This article takes a conceptual approach to an issue of pedagogical relevance--the presence of "teaching and learning moments" within educational environments. We suggest sources of philosophical confusions that design patterns for the classification and creation of typologies of classroom events. We identify three foundational…

This participatory design-based research study addresses the relational character of the physical learning environment and pedagogical practice in the context of a design project carried out at a Swedish upper secondary school. Three teachers initiated the project with the intent to introduce student centred pedagogy and increase active learning.…

Quality classrooms provide opportunities for students of all different abilities and backgrounds to learn. Designing interaction to be participatory, deliberative, and active empowers students to have more control of their own learning and enables educators to be adaptive and responsive. Quality classrooms that foster democratic values, risk…

In response to Shady's reflection on his experience as a teacher-researcher in which he explored different cogen structures, we consider fluid participant configurations using cogens as a research method to provide insights into classroom life. Our cogens illuminated the role of symbolic, cultural and social capital in student-teacher…

Many educators understand how to gauge learning by paying close attention to student talk. Few know how to interpret and attend to student silence as a form of participation. In her new book, Katherine Schultz examines the complex role student silence can play in teaching and learning. Urging teachers to listen to student silence in new ways, this…

The issue of improving educational outcomes for children and youth in foster care is receiving some long-overdue attention, but the voices of classroom teachers have not been prominent in the discussions so far. To help fill this gap, a team from the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning and funded by the Stuart Foundation convened six…

In the fall of 2009, a team from the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning and funded by the Stuart Foundation convened six discussion groups to explore how teachers and foster children and youth interact in the classroom to improve educational outcomes. The discussion group sessions were held in three California counties--Fresno, Orange,…

Classroom communication is too often a one-way proposition; pupils must not only be spectators, but participants, performing many activities that teachers now hoard for themselves. (Author/MB)

Presumably, everyone shares the understanding that teaching for social justice means providing students with a supportive learning environment that is just, fair, democratic, and even compassionate. In reality, people are probably using this term to mean many things without actually embracing it as a perspective for educating students in urban…

Discussions regarding young children and secure schools often focus on children's physical safety and external stressors such as chaotic families, dangerous neighborhoods, and terrorism. Less attention is given to the emotional security of children in schools, a necessary prerequisite to learning and healthy development. The most effective way to…

Elaborates on Mauritz Johnson's definition of curriculum as "a structured series of intended learning outcomes" and relates this to teaching science in a permissive classroom climate. (PEB)

Examines the manner in which environmental factors can be used to engage the interest, focus the attention, stimulate the involvement, and make learning easier for many urban school children. Advocates paying attention to the impact of the classroom physical environment on students, the role of verbal and nonverbal communication in teaching and…

Reflects on the role of tradition in defining the nature of classrooms, schools, schooling, learning, and teaching. Argues that if schools really are for children, they should be organized in such a way that they facilitate learning rather than perpetuate tradition or make things easier for adults. (HTH)

This book focuses on learning as a social process. The language of teaching and learning within classroom literacy lessons, and how this language contributes to building a culture of learning, is a key principle that underlies each concept presented in the book. Each of the chapters asks teachers to examine the interactive nature of classroom life…

Bakhtin's (1981) concept of chronotope provides a way of viewing student participation in the classroom as a dynamic process constituted through the interaction of past experience, ongoing involvement, and yet-to-be-accomplished goals. Although the actual design and use of classroom space may be important in facilitating a participatory pedagogy,…