Nick Moore (Sheffield Hallam's TESOL Centre) was one of the team at the Sheffield Institute of Education (SIoE) that published a report into the effectiveness of Dialogic Teaching.

The SIoE team, led by Professor Tim Jay, was commissioned by the Education Endowment Foundation to evaluate a key pedagogic intervention led by Professors Robin Alexander and Frank Hardman in schools in Leeds, Bradford and Birmingham. 

Dialogic Teaching is an innovation that uses different techniques to encourage all pupils to participate in classroom discussions. Because the emphasis on allowing students to talk through their ideas improves their thinking skills, this view of pedagogy is appropriate for all students in all subjects. Although Dialogic Teaching has become highly influential in modern teaching courses, this was the first time that a large-scale project had tried to show the difference that dialogic teaching could make to learning.

The executive summary and evaluation report, available here, produced some important findings

1. Children in Dialogic Teaching schools made two additional months’ progress in English and science, and one additional month’s progress in maths, compared to children in control schools, on average. The three padlock security rating means we are moderately confident that this difference was due to the intervention and not to other factors.
2. Children eligible for free school meals (FSM) made two additional months’ progress in English, science, and maths compared to FSM children in control schools. The smaller number of FSM pupils in the trial limits the security of this result.
3. The intervention was highly regarded by headteachers, mentors, and teachers who thought that the Dialogic Teaching approach had positive effects on pupil confidence and engagement.
4. The majority of participating teachers felt that it would take longer than two terms to fully embed a Dialogic Teaching approach in their classrooms. It could therefore be valuable to test the impact of the intervention over a longer period.
5. This intervention requires teachers to change classroom talk across the curriculum, supported by training, handbooks, video, and regular review meetings with mentors. Future research could aim to differentiate the effects of these different elements. (From the EEF Website)

Further evaluation is due to take place when the pupils in the study leave year 6.