Conversation and learning in early childhood education: what works best for children's cognitive development and how to improve pupil engagement?

Generally, all schools state that they are children-focused, but this aim is most visible in communication if children have autonomy and freedom of expression. The purpose of this article is twofold: first, to describe some features of conversations' in early childhood education, and, second, to investigate the conditions in which pupils are more engaged and more participative. The research was carried out by the author observing real daily activity in preschools around Reggio Emilia. Conversations are intentionally defined and started by teachers. The teachers' open and closed questions are analysed and categorised, as well as the children's answers and child-initiated interactions. Results indicate that classroom discourse can be categorised with four kinds of topics, showing that narrative contexts and shared knowledge contexts are the most promising situations to promote children's engagement, through longer children's interactions and complex child-initiated interactions. Findings are discussed also in relation to the groups' numerosity.