Review is often more effective when it involves deliberate memory retrieval. However, this advantage may depend on a high rate of retrieval success; students who are less capable with the material may be better served by another activity. In our study, year 9 geography students listened to factual information, then reviewed some of it with a…

This paper reports on combining semiotic and discursive approaches to reification in classroom interactions. It focuses on the discursive characteristics and semiotic processes involved in the teaching and learning of square roots in a ninth grade classroom in Japan. The purpose of this study is to characterize the development of mathematical…

This article aims to advocate retelling stories technique for developing speaking ability of grade 9 students in Thailand. Morrow's theory (1981) and other scholars in retelling stories technique are presented. This technique is integrated in the lesson plans following Morrow's framework. Narrative text of short stories which refer to daily life…

This paper challenges the reductive notion of children as "efferent" readers who learn to decode written language in order to "take away" knowledge. This anachronistic idea has become entrenched in current UK curriculum and education policy. However, it is well established that decoding letters and sounds is only one aspect of…

The minute students first step into any classroom, they begin assessing the environment, the teacher, and one another for clues about what to expect in the upcoming school year. Yet what do they usually encounter the first day? A teacher who's busy assigning seats, reviewing rules, and assessing various skills. However, it is during this time that…

A hands-on game based upon principles of oil accumulation and drilling was highly effective at generating enthusiasm toward the geosciences in urban youth from underrepresented minority groups in Newark, NJ. Participating 9th-grade high school students showed little interest in the geosciences prior to participating in the oil game, even if they…

In this essay, veteran high school teacher Cherish R. Skinker recounts how she connected with hard-to-reach, struggling students in her 9th grade English classes. In a supportive classroom environment, Skinker's students explored the year-long theme of "a hero's journey" through texts like "The Odyssey" and "Romeo and…

In usual understandings of learning, youths' development in classrooms is portrayed as a move from being a novice to an expert. However, findings of the present anthropologically framed study support us to argue that learning, rather, can be characterized as youths' simultaneous occupation of novice and expert roles. We refer to this simultaneous…

The use of handheld computers in educational contexts has increased considerably in recent years and their value as a teaching tool has been confirmed by many positive experiences, particular within collaborative learning systems (Mobile Computer Supported Collaborative Learning [MCSCL]). The cost of the devices has hindered widespread use in…

In 2 related studies framed by social constructivism theory, the authors explored a fine-grained analysis of adolescents' civic conceptual knowledge and skills and investigated them in relation to factors such as teachers' qualifications and students' classroom experiences. In Study 1 (with about 2,800 U.S. students), the authors identified 4…

In this article we examine intuitions as they emerge in groupwork activities. We provide a framework and a methodology to code various aspects of the activity, social and mathematical. Focusing mostly on students' gazes, we explore how affective moves give rise to, and determine, students' interactions and thoughts. We argue that intuition does…

The present study concerns the activities teachers develop and ninth-graders' participation in responses to those activities. The objectives of this study were to identify and describe the types of teaching activities developed and how students respond to them and to show how the target language is used in the classroom. The data collection was…

In this study, 9th-grade students (N = 196) with a mean age of 14.7 years read a scientific text explaining the chemical process of doing laundry with soap and water and then took 3 tests. Students who were instructed to generate drawings during learning scored higher than students who only read on subsequent tests of transfer (d = 0.91),…

This article investigates the mechanisms that govern the processes of inclusion and exclusion of knowledge. It draws on three cases from Swedish classrooms about how energy is created as an area of knowledge. We are interested in how knowledge is made valid and legitimate in a school context, and in defining and finding tools to identify…

Does using a computer game improve students' motivation to learn classroom material? The current study examined students' motivation to learn history concepts while playing a commercial, off-the-shelf computer game, Civilization III. The study examined the effect of using conceptual scaffolds to accompany game play. Students from three ninth-grade…