Break the IRE Pattern
IRE (Initiation, Response, Evaluation): ask, answer, judge. Alexander shows this pattern limits thinking. Replace evaluation with a follow-up question. What makes you say that?
Find this under Improve classroom discussion
The strategy, as published
Exactly as it appears on the card
Part of Dialogic Teaching & Discussion in 04 Questioning & Discussion, where it sits alongside its neighbouring strategies, the infographic and the thinking for the whole area.
Why you might use it
The problem it may help with
Ask, answer, judge. The IRE pattern, initiation, response, evaluation, is the default grammar of classroom talk, and Alexander shows it limits thinking: every exchange is three moves long and ends with a verdict from the front.
The fix on the card is small enough to try today. Replace the evaluation with a follow-up question: what makes you say that? The exchange stays open, and the reasoning has to come out.
What it might look like
One version of it, in a classroom
A pupil answers that the metal expands when heated. Instead of good, the teacher asks what makes you say that. The pupil explains, and the explanation shows what they think the particles are doing, which turns out to be the thing worth teaching next.
Try it
A way to begin
Pick one lesson and replace every evaluative response with either a follow-up question or three seconds of nothing.
What to notice
Reading what happens
- How often you evaluate. The pattern is nearly impossible to hear from inside, which is why the card points at capturing a lesson to listen back to.
- How long exchanges become when the third move is a question rather than a verdict.
- Whether pupils start justifying answers before being asked to.
Things to think about
Before and while you use it
- What makes you say that works on right answers too. Probing only the wrong ones teaches the class to read your follow-ups as a signal.
- Wait time 2 breaks the same pattern with silence rather than a question; some exchanges want one, some the other.
- Capturing a lesson to listen back to means recording people, and that requires consent. Whether and how you record is down to your school or trust policy: seek that answer before you press record, not after.
The wider thinking
Where the evidence sits
Alexander and Mercer both treat IRE as the pattern to escape from; most of the dialogic cluster is, one way or another, an alternative third move. The card’s attribution stands as published: Alexander; Mercer.
The fuller picture, sources included, is in further reading and evidence for Questioning & Discussion.
Keep exploring
Where next?
Back to this strategy in 04 Questioning & Discussion, across to what you're trying to improve, or into all 144 at once.
Want to take this further?
Support is available
Pedagogy First gives you a starting point. If you want support exploring how approaches like this can work across your school, trust or professional learning programme, that work is available.