This article presents an exploratory research study about the influence of word clouds on critical thinking when they are incorporated into online discussions. In an online discussion, students were asked to critically analyze two speeches, being assigned to one of two conditions: one in which the text was linear, and one in which the text was…

The authors describe a promising approach to engaging high school students in intergroup dialogues, relying on "near peers"--in this case, local college students--to facilitate a series of classroom discussions about racial identity, differences, and opportunities to connect. Early results suggest that the approach had significant…

Our interpretative study that was carried out in a science and engineering oriented university examined the ways students in an introductory biology course perceived their learning in the course that was substantially changed to allow student-centered learning. The instructional change was framed by the view of learning as a sociocultural activity…

This thematic report identifies factors and conditions that can help schools and education systems promote tolerance in a globalized world. The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement's (IEA's) International Civic and Citizenship Study (ICCS) is a comparative research program designed to investigate the ways in…

This classroom-based case study examines how Spanish-English emergent bilingual children in a second grade one-way immersion classroom draw on prior knowledge and experiences and use comprehension strategies to discuss and comprehend three texts with different levels of cultural relevance. Through an examination of the rich range of cognitive,…

In this dissertation, I analyze the impact of three environmental education strategies implemented in rural northern Tanzania focused on forest-related knowledge. In Chapter Five, I assess the impact of two strategies--face-to-face group discussion and mobile phone texting--on knowledge. I also compare the effectiveness of the two strategies in…

The current paper reports an empirical study of asynchronous online group review of argumentative essays among nine English as foreign language (EFL) Arab university learners joining English in their first, second, and third years at the institution. In investigating online interactions, commenting patterns, and how the students facilitate text…

To further develop rich and expressive ways of modelling roles of contributors in discussion forums of online courses, particularly in MOOCs, networks of forum users are analyzed based on the relations of information-giving and information-seeking. Specific connection patterns that appear in the information exchange networks of forum users are…

Approximately one million international students were enrolled at U.S. universities in the academic year 2015-2016, and the number has been steadily rising since. Although these students aim to increase intercultural communication skills, international knowledge, and critical thinking skills, some international students experience difficulty…

The online discussion forum (ODF) is one of the many online interactive tools used for educational purposes. This paper discusses a study in a Malaysian university that examined the ODF interactions of students completing an assignment on paraphrasing. A class of 43 English as a Second Language (ESL) students enrolled in a writing course were…

The value of students publicly sharing and discussing their solutions to unstructured problems is widely recognized. This can, however, be pedagogically challenging. The solutions may be partial, unclear and unpredictable. For many teachers, particularly those new to working with such problems with their students, the improvisation needed to…

Many teaching strategies have been used to promote the development of critical thinking skills, among which the most frequently used are group discussion, concept mapping, and analytical questioning. The study aims to explore learners' voice and learning experience in the pedagogical contributions of these strategies to the development of critical…

This paper examines the role of critical mini-ethnographies as pedagogical tool in teacher education classrooms for transforming educators' narratives about immigrant and refugee communities. The process and the product of assigning critical mini-ethnographies in a graduate, teacher education course designed to help mainstream educators address…

Students from six countries collaborated on projects promoting social justice and aimed at international diplomacy. The collaboration included social work students in policy courses and international students in English courses. Students explored topics such as human trafficking and poverty. Students identified global strategies for addressing…

This qualitative research study examined the connections made by refugee and immigrant youth to a teacher proposed mirror text at an elementary ESL book group. Mirror texts, or books in which youth with marginalized identities can see themselves reflected, have been argued to promote text connections and reading comprehension for minoritized…