-teaching, and collaborating with a wide range of educators. It was written for busy teachers who want a practical guide for strengthening the quality and quantity of productive conversations in their lessons.