Asking surface-level questions is a common practice among educators. Delva Daines's (1986) pilot study indicated that 93 percent of the questions asked during lessons were at the literal level of comprehension and that it was very common for the teachers to restate, rephrase, or answer their own questions before the student had an opportunity to…

If the purpose of an educational system is to guide pupils towards achieving independence, then certain conditions about the design and conduct of that system must be met. In this paper, those conditions are formulated from a socio-cultural perspective on learning and development. This paper examines the extent to which those conditions were…

CD-ROM affordances are explored in this article through participation in classroom interaction. CD-ROMs for shared reading of animated stories and language work were introduced to all Malaysian primary schools in 2003 for the Year 1 English Literacy Hour. We present classroom interaction extracts that show how the same CD-ROMs offer different…

A teacher's style of communication tells students how to interpret the instructional content and affects students' feelings toward the teacher and the class. A variety of communication styles, style levels, and units of analysis of style are discernable. (Author/MSE)

A class can be seen as forming a larger unit of mind, a unit that becomes its own context, and this context can become the scene not only for an error-correcting but also a growth-producing process. Perception is always a comparison between at least two messages, and what is perceived is the difference between them. This principle is critical to…

Suggestions are offered for formulating a classroom management system where students develop social and psychological strengths, responsibilities, and independence in a positive classroom atmosphere. In this classroom, the teacher stresses the positive and is consistent without always being concerned with being "in control." (DF)

This presentation focuses on the qualities of effective teaching. It offers thoughts on the teacher/learner relationship, focusing on the challenge of teaching and the importance of caring about students and connecting with them. Professors' attention to their research over their teaching and the impact of their rigorous workloads is felt to cause…

Provides normative data regarding the use of certain verbal behaviors manifested by college teachers. Indicates that usage of humor, self-disclosure, and narratives by college teachers was frequently relevant to course content and used to clarify course material. Suggests that award winning teachers used these same behaviors in relation to course…

Feminist teaching practices, by questioning traditional epistemology and distribution of power, offer special advantages in the culturally diverse classroom, where the valuing of different perspectives is essential. A study of two feminist teachers demonstrates how they attempt to create new kinds of classroom cultures through mastery, voice,…

This collection of essays on teaching is written from the perspective of a high school English teacher. The ideas for these essays are drawn from experiences, from debates in the faculty lounge, from confrontations with parents, and from crisis interventions with distraught students. Personal narratives and classroom vignettes are used to…

Physical education teachers who want to be fair to all students may discover some ways teachers speak or act is discriminatory. Some items that teachers who want to treat students as fairly as possible should consider include class organization, teaching style, teacher-student interaction, teacher language, role models, and equipment. (SM)

The Effective Classroom Management and Discipline Strategies Graduate Program for Educators is organized around a series of core modules designed for use in inservice teacher education. The basic skills learned in these series of modules are communication (feedback, nonverbal, listening, self disclosure, problem solving, and conflict resolution),…

The interactive science notebook (ISN) is a perfect opportunity for science educators to encapsulate and promote the most cutting-edge constructivist teaching strategies while simultaneously addressing standards, differentiation of instruction, literacy development, and maintenance of an organized notebook as laboratory and field scientists do.…

Describes factors that impact faculty evaluations made by students. Discusses different teaching styles and how student evaluations may be influenced by teaching style. Provides suggestions for faculty assessments. Reviews methods used by English universities, noting differences between larger research institutions and smaller liberal arts…

Beginning with general observations on the human element in excellent teaching that often goes unnoticed by researchers, this speaker provides a wide range of suggestions for making more effective use of class time. These suggestions pertain to monitoring time on and off task, classroom organization and planning, making assignments, clarifying…