Purposeful academic conversation engages students as active agents in the process of making meaning from text, negotiating perspectives, and achieving mutual understanding. However, educators often report difficulties in engaging students in talk‐based pedagogies. This concern can be partially addressed by ensuring that students and teachers have similar understandings regarding the purposes of academic conversation. Here, we examine the conceptions of academic conversation held by middle‐school students and their teachers, revealing areas of convergence and divergence in the perspectives held by youth and their educators regarding the purposes of academic conversation and students’ roles in these discussions. With direct relevance to instructional practice, we provide suggestions for making these understandings visible and reconciling divergent views.

中文翻译：

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“他们是掌握答案的人”：探索教育者和学生的学术对话观念

有目的的学术对话使学生成为积极的推动者，从文本中表达意义，谈判观点并实现相互理解。但是，教育工作者经常报告说，在让学生参与基于对话的教学法方面存在困难。通过确保学生和老师对学术对话的目的有相似的理解，可以部分解决这种担忧。在这里，我们研究了中学生及其老师举行的学术对话的概念，揭示了青年及其教育者关于学术对话的目的和学生在这些讨论中的角色的观点的趋同和分歧。与教学实践直接相关，