Students need more opportunities to learn how to respond to and counter forms of everyday racism. This qualitative study addresses that need by investigating how one peer-led group engaged in dialogue about issues of race in regards to an eleventh-grade Language Arts assignment. A racial literacy perspective framed our analysis of three small…

Drawing on data gathered from British Council seminars in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Dubai on "Absent Talent: Women in Research and Academic Leadership" (2012-2013), this paper discusses academic women's experiences and explanations for women's under-representation as knowledge leaders and producers in the global academy. Participants from…

This dissertation consists of two articles which discuss the establishment of collective cognitive responsibility in high school mathematics classrooms. I use collective cognitive responsibility as a framework for interpreting the extent to which students see themselves as responsible for building knowledge as a community. I adapted this framework…

The "question of the animal" represents an area of emergent interest in the environmental education field, as researchers critically consider human-animal relations and animal advocacy in their work. Following a group discussion at the 10th Seminar in Health and Environmental Education Research, the authors of this paper share experiences,…

Shanklin understands the value of civil, public discourse in a democratic society and the need to impart that to our students. She tells us that "when students enter a community where their use of growing literacy abilities is both respected and expected, they are more likely to use what they do know, and even to push themselves further, to…

In group conversations, not speaking is the state of affairs experienced by most people most of the time; I refer to this as "conversational latency." Hypothesizing that conversational latency affects one's discursive options, I analyze the association between latency (operationalized as the number of turns that elapsed since the current speaker…

Over the last two decades, art teachers and museum educators have increasingly embraced group dialogue to help students make meaning from works of art. To an outside observer, most dialogues about art could appear to be the same. Nevertheless, careful analysis reveals that the spirit and dynamics can differ greatly from one dialogue to the next.…

A learning circle is an informal, co-operative way of learning that is based on natural patterns of human interaction. Learning circles use learning materials to catalyze discussion. This book was designed under the assumption that these materials will most often be television programs with supporting print material. The first section, "What…

This paper describes the development of a teachers' book club as a form of professional development, based on the premise that teachers are leaders and can be responsible for their own professional development, if given a framework and opportunity to do so. Data sources included a survey and interviews with club members. Analysis of the success of…

Feminist Research Methodology Groups (FRMGs) have developed as a specific type of women's group in which feminist academics can find supportive audiences for their work while contributing to a feminist redefinition of research methods. An analysis of two FRMGs reveals common characteristics, dynamics, and outcomes. Both were limited to small…

The basis for group discussion in an ESL class is learning English; requisites are interesting topics and stimulating questions. The authors suggest procedures to follow with background information and questioning to direct a lively and educational discussion. (CK)

The relative effectiveness of spontaneously-formed and organized group study was compared along with the effect of studying independently. Subjects were 34 undergraduate psychology students who participated during the regular class period. Analyses were done on grade-point averages (an index of past academic performance) and grades for the course…

This proposal suggests staff programs for implementing better cultural and racial relations in an integrated school system in Burke County, North Carolina. Specifically, new instructional challenges for interracial classrooms, such as inclusion of black history and culture, are studied. Also, ways to involve staff in new understanding and skills…

Discusses key points for children's librarians to consider in selecting books, preparing questions, and facilitating communication for book discussions. Highlights include choosing discussable books; ambiguous endings; factual, interpretive, and evaluative questions; helping readers talk; and benefits. Sidebars include a book discussion sampler,…