Online discussions tend to be more effective when they are purposefully structured. In this article, we describe how the design of a photo-based protocol influenced community interactions within an online discussion in an undergraduate course. Students were asked to take and share a photo related to a course concept, respond to a peer's photo, and…

A general conception of discussion and its relation to the development of reflective thinking is applied to philosophical inquiry in the classroom. Consideration of what makes a discussion philosophical is used to reveal the kind of thinking involved and then set within a model of discussion for the classroom designed to engage students in it. It…

A common response from teachers when involved for the first time with the P4C program is related to their lack of background in philosophy. In the current use of the P4C educational approach, most, if not all teacher guides --those who offer training courses to other teachers in preparing them to facilitate philosophical inquiry in their…

This article outlines a three-phased approach to enhancing online student-instructor interaction using asynchronous threaded discussions: check-ins. These instructor-initiated touchpoints, a form of Classroom Assessment Technique, are staged throughout the grading period to help affirm online presence, clarify expectations, monitor performance,…

The dialogic teaching approach has been studied widely, both empirically and theoretically. However, despite four decades of research suggesting that dialogical interactions promote student learning, it has been very difficult to reflect this in practice. Teachers' professional development programmes oriented towards promoting dialogical…

This brief is part of a series that highlights key features of high-quality instruction for English learners and the role formative assessment plays in their success. Formative assessment supports teachers to enact these features by providing them with tools to gauge and react to student learning in real-time. These practices also support students…

Social emotional learning (SEL) is an important topic in education and a desired area of professional development for teachers. This conceptual essay offers a creative approach in promoting and discussing SEL through the use of haiku poetry. The tenets from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) framework were…

The aim of this study is to address the importance of implementing discussions about Black Lives Matter in early childhood education and care. The article starts with presenting the background of the study, describing how talking about race and whiteness may perceive difficult to address for both preschool teachers as well as early childhood…

Teachers who are concerned about introducing inherent biases into their classroom practices may find themselves turning to equity strategies to help randomize and equalize their practices. But these strategies, such as using popsicle sticks to randomize who a teacher calls on to ask a question, can also mitigate inequities in a different direction…

Students and teachers often approach math with a single goal in mind: to get the right answer. But teachers must resist the urge to simply teach a procedure, writes educator LauraMarie Coleman. Instead, they should make a conscious decision to facilitate a discussion that leads to deeper student learning.

Michael Young's concept of "powerful knowledge" has received widespread attention from many in geographical education. I use the claims Young has made about powerful knowledge as a starting point for considering how pedagogic practices could contribute to making geographical education powerful. I present three sets of pedagogic…

Although orally sharing and discussing written compositions has been shown to benefit elementary students, it can be challenging to entwine this additional pedagogy with an already full literacy instructional period. This article acknowledges these challenges and outlines three evidence-based instructional modifications to encourage active sharing…

Statistics has been a content domain in the mathematics curriculum for decades. However, statistics is a distinct discipline from mathematics and there are important differences in how one should teach the two disciplines. In this article, the authors consider how these differences can inform an adaptation to the 5 Practices for Orchestrating…

In a polarized society, it is a university's responsibility to offer courses that explore highly controversial issues. Traditional forms of debate may create barriers to knowledge and entrenchment of perspectives, with students self-limiting their ability to develop informed opinions. We describe an active learning, double-blinded approach to…

In discussion-oriented courses, students often struggle to think of relevant stories and examples to share, which can impede their learning. Creating and presenting vision boards enables students to reflect on their personal, academic, and professional experiences and envision their ideal futures. By compiling text, photographs, clip art, and…