Instructional touch: The organisation of a close and closed interaction space for individualised instruction in ‘open classrooms’

The article focuses on the use of touch, in concert with body and talk, as a resource for the organisation of teacher instruction in the context of individualised learning in ‘open classrooms’ in German primary schools. Drawing on video observations of naturally occurring interactions between teachers and students in one such school, we analyse what is specific to teachers' instructional practices in open classrooms, a setting where each student is typically occupied with his or her individual task. The analysis reveals two aspects of using touch that play an important role in the instructional practices of teachers as they control, guide, and support students working individually on their learning tasks: the use of touch as a resource for establishing and closing a local interaction space and the use of touch as an instructional resource. The embodied characteristics of this kind of individualised instruction presuppose and commit the participants to rather close bodily contact and ‘nested formations’ that are different from the teacher-fronted activities of the cohort teaching format.