Dialogic education advocates varied forms of interactional management by teachers. In the context of whole-class discussions, teachers are encouraged to both prompt student involvement through direct mediation, and "step back" to give students a greater sense of agency and responsibility for turn-taking when appropriate. However, it is…

This study was situated at Mountain Middle School (Pseudonym). Students at Mountain Middle School often engage in collaborative compositions embedded within week-long multidisciplinary and multiage units of study called Odysseys. These units of study and the collaborative composition projects are classified as formal cooperative learning. Johnson…

This essay examines a half-term of Year 9 work on "An Inspector Calls," with a particular focus on group discussion, writing in role and class reading of the text. I argue that extensive talking before writing is an invaluable way to elicit pupil insight; I then argue that this is necessarily a collaborative endeavour. I then go on to…

This article discusses a partnership with two different civic education organizations to study three different student-centered discussion designs. In one study, the authors worked with the Close Up Foundation. Close Up is a non-profit that annually brings 20,000 high school and middle school students from all 50 states and U.S. territories to…

Discussions are one of the activity types that help students build their content-related background knowledge, understanding, and concepts through various communication approaches. Students express and share their perspectives and ideas with other students through a small- or large-group discussion. The formats of discussions may vary; they may be…

Inquiry includes a broad spectrum of approaches, depending on students' responsibility over the process and the extent of the teacher's guidance. While numerous studies have examined students' achievements and engagement across different types of inquiry-based environments, analyses of teachers' guidance during the process are lacking. Therefore,…

Collaborative discussion-supported writing (CDSW) provides opportunities for students to develop arguments and counterarguments through peer communications with a goal to promote a high-quality argumentative essay. Cognitive scaffoldings can be used to facilitate students' collaborative discussions. However, there is a lack of investigation on the…

Successful problem-based learning (PBL) often requires students to collectively regulate their learning processes as a group and engage in socially shared regulation of learning (SSRL). This paper focuses on how facilitators supported SSRL in the context of middle-school game-based PBL. Using conversation analysis, this study analyzed text-based…

We investigated how the level of variance in students' prior knowledge may have influenced their collaborative interactions and science learning in small groups. We examined learning outcomes from 102 groups from seven science teachers' classes and discourse from two contrasting groups: Homogeneous versus heterogeneous. We examined individual and…

While classroom discussion is often cherished as a cornerstone of effective social science teaching, knowledge on when and where discussions tend to turn deliberative is lacking. To make up for this lack of knowledge, the present study examined classroom discussion in three conditions: a whole-class condition, a small group condition, and a pair…

Collaborative learning environments that support students' problem solving have been shown to promote better decision-making, greater academic achievement, and more reasonable argumentation about controversial issues. In this research, we developed a technology-based critical discussion platform to support middle school students' argumentation,…

Due to rapid technological advancement that continues to permeate almost all facets of the education sector, video learning has been explored to enhance performance, but most researchers do not incorporate flipped classroom in mathematical videos, which affects the teaching and learning of the subject in Nigeria. This study checked the…

Conversational agents can deepen reasoning and encourage students to build on others' knowledge in collaborative learning. Embedding agents in group work, however, presents challenges where groups may ignore the agents, and this calls for designs where students perceive agents as learning partners. This study examines group interactions with two…

This paper presents the concept of silent discussions and offers insight into how the method can support linguistic autonomy, accessibility, and student accountability. It also outlines techniques used to improve discussion outcomes in secondary and other classrooms. Silence, while seemingly counterintuitive in classrooms and other spaces where…

Collaborative learning environments that support students' problem solving have been shown to promote better decision-making, greater academic achievement, and more reasonable argumentation about controversial issues. In this research, we developed a technology-based critical discussion platform to support middle school students' argumentation,…