Discussions are commonly used in online teaching and have been shown to foster student learning and collaboration. This case study uses content analysis to explore the interaction patterns of student online discussions during a semester-long teacher preparation course using concepts from sociometry. Findings suggest that interaction patterns were…

Background: It is widely agreed that more needs to be done to improve participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Despite considerable investment in interventions, it has been difficult to discern their effectiveness and/or impact on participation. Purpose: This paper discusses findings from a six-week pilot STEM…

Many studies have identified web-based cooperative learning as an increasingly popular educational paradigm with potential to increase learner satisfaction and interactions. However, peer-to-peer interaction often suffers barriers owing to a failure to explore useful social interaction information in web-based cooperative learning environments.…

The increasing number of external students enrolling at Charles Darwin University has led to the university investing in new technologies to provide better support for students studying online. Many students, however, come from non-traditional backgrounds and lack some of the skills and confidence to participate successfully in an e-learning…

Middle school librarian Susan Grigsby believes strongly in teaching independence in book selection, and has been able to back up her belief by putting programs in place that provide evidence to show her administrators how fostering independence works. She spends time creating personal bibliographies for her students based on an interest survey.…

The American Association of School Administrators (AASA) invited the 2007 state winners to gather in Denver, Colorado, for three days of intensive dialogue about the challenges facing today's superintendents. As a result of the panels and small group discussions that followed, superintendents identified and detailed in this paper five avenues for…

Students' questions play an important role in meaningful learning and scientific inquiry. They are a potential resource for both teaching and learning science. Despite the capacity of students' questions for enhancing learning, much of this potential still remains untapped. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to examine and review the…

Critical friendship is a flexible form of assistance for development and research, and one that had a key role in the international Carpe Vitam Leadership for Learning project. Whilst conforming to common features and engaging in similar activities there were some differences in the way critical friendship was enacted across the eight sites. The…

The goal of this study is to understand ten Taiwanese graduate students' personal experiences with language anxiety and cultural adjustment while studying in an American university. This study focuses not only on language anxiety but also on cultural factors in participants' daily lives inside and outside of the classroom. The study utilized an…

This article describes a group counseling intervention promoting academic achievement and ethnic identity development for twenty fifth grade African American elementary students. The Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) scores of students participating in the treatment group improved significantly over those in the control group. Implications…

This publication presents reports from National Forums '89, the culminating event of the National Issues Forums (NIF) 1988-89 cycle. A brief overview of this event is followed by a summary of the session entitled Executive Branch Conference: Reports from the Forums, in which policymakers were briefed on the outcomes of each of the 1988-89 issues.…

This pamphlet on leading discussions is the first of 16 in a series to provide leaders in adult activities with sound introductory material to give practical help in using a method of adult education or working in a particular area. Its objective is to help leaders lead a discussion group or lead one better. Ten articles and how- tos are included.…

A procedure is outlined by which all students, not just one spokesman, report back to the class on small group projects, thus increasing participation in class discussions. (SJL)

A special discussion class provides students with an organized outlet for expressing their dissatisfactions. (MF)

Examined how video clubs (ongoing discussions of videotaped classroom instruction) supported the development of productive conversations among teachers and educational researchers. Analysis of six video clubs involving high school mathematics teachers and a university researcher illustrated the complementary character of expertise the participants…