Even when using mixed-ability grouping--grouping students so that students with a range of mathematical thinking work together--there is potential to position some students as more capable than others. In this article, the authors describe two approaches to mixed-ability grouping, providing examples of how teachers using those approaches describe…

Journey with a third-grade community of writers as they develop their writing identities and abilities in a responsive approach to writers' workshop. Instruction is framed around the writers' workshop approach, where students' choice and voice are centered within extended periods of time for writing, alongside daily mini-lessons addressing the…

The transformation of China's education reform from extensive to connotative development involved a shift from characteristically exogenous and late development to endogenous and spontaneous development. The mechanism behind the shift from rationalism to universalism has resulted in tension between extension and intension in the process of…

Being a teacher or a student in a class with a large enrollment can be intimidating. Often, teachers view comforts that are common to small classes as unattainable in a larger class, including knowing students' names, using active learning, employing group work, and creating group discussion. Students in large classes may find that the class size…

Medical education has seen a shift toward interactive teaching in small groups that actively involves students in learning. However, didactic teaching, despite drawbacks such as student isolation and low stimulation of critical thinking, is still a very commonly used teaching method. For didactic teaching to be effective, teachers must possess…

Knowledge-making in universities is shaped by conventions that neglect and/or suppress less conventional kinds of knowledge that may hold viable solutions to society's problems. Knowledge always has political interests, and close-up research on knowledge-making can liberate marginalized ideas, by exposing how they push against and beyond…

Culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) that builds on and sustains students' cultural and linguistic practices is important for students' academic achievement and identities. While CSP is applicable to any content area, a critical time to incorporate it is during differentiated reading groups--small-group contexts that provide explicit code-based…

Over three decades ago, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM, 1991) proposed that "for students to develop the ability to formulate problems, to explore, conjecture, and reason logically, to evaluate whether something makes sense, classroom discourse must be founded on mathematical evidence" (p. 34). As math interventionists…

Purpose: The purpose of the current application paper is to integrate previous literature with recent results from practitioners on effective practices for utilizing small groups in the leadership classroom. Design/methodology/approach: We use these integrated findings to innovate practice on maximizing the role of undergraduate teaching…

This activity leverages the use of a single case study to explain conflict mapping and find an optimal solution to the complicated challenges posed by the situation in Nauru, an island country that is now participating in seabed mining operations. In groups, students are given a chance to participate in two discussions: one within their respective…

Analyses of classroom interaction have frequently spotlighted reasoned dialogue as beneficial for student learning, and research into small-group activity amongst students offers empirical support. However, the evidence relating to teacher-student interaction has never been compelling, and one of the few studies to investigate the issue directly…

In this invited Viewpoint, Sharon Walpole tracks her thinking about feasible, effective, small-group differentiated instruction. She acknowledges political pressures and the focus on science of reading. She describes the attractiveness and feasibility of guided reading. She then identifies some salient criticisms of the assessments, texts, and…

Data literacy enables teachers to use information collected about students and their learning to take data-informed instructional action. This article outlines two approaches developed by teachers to provide teaching targeted to the immediate needs of specific students that moved beyond "gap-filling". The pre-teaching and "fresh…

Music educators often find themselves in the midst of a nearly impossible juggling act that includes preparing students for countless performances while also fostering the development of a wide range of musical skills; however, time and resource constraints frequently inhibit the teacher's ability to provide individual attention to every student.…

Australian primary school teachers have reported that they use games frequently in teaching mathematics. In this paper, the authors discuss the game mechanics of five types of whole-class games that can be particularly powerful for supporting mathematical thinking and student engagement in mathematics.