Extending and challenging children’s thinking

July 2026

Webinar with Professor Amanda Bateman

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Extending and challenging children’s thinking

Coming in July

How can educators authentically extend and challenge children’s thinking through everyday interactions? In this webinar, Professor Amanda Bateman from Birmingham City University will explore the sequences of talk that occur during shared inquiry in early childhood settings, demonstrating how teaching and learning are co-constructed — one utterance at a time — between teachers and children.

In this webinar, you will:

  • Examine question–answer sequences to understand how pedagogical interactions unfold
  • Explore multimodal conversation analysis as a rigorous yet creative approach to capturing children’s naturally occurring talk
  • Learn to extend and challenge older children’s thinking through conversation
  • Gain insights into how children’s voices can inform practice, professional reflection, and meaningful curriculum planning

This webinar offers a unique opportunity to witness how young children actively contribute to interactions, and to reflect on practice that is genuinely responsive to their interests, experiences, and perspectives. Make the most of an opportunity to unlock insights from teachers’ and children’s naturally occurring learning interactions.

About the presenter

Professor Amanda Bateman

After working at Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato, The University of Waikato for a decade, Amanda has returned to her homeland of Wales and is Professor of Early Years at Birmingham City University. Amanda is a qualified early childhood teacher, working for many years in this role prior to her academic career. She has led many research projects exploring the everyday interactions of infants, toddlers and young children using conversation analysis and has a particular interest in children’s pedagogical interactions.

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