Gordon Wells

PROFILE

Gordon Wells is probably best known for his work as the director of the Bristol Language Development study. However, since that time he has undertaken a great deal of thinking and research about the role of dialogue in learning and teaching.

KEY DATES

1985    Publication of findings from the Bristol Language Development study

LINKS

Vygotsky

Theories about how children learn to talk

Hughes

His life

While undertaking the language project Gordon Wells was based at Bristol University. He subsequently left, spending ten years at the University of Toronto in Canada. He is now based at the University of California Santa Cruz where he is Professor of Education. His website entry suggests that his interests are vintage cars and gardening (http://people.ucsc.edu/-gwells)

His writing

Gordon Wells is a prolific writer - a great deal of his writing is in the form of chapters in edited books. In 1985 he published the findings of the Bristol study in a book entitled Language at Home and at School. It is actually the second volume with that title. Volume 1 was published in 1981 and was an account of the study’s methodology. These were by no means ‘easy-reads’ but in 1987, he published The Meaning-Makers which is much more accessible.

While at Toronto, Wells wrote a number of books on his continuing research interests in the role of language and dialogue in teaching and learning. Probably the best-known of these is entitled Dialogic inquiry: towards a sociocultural practice and theory of education. While the Bristol study was focused on the early years, his subsequent writing is cross-phase. While at Santa Cruz he has co-edited a book with Guy Claxton (see How Children Learn 2 page 68-9 and this book page 15) entitled Learning for life in the C21st: Sociocultural perspectives on the future of education.

His theory

In Wells’ early work, the development of language was the focus of his research. His findings from the Bristol research were published shortly after that of Tizard and Hughes (1984; see page28 of this book) and confirmed some of their findings but challenged others. His study was a very robust one - a large sample of 128 children studied over a period of more than two years. The main aspect of his theory arising from this research was that language learning was an act of social construction in which children and adults worked together. It was not something which could be explicitly taught but which developed from rewarding interactions.

In the Meaning Makers, Wells attempts to make his findings more accessible. He states that research is a story and that the researcher or ‘story teller’ weaves the best story they can from their available evidence, creating their theory in the process. Wells extends this idea to underline his view that language is the root of learning. He writes:

We are the meaning makers - every one of us: children, parents, and teachers. To try to make sense, to construct stories, and to share them with others in speech and in writing is an essential part of being human. For those of us who are more knowledgeable and more mature - the responsibility is clear: to interact with those in our care in such a way as to foster and enrich their meaning making.

(page 222)

In his later work, this theme continues (2001 page 340). He suggests that learners ‘need to be treated like sense-makers rather than remembers and forgetters. They need to see connections between what they are supposed to be learning in school and things they care about understanding outside of school, and these connections need to be related to the substance of what they are supposed to be learning.’

In other research undertaken while he was in Canada, Wells draws on and develops the work of two important theorists. The first was Halliday, who a decade before the publication of Well’s Bristol findings, had produced a seminal text on language development in which he links language and learning. Wells quotes Halliday as saying:

When children learn language, they are not simply engaging in one type of learning among many; rather they are learning the foundations of learning itself. The distinctive characteristic of human learning is that it is a process of making meaning.

The second major theory that Wells draws on is that of Vygotsky (see How Children Learn page 39). He describes himself, as Vygotsky is described as a social constructivist and writes that he had initially wanted to call his book Dialogic Inquiry, ‘Thinking with Vygotsky’. His theories are very much in tune with those of Vygotsky’s and it is this which has led him to a core element of his current theories.

Wells highlights his view that for him, knowledge is constructed when people do things together. Knowledge arises out of action; it is created between people, and it occurs as humans try to share or make meaning. We can only understand another’s point of view when we actively engage. Wells, like many other theorists covered in this book (see for example Mary Jane Drummond) upholds that this act of creating meaning, like creating stories, involves the use of the imagination.

Putting the theory into practice

Although Wells early work was often difficult to read, in his later work he focuses much more on practical issues. His mission is without doubt to get adults to:

a) support language development more effectively, and

b) develop more collaborative practice

c) work in more cross-curricular ways

d) become action researchers.

Supporting language development requires that adults:

treat what children say as of value, worth listening to;

do their best to understand not just the words but the meaning;

base what they say on what the child has just said; and

use language and structures which the child can understand.

Developing collaborative practice involves seeing classrooms and other early years settings as learning communities - working towards shared goals. This should involve adults in providing:

Working in cross-curricular ways is, for Wells, a direct result of thinking about dialogic inquiry. He cites the work of Dewey (see How Children Learn page 21) who suggests, for example, that “you can concentrate the history of all mankind into the evolution of the flax, cotton and wool fibers into clothing”(The school and society page 21-2). For Wells (and Dewey) investigations which begin with first-hand exploration of familiar aspects of the children’s experience are effective because children are given real motives for doing real things. Wells goes on to highlight the importance of ‘real’ questions, since they are an expression of wanting to know or understand. The topic of ‘real things’ is also emphasised with reference to Rogoff’s writing (see page 62 in this book) when Wells suggests that practical activity is essential to understanding. Reality helps children to make the connections essential to learning.

Becoming an action researcher. Wells suggests that this is essential since it offers a model of an enquiring mind. Once one encourages students to make connections between the curricular material and their own experiences, one quickly finds that they ask questions to which one does not have ready answers.

Develops collaborative learning as the learning community works together.

His influence

In the 1980s when Wells’ language research was first published he had a strong influence. This is not often specifically acknowledged but in fact he continues to play a strong role in highlighting the role of language in learning. Similarly, his writing has over many years reflected views which are now given increasing recognition such as the need to develop sustained shared thinking in young children. In Dialogic inquiry, he argues that:

The purpose that currently drives public education – efficient training of young people to fit the needs of the economy – is not only severely limited as an education for full participation in a democratic society, as Dewey argued a century ago. It is also ineffective in nurturing students’ development as self-directed learners and in encouraging them to collaborate in knowledge building in order to solve real-life problems of a practical as well as intellectual nature. Like many other educators, we believe that a radical change is required in the organization of public schooling and that this will best be achieved, first, by helping teachers to understand how the new ideas about learning and teaching can be brought to bear on the ways in which the curriculum is planned and enacted and, second, by persuading those in administrative positions to assist teachers in exploring new ways of teaching through collaborating with their peers in finding out about what other teachers have learned and through their own classroom-based research.

wells.jpg

Comment

Criticisms of Wells’ theories generally belong to writers and thinkers who regard learning as owing most to what is taught. As a social constructivist Wells’ emphasis is firmly on the way in which children learn from others and within communities of learners.

Points for reflection

References

Language Development in the Pre-school Years. (Language at Home and at School, Vol 2.) Gordon Wells (Cambridge University Press 1985)

Language, Learning and Education Gordon Wells (NFER-Nelson 1985)

The Meaning Makers: Children learning language and using language to learn. Gordon Wells, (Heinemann Educational Books 1986)

Dialogic inquiry: Towards a sociocultural practice and theory of education Gordon Wells (Cambridge University Press 1999)

Action, talk, and text: Learning and teaching through inquiry. Gordon Wells (ed.) (Teachers College Press 2001)

Learning for life in the C21st: Sociocultural perspectives on the future of education Gordon Wells and Guy Claxton, (eds.) (Blackwell Publishers 2002)

Where to find out more

Language Development in the Pre-school Years (Language at Home and at School, Vol 2) Gordon Wells (Cambridge University Press 1985)

http://people.ucsc.edu/~gwells/