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This chapter discusses several related themes that broadly link to ways of engaging learners (and their ‘voices’) in productive activity in the classroom. This chapter both introduces general approaches and some key examples of types of learning activity. The first section concerns giving learners some role in supporting the teaching process – with a particular focus on how this can be a source of learning for those taking on such responsibilities. Then, the next section considers what is known as dialogic teaching, which can be seen as a response to the variety of learner starting points in any classroom. The subsequent section considers the general nature of group work as a learning context, which leads to a section on argumentation – an aspect of scientific thinking that has been the focus of increasing interest in chemistry education in recent years – and a consideration of the role of explanation in teaching and learning chemistry. This chapter then discusses two more specific teaching techniques, ‘POE’ (predict–observe–explain) and ‘jigsaw learning’, that can act as examples of task contexts for the kind of group-work able to offer conditions for dialogic interactions and strong argumentation.

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