This paper describes the effects of a pairing method based on digital textbook logs and learners' artifacts in conceptual modeling exercises. The authors developed a digital textbook system called Smart E-Textbook Application (SEA) and a conceptual modeling tool called KIfU 3.0 to collect conceptual modeling activity logs in exercises. This study…

Data-driven platforms with rich data and learning analytics applications provide immense opportunities to support collaborative learning such as algorithmic group formation systems based on learning logs. However, teachers can still get overwhelmed since they have to manually set the parameters to create groups and it takes time to understand the…

Individual teachers, administrators, and parents made tremendous efforts to continue educating the Commonwealth's children between March and June of this year. But no amount of dedicated individual effort could have overcome fundamental challenges: weak guidance to districts from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) against…

Teaching a class of mixed EFL/ESL levels can be problematic for both instructors and students. The disparate levels of ability often mean that some students are not challenged enough while others struggle to keep pace. Drawing on experience in the university classroom in Japan, this practice promotes good preparation, self-reliance, inclusiveness,…

Successful education systems are those that promote leadership at all levels, thereby encouraging teachers and principals, regardless of the formal positions they occupy, to lead innovation in the classroom, the school and the system as a whole. This report summarises evidence from the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey and the OECD…

This article reports on the causal relationships between three factors in second language (L2) group work settings: communication confidence (i.e., confidence in one's ability to communicate), beliefs about group work, and willingness to communicate (WTC). A questionnaire was administered to 729 first-year university students in Japan. A model…

The current study examined 24 Japanese university students' processes of negotiation in conditions of self revision and of peer revision about their English as a foreign language (EFL) writing. Analyzing their negotiation episodes and text changes, I categorized within a common coding scheme the types of negotiation from (a) think-aloud protocols…

Used data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) to study tracking as curricular differentiation and student placement in elementary and secondary school in the United States, Germany, and Japan. Findings show clear national differences and conflicts based on dominant cultural beliefs. (SLD)

This chapter is divided into four sections: What cooperative learning is; research; models of cooperative learning; and conclusion. Cooperative learning is defined as a group learning activity organized so that learning is dependent on the socially structured exchange of information between learners in groups, in which each learner is held…

The tracking system is a core aspect of the educational stratification in schooling. This document examined the applicability of the tracking system concept by utilizing an indepth case study of an informal educational institution, the yobiko, in Japan where high schools employ an institutionalized tracking system. Data collection methods included…

Background: A causal relationship between the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and occurrence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) has been claimed, based on an increase in ASD in the USA and the UK after introduction of the MMR vaccine. However, the possibility that this increase is coincidental has not been eliminated. The unique…

The nine chapters of this theme issue show how, in diverse cultural settings, cooperative learning methods enhance learning and reduce frictions among learners. A second goal of these papers is to indicate how cooperative learning fits or doesn't fit in several societies. (SLD)

Teacher-centered presentation is generally considered the only way of teaching in large classes, whereas a learner-centered communicative approach is not considered feasible. This applies even more to language teaching, where the difference between the native speaker's knowledge and the students' command of the language hinder communication. In…

This paper describes a first-year English-as-foreign-language junior college reading course in Japan that utilized a combination of whole class instruction and cooperative learning techniques to encourage group discussion and language skill development. Students were randomly divided into groups of eight--a group which became the students' home…

In this paper, the history and current state of Japanese cooperative learning techniques in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) education for Japanese junior high school students is surveyed, and an empirically-based argument is made in favor of using BAZU (BUZZ) techniques. The past and current methods of teaching English in Japan have left…