The Dialogic Nature of Meaning Making Within a Hybrid Learning Space

Abstract

The chapter presents a reflective case study of a specific instance of hybrid teaching with preservice teachers in a graduate course on the languages and literacies of bilingual elementary children. The intensive summer course occurred across eight weeks, with four on-campus meetings and the remainder of the course occurring online. The authors address three specific pedagogical tools meant to scaffold dialogic meaning making through instructor-mediated learning and student individualization. The chapter is framed within a social constructivist stance that examines the nature of dialogic meaning making and hybrid teaching. The chapter includes detailed examples of three pedagogical tools: discussion boards as community-building spaces, dialogue journals an individualization spaces, and content application as approximation spaces for knowledge building. Interdisciplinary examples for teaching linguistically diverse children relate to mathematics, science, social studies, and language arts. In addition, the authors discuss implications and directions for research.