“It’s not about teacher-centred or student-centred. I would argue it’s dialogue-centred.”

In this episode of the Rethinking Education podcast, Dr James Mannion and The Read David Cameron explore these questions with Professor Rupert Wegerif, author of Rethinking Educational Theory: Education as Expanding Dialogue.

Rupert has spent decades researching how dialogue shapes thinking and learning. Drawing on work with Neil Mercer and the Thinking Together programme, he shows how teaching children to reason and talk together can improve thinking, deepen understanding across subjects, and even transform classroom culture.

But this conversation goes far beyond classroom strategies. Rupert argues that dialogue is not just a teaching technique – it is a fundamental way of understanding knowledge, identity, and even reality itself.

In this wide-ranging discussion we explore:

- Why teaching children how to talk together can dramatically improve learning outcomes

- The origins of the Thinking Together programme and what the research found in classrooms

- Why group work often fails – and how simple ground rules for dialogue can transform it

- The relationship between oracy, dialogue and thinking

- The idea of culture as a “living tradition” that students must learn to participate in

- How dialogue can bridge the long-running divide between traditional and progressive education

- Rupert’s concept of “double dialogue” – learning through conversation with both peers and disciplinary traditions

- Why education should be dialogue-centred, rather than teacher-centred or student-centred

- The deeper philosophical idea that knowledge and meaning emerge through dialogic space

- What generative AI means for education – and why dialogic thinking may matter more than ever

Along the way, the conversation ranges from classroom practice to philosophy, drawing on thinkers such as Vygotsky, Bakhtin, Paulo Freire, Michael Oakeshott and Merleau-Ponty.

The result is a fascinating exploration of education as something far richer than the transmission of information – a process of entering, expanding and contributing to the ongoing dialogue of human culture.

About Rupert Wegerif

Professor Rupert Wegerif is Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge. His work focuses on dialogic education, thinking and learning, and the role of dialogue in human development. He has worked extensively with Neil Mercer and others on the Thinking Together programme, exploring how structured dialogue can improve reasoning, understanding and collaboration in classrooms.

Links

Rupert’s Substack - https://rupertwegerif.substack.com

Rupert’s website - https://www.rupertwegerif.com

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