The dynamics of the student-student relationship within the asynchronous online classroom, as evidenced by conversations in an online discussion board, is a balancing act potentially more complex than those occurring in real-time. In order for learning to truly be considered effective, a collaborative, safe environment needs to exist among…

The use of critical literacy with children's books that focus on social issues and disrupt the status quo can be a powerful way to create spaces for conversations with students about social justice and empowerment. Teacher candidates in a semester long children's literature course were asked to respond to a range of children's texts that dealt…

This study revisits the long-standing teacher communication concerns framework originating over three decades ago. Analysis of 10 years of contemporary GTA teacher communication concerns reveals a typology of 10 concerns, which taken together construct teaching as a process of negotiating relationships, managing identities, and focusing attention.…

The school systems of many countries have been pervaded by student-centred pedagogy making students' small group discussion a common feature of the classroom practice.However, there is a lack of studies focussing different modes of discussion for the purpose of finding out whether some modes are more beneficial than others. Hence, the aim of this…

The purpose of this study was to investigate how high-ability students experienced their participation in an affective curriculum through small-group discussions in a diverse, university-based, summer enrichment program for talented youth. The investigation included two closely related studies. The first study included 77 high-ability students…

This paper reports on a longitudinal study of nine teachers and their principal in a new secondary school that met to select, read, discuss and determine the viability of the text for their growing English classes and the library. This research offered a unique opportunity to examine how practitioners create and develop a social context for…

Many consider rich argumentation to be the core of quality discussions and view it as a vehicle to solving problems and clarifying content. This study examined the influence of a discussion leader intervention on the quality of online argumentation and interactivity. Subjects were 44 undergraduate students who participated in online discussions on…

The five stage cycle model is an interactive flash platform that proposes a challenging scenario with associated questions about light wave features and correlations. As the students navigate from stage to stage, they are able to access some related resources and engage in small group discussions. The students are able to revisit their responses…

This study examines the cultivation of intentionality and integration in a foundation level General Education class: Communities and Societies. Three research tasks were set within the context of a grounded theoretical approach: codification of indicators for both intentionality and integration, and an examination of student learning logs.…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of teaching action research through modeling. Participants were 11 doctoral students enrolled in a two-semester practitioner-based research course. In this study, I was both instructor and member of the research community. I modeled the steps of action research as I conducted a study…

This study implements a teacher professional development program with an aim toward developing mathematics teachers' discourse-based assessment practice (DAP) and exploring its possible impact on teacher discourse in sessions and in DAP in the classroom. DAP is a type of formative assessment practice which consists of questioning and feedback.…

These proceedings contain the papers of the International Conference e-Learning 2015, which was organised by the International Association for Development of the Information and Society and is part of the Multi Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, July 21-24, 2015). The e-Learning 2015…

Online collaborative learning has typically been studied within the context of learning communities. Little is known about the potential influence of students' personalities on online communication, group interaction, and task engagement among members of a learning community. This study used a mixed-method, triangulation design, involving the…

Implementation of cutting-edge technology has enabled higher and postsecondary education to create new learning environments by affording greater access to education for more students via virtual classrooms. Although virtual instruction in its asynchronous mode has been reported as to be at least comparable, and sometimes better than conventional…