Background: Feedback is central to formative assessments but aligns with a one-way information transmission perspective obstructing students' effective engagement with feedback. Previous research has shown that a responsive, dialogic feedback process that requires educators and students to engage in ongoing conversations can encourage student…

Discusses how students learn to model in scientific contexts. Highlights include current research in science education; a computer-based simulation of a student learning to model; an example of a physics task; collaboration with another student; a dialog mechanism; and external representations. (LRW)

Describes the Vicarious Learner Project, a project which investigates the fundamental role of dialog for learning, specifically the benefits to learners of being able to observe others participating in discussion. Theoretical aspects of the work, a high-level process model of learning, and a more detailed logic model of what happens in educational…