Over the last decade, psychological interventions, such as the values affirmation intervention, have been shown to alleviate the male-female performance difference when delivered in the classroom, however, attempts to scale the intervention are less successful. This study provides unique evidence on this issue by reporting the observed differences…

Recent years have shown the growth of federal legislation and programs having a profound impact on educational policy and practice, and a decline in reliance on broadly based educational justifications. Paralleling this development has been the emergence of well-endowed and influential private foundations, and an increase in corporate influence in…

Many university academics disagree with the rationale that we should pursue mobile learning because 21st century students are apparently demanding it. We argue that the only defensible rationale for making mobile learning part of pedagogy is because it enhances student learning. This presentation shares results from research with 135 students…

Using sophistic theory and focusing on intersections in the practice and reception of sophistry and advertising, a study analyzed a contemporary advertising campaign. A number of extrinsic similarities between sophistic and advertising rhetoric exist: their commercial basis, their popular reception as dishonest speech, and the reception of both as…

By comparing Alfred Korzybski's and Richard Paul's approach to critical thinking, this paper presents a procedural example of how an individual can learn and develop expertise in human communicating. The paper offers various exercises beginning with select Korzybski general semantics communication theories and moving into critical thinking…

A discussion of the translation of fiction focuses on metaphors in the speech of characters. Illustrations are drawn from an Afrikaans novel, "Fiela se kind" ("Fiela's Child"), translated into English by its author, Dalene Matthee. It is argued that if the interdependence of the intratextual components of narrative texts is not…

Uses text processing (computer) and pen and paper protocols to compare the revising process of professional writers and experienced writers (PhD students). Concludes tentatively that (1) professional and experienced writers do not differ in their approach; (2) the interaction between human and machine influences the writing process; and (3) that…

Teacher knowledge is examined as a joint construction of teachers and researchers by analyzing contrasting narrative practices in the research interview in terms of how two teachers formulate versions of self. Seeing the narratives as representational technologies locates these teachers differently in the knowledge-constitutive networks of…

Proposes a variety of conversational training that maximizes learner autonomy and focuses on sociocultural competence in speaking. Students recorded role-plays that required good sociolinguistic knowledge and then compared the discourse generated with native speaker equivalents. The future of conversational training at third level is discussed in…

The relationship between life history, gender, and the discourse of modernization was examined from the perspective of a researcher with extensive experience performing evaluations about modernization within human services in Denmark. Three stories about site-based management in two human service institutionsa youth center and a boarding school…