The purposes of the research were to (1) examine the relationships between faculty behaviors that promote critical thinking and the resulting critical thinking within peer interaction and (2) identify specific faculty behaviors that result in the highest levels of critical thinking within peer interactions. Using a concurrent embedded mixed…

Changing practices in schools is a very complex endeavor. This paper is about new practices we prompted to foster collaboration and critical reasoning in science classrooms: the presentation of pictures representing different perspectives, small group synchronous argumentation, and moderation of synchronous argumentation. A CSCL tool helped in…

Questions teachers use to elicit responses from students affect the kind of thought process the student will use and subsequently the type of answer he will suggest ways in which behavioral and educational objectives are reflected in teacher questions. Simplified interaction analysis techniques can be useful in diagnosing and assessing the…

The central concern of this study, which was briefly reviewed in ED 049 143, was to determine effective teaching strategies and practices in secondary social studies classroom discussions of social issues. Teaching effectiveness was evaluated in terms of the cognitive or critical thinking skills of participating students, and their attitudes…

Limitations of past research on college teaching and a recent exploratory study are considered. The study focused on the degree to which teachers encourage, praise, or use student ideas; the degree to which teachers ask questions that encourage evaluative and divergent thinking; the degree to which students make higher levels of cognitive…