One effective instructional technique for promoting cultural awareness and understanding among elementary school students is literature discussion. Literature discussions help children explore multicultural ideas and issues, reading works of culturally relevant literature, then coming together to discuss their personal responses. Explains how to…

Summarizes research concerning the influence of different types of discussions about moral dilemmas between adolescents and either parents or peers on the adolescents' moral development. Discusses implications for camp staff, who may lead campers in discussions based on real-life moral dilemmas in their cabins. (SV)

Describes an approach to training higher education students to work and communicate more effectively in groups developed at Manchester Metropolitan University. (EV)

Outlines an exercise the author has successfully used in literature classes to promote discussion. Describes how students engage in a pen-and-paper exchange of short, thoughtful responses to a particular topic. Notes how this exercise allows (and requires) every student to "speak" at the same time through writing, and that in ensuing class…

In adventure education, debriefing is an art and a science. The facilitator must understand what is occurring and help people feel that they are learning for themselves. Categories of questions that move the conversation forward, explore deeper levels of understanding, and capture the "teachable moment" include open-ended, follow-up,…

This paper describes a proportional reasoning problem set within a real-life context and a complete analysis of one small group discussion of this problem over the course of a 90-minute block. The seventh-grade students' discourse is described to provide insights into typical mathematical interpretations of this problem, as well as some…

When I turned to asynchronous delivery of content for a recent educational research and evaluation course, I wanted to supplement threaded discussions with social interactions to better support meaningful learning and allow students to make knowledge their own. I incorporated synchronous small group discussions among peers to replace some of what…

What if we could truly engage high schools students in learning by actively involving them in research and discussion leading to concrete actions on issues that interest them? Lent describes her experiences working with student study groups composed of high school students and teachers or adult community members. Study groups differ from…

Although it is unspectacular in appearance, dead wood is one of the most ecologically important resources in forests. Fallen logs, dead standing trees, stumps, and even cavities in live trees fulfill a wide range of roles. Prominent among these is that they provide habitat for many organisms, especially insects. Fourth-grade students at Fox…

In this article, the authors present a framework for the teaching of conflict management in college courses. The framework describes an experiential learning approach for helping individuals understand the influence of contextual factors in the selection of conflict handling strategy. It also includes a comparison of participants' choice of style,…

Concepts of voice, meaning, mutual construction of knowledge, and transfer of learning are presented in this paper as critical ingredients that support the teaching of group work from an ecological perspective. Examples of these concepts are given to illustrate their application in group work classes. (Contains 1 table.)

The potential of on-line discussions to prompt greater reflection of course material is often stymied by a tendency of students to agree with one another rather than to formulate counter-arguments. This article describes an experiment using note starters and elaborated cases to encourage counter-argumentation and examines interactions with…

This article makes a case for devoting time to independent reading and then describes the "Book Bistro," a strategy for promoting independent reading. Research concerning adolescents and reading is reviewed, followed by detailed instructions for implementing Book Bistro and advice from teachers. In Book Bistro, adolescent students are invited once…

Although students read about relational turning point analysis in some interpersonal communication textbooks, they regard it as an abstract concept until required to apply it to their own lives. Through group discussion, as other group members supply important events that an individual student might not consider, students are able to carefully…

A career dilemma is a hypothetical or real situation in which a character is confronted with several career options each of which has advantages and disadvantages. The main purpose of presenting and discussing a dilemma in career counseling groups is to confront several appraisals of the situation in order to promote more complex thinking about…