In teaching newcomer students, educators must envision how to provide opportunities for language use and development through age-appropriate content instruction. This article describes a design research study, in which we developed and piloted 5th grade science units and studied the participation of two newcomer students in sense-making…

Research has addressed what instructional conditions may inhibit or promote scientific argumentation. Little research, however, has paid attention to interpersonal factors that influence collaborative argumentation. The present study examines the ways interpersonal factors affected group dynamics, which influence the features of collaborative…

This study investigates the dynamics in the Spanish classroom between heritage language learner (HLL) dyads, second language learner (L2L) dyads, and mixed HLL-L2L dyads. Specifically, it examines oral, written and embodied discourse that informs our understanding of how learners attend to language. Analysis for this dissertation examined…

Consistent with research conducted by George Spindler 60 years ago, teachers continue to perceive groups of students, typically students that differ from the teacher, as less capable of accomplishing meaningful tasks, belonging and contributing to social groups, and engaging actively in challenging work. The bias is especially great for students…

Research Findings: The purpose of this article is to examine how dimensions of the preschool instructional context predict child-teacher relationship quality. A total of 118 low-income, predominantly Latino/a children and their teachers participated in this study. Children were observed in their 1st preschool classroom. Measures of instructional…

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'…

THIS STUDY INVESTIGATED THE SUBJECTIVE PERCEPTIONS OF BOTH COUNSELORS AND COUNSELEES TO A GROUP COUNSELING EXPERIENCE PROVIDED BY THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOR PARENTS OF CHILDREN IN THE FIRST, SEVENTH, AND NINTH GRADES. THESE DATA WERE COLLECTED IN FIVE SCHOOL DISTRICTS FROM 41 COUNSELORS WHO HAD CONDUCTED A TOTAL OF 120 PARENT COUNSELING GROUPS. AN…

While playing a game of strategy, nineteen groups of two black and two white seventh and eighth grade boys, otherwise similar, were systematically observed by black and white observers both, using a schedule derived from status characteristic theory. (JM)

This article concerns some undergraduate students and their academic counselors in a university in California, where a student usually takes the initiative in contacting a counselor. The author sketches his approach to the problem of identity in institutional settings and then addresses several aspects of the problem. (43 references) (Author/CK)

Reports the results of a study on the most assertive member in integrated small groups composed of two black and two white junior high school boys, a study which attempted to determine if black assertives were treated differently and behaved differently than white assertives. (JM)

The four studies presented show how expertise, from the cultural-historical theory of activity, is constructed interactively in everyday problem situations. They also demonstrate that purely situational analyses of discourse are insufficient as attempts to explain expertise. The four studies are presented as individual chapters: (1) Expertise as…

The study takes place in a field setting at three different schools. Each group is composed of two black and two white students assigned randomly to either an experimental or control condition. Fourteen groups were run for each condition or a total of 28 groups. In the control condition both blacks and whites receive the same neutral training…

This experiment attempted to alter the effects of race as a diffuse status characteristic. Black subjects were given instructions meant to induce "high competence" on a task performed with white subjects. All subjects were seventh and eighth graders who did not know each other prior to the experiment. Each group comprised two white and…

For the thirtieth year, the Research and Theory Division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the National AECT Convention in Anaheim, California. The Proceedings of AECT's Convention are published in two…

The experiments here reported represent attempts to produce "equal status interaction" in four-man groups of junior high school boys, two of whom are white and two black. The theory is that equality is not a consequence of interracial task performance. Rather, it is likely that generally held beliefs about the differential competence of…