We use the theory of communities of practice and the concept of accountable disciplinary knowledge to describe how a learning community develops in the context of an upper-division physics laboratory course. The change in accountable disciplinary knowledge motivates students' enculturation into a community of practice. The enculturation process is…

A case study examines a 5th-grade teacher's orchestration of discourse and interaction to create opportunities for English language learners to participate in the repair of mathematical errors during a unit on finding the area of geometric shapes. The findings detail how the teacher used gestures in grounding her questioning, revoicing students'…

A category system was developed to describe content development in chemistry classes. The instrument had three broad dimensions: the Semantic dimension for coding the intent of the teacher in developing content; the Syntactic dimension for coding the actual meaning of the communication; and the Initiate-Supply dimension for coding the participants…

Developmental research and educational practice involve conversations between children and adults. The conversational aspects of these situations have rarely been occasions for reflection. Discrepancies between the child's expectations and the adult's intentions can lead to misunderstanding, for example, at school or during a research interview.…

Observation of mixed-age undergraduate classes and analysis of students' interactions showed that older students tended to dominate the discourse; the cognitive level of discourse was not altered by the presence of older students; and andragogical practices may not be the most effective strategies for mixed-age classes. (SK)

Describes the interactions of high school girls and boys during coeducational science lessons. Analyses of the audiovideo recordings of 144 lessons taught by 12 male teachers indicate that girls were more likely to initiate classroom discourse. Findings did not support the hypothesis that gender disparity in science achievement in favor of boys…

As a botanist uses specific, non-judgmental descriptions that are part of a conceptual framework to help see different varieties and characteristics of plants, so teachers can see more clearly what they do if they describe rather than judge what is done. If the purpose of using a framework or model to discuss lesson presentations and classroom…

The question of whether the English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) classroom is an environment that promotes input, feedback, and the production of output that is necessary for successful second language learning is addressed. Such questions have arisen within the context of a growing emphasis on communicative activities and student-to-student…

The patterns of moves in one type of teaching setting is very fixed: the teacher sets the stage for the learning, then sets tasks or asks questions for others to respond to and then comments on the performances. The problem with this pattern in language classrooms is that language is used differently in non-teaching settings. If students are…