Purpose: Unprecedented global challenges of the twenty-first century have highlighted the need for novel programs to train students in the skills necessary to address increasingly complex controversial science issues. Issues-360[TM] was developed as an innovative year-long co-curricular, issues engagement initiative designed to address this need.…

The first, and ultimately most important, magical concept to be demystified is the safe space. Among progressive educators, the author surmises, no goal is more holy. In each classroom, students are to feel comfortable enough with their various identities to be honest, open, and vulnerable. Conveniently alliterative, the term safe space captures…

Incorporating small-group discussions in classrooms has shown promising benefits in improving 4th grade students' thinking and social skills; however, the practice remains challenging. Although teachers are motivated to try to incorporate small-group discussions, studies examining the shift from teacher-dominated classroom practice towards a more…

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between clout and cognitive processing in massive open online course (MOOC) discussion forum posts. Cognitive processing, a category variable generated by the automated text analysis tool, Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC), is made up of six sub-scores (insight, causation, discrepancy,…

This article elaborates three important practices that a kindergarten teacher used to support students' mathematics discourse: (1) establishing expectations that support mathematical discourse; (2) eliciting student thinking; and (3) narrating student thinking. The authors use vignettes from a kindergarten classroom to elaborate the nature of…

The authors discuss the issues and benefits of collaborative writing in journalistic education, comparing the texts written by students in different conditions: in group collaboration, individually after prewriting group discussion, and individually without any collaboration. We used a survey for collecting both quantitative and qualitative data.…

Human-in-the-loop simulation is a valuable tool that can support novice teachers in learning how to lead classroom discussions. We ground our use of simulation in a theory of practice-based teacher education, examining how authenticity is theorized around approximations of practice. We then illustrate the use an approximation of practice approach,…

This case study discusses how autoethnographic approaches can be used as a qualitative research tool. Based in a U.K. university Faculty of Education, it outlines a collaborative project designed to investigate barriers to engagement with academic writing development for early career researchers. After a brief overview of the project and its…

In this systematic literature review, we synthesize 48 research studies about science talk in elementary classrooms to inform the development of supports for teachers. Our findings suggest that characteristics of high-quality elementary science talk include that it (1) supports equitable student participation and engagement, (2) supports deepening…

While noticing has received extensive attention from researchers with regards to pre-service and in-service teachers, there has been little research on how pre-service mathematics teachers respond to student thinking in the mathematical discussions. The aim of the study was to investigate pre-service mathematics teachers? (PSMTs) ways of…

Purpose: This study aims to explore the authentic questioning practices of English Language Arts teachers. Although language arts (LA) education emphasizes the value of authentic questions in discussions about literature, teachers still tend to ask known-answer questions that guide students toward one literary interpretation. However, outside…

Courses: Public Speaking, Survey of Communication Studies, Interpersonal Communication, Intercultural Communication. Objectives: This activity focuses on helping students (1) become aware of their implicit biases, (2) understand the relationship between implicit biases and the quality of arguments (i.e. unfounded ad hominem arguments), and (3)…

Discussion boards can provide a glimpse into the regular and substantive interaction required in online courses. Advances in technology and an increased interest in learning analytics now provides researchers with billions of data points about instructor and student interaction within a learning management system (LMS). This study used LMS data to…

Argumentative and proving skills are considered key competencies in mathematics. Collaborative learning activities, by fostering students' production of conjectures and arguments, could contribute strongly to the development of these skills. In this paper, we present the design of a e-learning collaborative environment, whose goal is to promote in…

Learning in the classroom is highly influenced by the experiences a teacher plans for students. Concerned that students were not achieving adequate conceptual knowledge during traditional undergraduate physics courses, the authors used the Making Sense of SCIENCE curriculum to tailor a course for 21 pre-service elementary teachers at the…