Using positioning theory as a framework, this study examined two adult learners' participatory opportunities in small group interactions when they were learning English as a second language in an American university. The study finds that control over access to participatory opportunities mainly lies in how learners manage to position themselves…

Despite progress in recent years, Japanese classrooms continue to present challenges for educators seeking to promote language learner autonomy. Adopting an action research/case study design, the present study explored how, in a 5-week student-led project, an intact group of learners could contribute to the development of their own autonomy. Data…

What is questioned and what is taken for granted when carrying out research into the teaching of a given mathematical topic such as Group Theory? This paper presents two different questioning procedures using the methodological tools provided by the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic (ATD). The first one, leading to an undergraduate…

Many students struggle with group-based assessments. The pedagogic approach of the 'compassionate micro skills of communication' (CMSC) aims to equip students with the skills necessary to work effectively in group settings. To this end, students studying on a core psychology module involving group-work, received structured CMSC learning in…

Very often, university students deliberately form self-organized study groups, e.g. to study collaboratively for an upcoming exam. Yet, very little is known about what regulation problems such self-organized study groups encounter during their learning process and how they try to cope with these problems. Therefore, this study investigates how…

This article centers "disability justice," an ongoing and unfolding project of LGBTQA disabled BIPOC, to help understand and challenge the work of community literacy studies. By putting community literacy studies in conversation with disability justice through three themes--"Nothing About Us Without Us," "Access is…

The Zen concept of beginner's mind describes how one's level of awareness can open one's mind to growth and possibilities, an attitude that would be beneficial for many mathematics students. In this naturalistic case study, two small groups of middle years students engage in the same mathematical task, one group demonstrating the characteristics…

Learning in teams offers unique benefits to understand and address contemporary, global, and local challenges through effective and thoughtful learning journeys. However, learning in teams is not always thoroughly planned or effectively delivered. In trying to better understand what processes support or hinder effective and innovative learning in…

Research has provided evidence in support of the importance of the predictive effect of the willingness to communicate (WTC) on interactions in the classroom and shed light on the predictive sources of WTC. However, few studies have investigated learners' perceptions of classroom interaction in the target language (L2 PCI), and few have considered…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the way informal groups rise and operate in the Teacher Association in a Secondary Vocational School Unit in Greece. More specifically, the way the role of the head teacher, the school culture and teachers' emotional intelligence impacts these groups is investigated. Design/methodology/approach:…

Background: Civic participation is a fundamental element of democracy; therefore, upholding and supporting civic participation, especially among the upcoming generation, is important. Political efficacy -- an individual's understanding of their capacity to participate in civic life -- has been found to exert an important influence on the expected…

This article examines the democratic hopes for the community of philosophical inquiry (CPI), a mode of deliberative discussion, when social justice is both the topic and the goal of discussion. It shares insights from a CPI that was used as an intersubjective research method (Golding, 2015) to enable the authors to interrogate their assumptions…

Benjamin Bloom published his "Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Handbook I: Cognitive Domain" in 1956 (New York: David McKay, Co.) to help educators develop learning objectives for teaching. Several modifications have been made since then to adapt Bloom's taxonomy to various uses and disciplines (Crowe A, Dirks C, Wenderoth MP.…

Peer effects are an important contributing factor in the learning process. Most of the prior literature on peer effects focuses on the characteristics of peers rather than examining the structure of peer networks. We attempt to measure not only the impact of peers but also the structure of the peer network. In particular we are interested in the…

In this application briefing we describe an inductive learning activity designed for an executive-level leadership development session on leadership networks. We separated participants into nine teams of different sizes and varying access to collaborative networks among the teams. Each team was given the same word association challenge consisting…