Classroom interaction in Maltese secondary schools

Abstract

Many of the important questions about teaching and learning, such as how best to teach, what to teach and to whom, when and where, as well as considerations about the particularities of teachers and learners, finally find some type of resolution when teaching and learning are considered in context. This context includes not only the global, national, regional and school context as has been demonstrated in studies of cultures of schooling but more centrally, the classroom context. As pupils, we recall how different classroom settings, which could include the teacher and his or her strategies and biography, the subject, the group of peers in that class, the physical or ecological classroom arrangements and others, gave each classroom encounter a different and particular dimension. Whilst there are many commonalties in secondary school classrooms there are also differences that have considerable impact on the learning encounter.