The present study examines what types of dialogic teaching patterns can be identified in the early school years, and how teachers scaffold children's participation and shared understanding through dialogic teaching. Thirty recorded lessons from preschool to Grade 2 in Finnish classrooms were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Two teacher-initiated and two child-initiated dialogic teaching patterns were identified. Teacher's scaffolding in teacher-initiated dialogues was characterised by high responsibility in maintaining the interactional flow and utilisation of diverse strategies. In the child-initiated dialogues, the teachers' scaffolding consisted of listening and inquiry, and the teacher thus served more as a facilitator of dialogue.

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This study aimed to examine knowledge-building patterns in Grade 6 educational dialogues. The data consisted of 20 video-recorded lessons from the classes taught by seven teachers, selected by using a latent profile analysis and examined with a qualitative functional analysis of classroom talk. Episodes of educational dialogue were found to represent three main types of knowledge, based on facts, views and experiences. These three types were further identified as forming six diverse knowledge-building patterns in educational dialogues. The findings indicated that factual orientation dominated the Grade 6 lesson dialogues. However, factual knowledge building often occurred with the other two main types of knowledge.

This study investigated teachers' focus of attention and stress in firstgrade classrooms. Teachers' (n = 53) focus of attention was recorded in fall and spring with a mobile eye-tracking device, and the teachers reported stress via questionnaires. Correlation analysis was used to examine association between teacher stress (exhaustion, cynicism, and inadequacy) and focus of attention. Then, one teacher reporting more stress and one reporting less stress were selected for a case study to examine variations in their focus of attention. The results showed positive associations between teachers' perceived inadequacy and overall focus of attention (whole eye-tracking recording) both in fall and spring. Teachers' focus of attention during specific activity settings of management/routines and transitions correlated positively with all three stress domains in fall. In addition, a positive association was also found between teacher inadequacy and focus of attention during teacher-directed large group activity setting.

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