This activity allows students to explore the gray areas that lie between polar opposites on an issue. Recognizes the knowledge, opinions, and values supporting various positions that emerge as current positions and discusses the reasons for choosing them. Learning to be flexible and open is the goal of this activity. (PVD)

Excerpts a student-teacher discourse from a 4th-grade mathematics classroom to illustrate how discourse helps students construct algebraic thinking. Discusses the implications of the discourse method of collaborative inquiry for teaching. (JPB)

While the use of the lecture method of instructional delivery is recognized as important and valuable, teaching must be directed beyond mere content in order that students can develop other skills that transcend the boundaries of a given course. Small discussion groups in an American Government course, used as a supplement to lecture-based…

THIS GUIDE TO CONFERENCE LEADERSHIP BEGINS WITH A CHAPTER ON LEADERSHIP PSYCHOLOGY AND GOES ON TO PRESENT OUTLINES FOR RUNNING CONFERENCES. THE LEADER PREPARES FOR THE MEETING BY COLLECTING FACTS ON THE SUBJECT, PREPARING AN OUTLINE, KNOWING THE PARTICIPANTS, MAKING PHYSICAL ARRANGEMENTS, AND WRITING THE TENTATIVE SUMMARY. IN THE CONFERENCE HE…

Architectural design is a knowledge-intensive activity; however, students frequently lack sufficient knowledge when they practice design. Collaborative learning can supplement the students' insufficient expertise. Successful collaborative learning relies on knowledge sharing between students. This implies that the peers are a considerable design…

An experiment was designed and conducted for the Community College Department of Sociology. The objective was to determine the significant difference between the objective knowledge of sociology learned, and retained by groups taught by the systems approach method as compared to the lecture-discussion method. The systems analysis method is based…

This book offers philosophical and pedagogical background to help faculty and academic administrators integrate ethics into curricula. The volume suggests the most appropriate way is through instructor-guided discussion of ethical issues relevant to course objectives. The book demonstrates how providing ethical discussions of relevant ethical…

In order to provide students training to teach handicapped learners with practice in acquiring and utilizing information about individual pupils in classroom situations, a guided design approach was implemented in a course on decision making that covered the major assessment techniques. A modified guided design book was written for the course…

Addressed to managers, students of management, and organizational development (OD) practitioners, this handbook concentrates on the joint management of change, and presents particular methods that have proved useful in realizing change within business, government, universities, and many other institutional settings. Beginning with factors that…

One of five articles in the second section "Deepening Relationships through PDS Brings Change in Practice," this article details some of the hard-to-discuss problems that occur in professional development school partnerships, suggesting that discussion cases can help facilitate communication. A sample discussion case is presented, with suggestions…

The purpose of this study was to describe how one primary teacher of poor and working class rural students promoted small-group dialogue about books and literary concepts. Specifically, we focused on how she guided the students from the beginning of a lesson in ways that later led to dialogue during a videotaped four-day lesson sequence. We…

This paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of an online student-facilitated health care communication electronic conference as part of a requirement of a health care communication course taught at Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis in Spring 1995. Discussion focuses on the use of Internet components in…

Learning in small groups is a practical way to bring about behavior change. The inquiry learning process is perceived to be the most natural and scientific way of learning. Skills developed include those of problem-solving task analysis, decision-making, value formation and adaptability. The art of small group interaction is developed. Factual…

Gives the background history and chemistry of modern day chemical warfare from World War I to the present. Provides discussion questions to stimulate deeper thinking on the issue. Contains a discussion activity called "Can New Chemical Weapons Lead to Humane Warfare?" (CW)

Facing significant budget deficits and stagnant enrollments, a local school district realized that they would likely need to close some schools, which is always a difficult issue for communities to consider. The school district, hoping to find a way to have a productive community conversation about this difficult issue, turned to a local,…