This paper reports the findings of two systematic reviews of the use and effects of small group discussions in high school science teaching. Ninety-four studies were included in an overview (systematic map) of work in the area, and 24 studies formed the basis of the in-depth reviews. The reviews indicate that there is considerable diversity in the…

The benefits of active learning in the traditional classroom setting are well established among engineering educators; however, this learning model can thrive in other settings, namely in a research group. This work presents findings from an educational research project specifically designed to foster active learning among undergraduates and…

Purpose: This article explores distributed leadership as it relates to two teacher teams in one public secondary school. Both situational and social aspects of distributed leadership are foci of investigation. Methods: The qualitative study used constant comparative analysis and discourse analysis to explore leadership as a distributed phenomenon.…

This article elaborates a model for understanding pedagogy in online educational forums. The model identifies four key components. Intellectual engagement describes the foreground cognitive processes of collaborative learning. Communication processes operating in the background accumulate an ever richer store of shared understandings that enable…

This study examined how 20 Taiwanese college students of English as a Second Language (ESL) used small group discussion as a medium to construct meaning from a literary text. Students were divided into five discussion groups and instructed to discuss in English only. Each group's interaction was audiotaped and transcribed, then analyzed by topical…