Agentic engagement, or attempts to proactively influence instruction, predicts positive classroom climate and students' motivation. As such, it is a potentially effective target for intervention, though causal evidence is limited. This investigation explored whether an agentic orientation could be cultivated through a brief, online intervention…

In recent years, research on students' scientific argumentation has progressed to a recognition of nascent resources: Students can and do argue when they experience the need and possibility of persuading others who may hold competing views. Our purpose in this article is to contribute to this progress by applying the perspective of framing to the…

This exploratory study examines how society is adapting to an invasion of personal technology. Specifically, the paper reports a pretest study about incivility and the use of personal technology. Findings from this study are useful in providing initial views on demographic differences concerning perceptions about incivility and rudeness in the…

To explore children's perceptions of their teachers' feelings in everyday classroom contexts, the authors conducted focus groups with New Zealand primary (elementary) school children to discuss what they observed about positive classroom teachers' interactional style and emotional behavior. Seventy-nine students between age 8 and 12 years, from…

Every so often, a technology will saturate the market to the extent that the name of the product becomes a stand-in for the technology itself. While it belongs to the broader genre of slideware, Microsoft PowerPoint is perhaps the best example of software that has achieved that level of ubiquity. Despite Apple's Keynote, the Presentation Editor…

Research suggests teacher behavior is a by-product of information processing strategies, which enable teachers to read the classroom environment. This paper suggests that preservice teachers can learn through cognitive discrimination training to approach the classroom as an experienced teacher would. (MT)

To understand an individual student's learning in the complexity of the mathematics classroom, it is necessary to examine the events before, during, and after learning. To illustrate, the process by which two children each construct new mathematical meanings is examined from these perspectives. (Author/MKR)

Contrasts interpretive and cognitive approaches to explaining teachers' thoughts and actions, exploring epistemological and ontological assumptions that underlie research on teaching. Cognition is discussed as individual mental processing versus a social event in which thinking is shared, intersubjective, and practical. The influence of the place…

Didactic transposition theory asserts that bodies of knowledge are designed not to be taught but to be used. Discusses didactic transposition, the transposition of knowledge regarded as a tool to be used to knowledge as something to be learned in mathematics textbooks. (14 references) (MDH)

Presents ethnographic data drawn from observation of three elementary school classes in Kiryah, a development town in Israel. Determines that pupils' classroom seating expresses teachers' behavior patterns, which are said to derive from external social and professional frames of reference. (KH)

This article discusses ways to improve mathematics performance of students with learning disabilities through cognitive strategies instruction. Principles of a strategic classroom environment are explained, such as involving students in goalsetting and providing advance organizers. Three specific strategies for math instruction are described:…

A pilot study was conducted to contrast children's comprehension of inside view (where writers share the inner thoughts of characters with readers) and character plans in an original story and its basal reader adaptation prior to and following participation in a reading conference focused upon these aspects of character. Subjects were 12 students…

The language of a literate classroom is profoundly impacted by that which is included, excluded, ignorantly condoned, and perpetually presented with distortions. The article analyzes seven comprehensive frameworks: (1) diverse voices; (2) identities of the language users; (3) present and absent curriculum; (4) cognitive structures influencing…

Thirty-two kindergarten children, nine parents, and two teachers participated in a study of classroom learning environments. Participants included lower and middle income White and Hispanic families; the children were enrolled in three schools in the southwestern United States. Both interviews and pictures of classroom learning events were used to…

This study explored how regular teachers (N=20) and special education teachers (N=20) think and make instructional decisions about special needs students. Teachers viewed a videotape of a reading comprehension lesson for a small group of third grade students. One student was a target for observation and classified as learning disabled.…