This study compares the traditional use of case studies against the novel use of discussion boards to teach naive students in the United Arab Emirates about anxiety disorders. Sixty-six female students from an abnormal psychology class were randomly assigned to either the case study condition (CSC) or the discussion board condition (DBC). Students…

In preschool settings, children challenge the adult-initiated rules in many ways during their play activities with peers. This ethnographic study with children aged 3-5 years was built on Corsaro's sociology of childhood construct that views children as agents and active participants in preschool society. The study is conducted in two preschools…

Although the "Next Generation Science Standards" and "Common Core State Standards" do not extend to prekindergarten, early learning experiences are vital to preparing young children entering kindergarten with the background knowledge, technical vocabulary, resourcefulness, and dispositions for inquiry that are the foundations…

The purposes of this study are to investigate whether pre-service middle school mathematics teachers evaluate discussions in the cases regarding proof by contradiction correctly, to what extent they explain their correct evaluations by referring to proof by contradiction, and the reasons of their misinterpretations of discussions in the cases…

The depth of learning resides in collaborative work with more engagement and fun. Technology can enhance collaboration with a higher level of convenience and cloud computing can facilitate this in a cost effective and scalable manner. However, to deploy a successful online learning environment, elementary components of learning pedagogy must be…

Decision-problem structuring is conceptualized to be a process comprising activities characterized by the students. The activities are cognitive efforts of a group coming to an understanding and determining the representation of the decision-problem and of what knowledge is relevant to the decision-problem. Cognitive effort refers to the fraction…

Classroom learning is a shared experience where ideas and concepts are shaped by the interactions between students and teachers. Different cultural backgrounds of the students compared to the teacher can increase misconceptions or confusion. Although the effective teacher may plan for a range of questions to promote classroom discussion, the more…

Over the past few decades, organizations, researchers, and professional developers have noted the potential for using classroom discussions to improve student learning in mathematics classrooms. Yet, for teachers, managing the often-competing demands that arise while attempting to plan for and enact these discussions can be challenging. To better…

The goal of this study is to examine the influence of a collaborative small-group discussion approach on students' social self-efficacy and class relationships. This approach, called Collaborative Social Reasoning (CSR), was informed by the substantial literature on Collaborative Reasoning (Chinn, Anderson, & Waggoner, 2001) and…

This project explores the dynamic impact of student employment on classroom discourse and on students "long-term academic and professional success. Using student surveys, institutional data, and scholarly research, I demonstrate that students" everyday workplace experiences play an integral (and potentially integrated) role in their…

Project-based learning (PBL) instructional methods attempt to make connections between students and their ability to solve real problems. We framed our qualitative study within sociocultural theory and used the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) model to define the positive and negative factors occurring during a PBL…

Studies show that a significant fraction of students graduating from high schools in the U.S. is ill prepared for college and careers. Some problems include weak grounding in math and writing, lack of motivation, and insufficient conscientiousness. Academic institutions are under pressure to improve student retention and graduate rates, whereas…

This classroom action research aims to investigate the development of collaborative problem-solving competencies using STEM-based learning through dietary plan lessons. The participants included 77 twelfth-grade students in the 2018 academic year in the science-technology program in a public school under the supervision of the Ministry of…

This paper explores barriers to realising the social purposes of higher education within a context of dominant hierarchical socio-cultural norms. Those norms are examined to reveal how they hinder students and teachers from engaging with critical thought and social justice issues in Malaysian higher education. The impact of these norms is examined…

The paper explores how postgraduate students make course selection decisions in the digital era. An exploratory study with seven postgraduate student focus groups (UK, EU and International) gained a detailed insight into this important change. The availability of information, from an increased use of digital media had a significant impact on…