Process quality of classroom discourse: Pupil participation and learning opportunities

•We provide evidence of discourse quality in primary school teaching.•The discourse process unfolds in various ways, depending on its goal and orientation.•Classroom engagement in multiple party interactions is a learning opportunity.•Flexible lessons can be adapted to the classroom needs and requirements.•By means of microtransitions, the demands of the classroom system may be met and fulfilled. The aim of this study is to analyze the process quality of classroom discourse. The data corpus comprises twenty video-recorded lessons performed by primary school teachers. Four groups of lessons were identified by means of a cluster analysis, namely recitation, open, reasoning and flexible lessons. Their quality was measured by means of two indicators, one concerning the degree and type of pupil participation and the other accounting for the emergent discourse dimensions. The results confirm that the recitation lessons are not effective, while the other clusters are differently associated with indicators of the discourse quality. The authors suggest that future reforms in the field of education should be informed by research into classroom discourse and interaction.