Investigates the nature of small-group social interactions in the mediation of children's science learning. Reports that the teacher mediated the children's small-group science learning through discourse that negotiated children's status, actions, and meaning, as well as through discourse that established the normative structure of the small…

This study evaluated the Philadelphia Affective Education Development Program (AEDP) as it affected student relationships within the classroom and student perceptions of the classroom climate. The differences between four AEDP and four regular English classes from one high school were determined in regard to (1) sociometric structure as analyzed…

An ethnographic study explored how small groups of student readers interacted in a classroom over time to interpret short stories assigned by a teacher. For five weeks, eight sixth-grade volunteers met on consecutive Fridays in two separate face-to-face discussion groups to read, discuss, rewrite, and perform a short story as a play. Primary data…

It can be very difficult for writers to invent classroom communities, to share their writing; it can be especially difficult for anxious young writers who have never before worked in peer groups. Student participation is largely influenced by gender roles shaped by years of socialization. Teachers should not be startled by less female…

Classroom discourse is evaluated for the contribution it can make to students' learning in groups. Data recorded from primary age children working at computers are categorized as exploratory, cumulative, and disputational talk. The teacher's role in making explicit strategies that optimize exploratory talk is discussed. (Contains 31 references.)…

How the processes of group interaction combine to help or hinder cognitive and affective learning in the classroom is discussed. Numerous concepts about interaction in the classroom along with the available research on those concepts expressed in practical terms are presented. Implications for teachers are emphasized. The book is designed to be…

The evaluation of the effectiveness of the classes for persons convicted of driving while intoxicated was based largely on analyses of verbal behaviors of participants and instructors, using the psychosocial theories of Erik Erikson. The established goals of the course emphasize that the information must be dealt with in a group situation where…

This guide, one of a series designed to aid the social studies teacher, discusses the importance of a class study, offers suggestions for collecting information, a convenient form for recording the data, and suggestions for its analysis and use. The class study plan is presented in two parts: a study and composite picture of individuals of the…