A tuition-free, vocational, English as a second language (ESL) program offered at a large community college suffers from high attrition as well as student dissatisfaction with curriculum. The purpose of this quasi-experimental, longitudinal study was to assess the effectiveness of a specific ESL curriculum supplement as an intervention to…

Active learning, which entails any class activity that "involves students doing things and thinking about the things that they are doing," stands as an important pedagogical practice. Discussion, the types of questions faculty ask students in class, role playing, cooperative learning, debates, and the types of questions faculty ask on examinations…

Lifelike, interactive digital characters, serving as mentors and role-playing actors, have been shown to significantly improve learner motivation and retention. However, the cost of modeling such characters, authoring and editing their interactions, and delivering them over limited-bandwidth connections can be prohibitive. This paper describes a…

This article describes one teacher's methods of role-playing for helping students in the foreign language classroom advance to higher level skills. Role-playing is a closed book, cooperative learning technique in which the student has an opportunity to use the language in a non-threatening, spontaneous response environment. Role-playing is an…

Intended for a broad spectrum of teachers using or considering using computers networks for written interaction, this teacher's guide presents techniques and behaviors that encourage and support learning on a computer classroom environment. The 21 essays that make up the book are written by people involved in the ENFI (Electronic Networks For…

The purpose of this study was to identify which instructional models based on the framework of Joyce, Weil, and Showers, could be used effectively in distance education over the Interactive Video Network (IVN) system in North Dakota. Instructional models have been organized into families such as Information Processing, Social, Personal, and…

This study compared the quality of preschool children's sociodramatic play in classrooms that used centers for housekeeping role play with those that used centers for various other types of role play. Classroom play sessions in the preschool were videotaped biweekly over the course of the 1992-1993 academic year. These videotapes were then…

Conflict is an everyday occurrence in young people's lives. To help them address conflict, ways to help young people learn and use alternative dispute resolution skills are presented in this manual. The program is organized around the following major themes: The Mediation Process, Cultural Diversity, Communication Skills, Feelings, Mediation…

A study investigated how people make indirect refusals ("You don't need to move the bookcase" meaning "No, I won't help you move it"), and the types of information used to do so. Two experiments were conducted. The first asked 130 students (third, fifth, and eighth graders as well as college undergraduates) to write refusals to…

A study examined the impact of high school sophomore students' mastery of public speaking skills through sociodrama. Student attitudes toward role-play was also surveyed to provide more background information on sociodrama's impact upon student learning. A class of 26 students in southern Cook County, Illinois, prepared role-play characterizations…

Lectures have a place in educational history and even a place in today's classroom, but students must be exposed to more than one style of teaching. After 20 minutes of listening to a lecture, most students reach a saturation point. To realize their maximum potential, students must do more than just listen in the classroom. They must engage in…

A study examined variation in code choice in the same speakers in two contrasting situations--interorganizational and intraorganizational bargaining. Naturalistic interactions between teams of teacher's union bargaining agents, role-playing teachers, and school board members in the two settings were coded, using measures of structural and lexical…

A basic problem in preparing group counseling leaders is providing an instructional program which gives both information about group work and experience in leading groups. The Structured Counseling Role Interpersonal Phased Transactions (SCRIPT) format attempts to reduce this problem. Frequently, students are required or expected to participate in…

A continuation of "A Guide for Establishing a Parent Support Program in Your Community," this book exemplifies the methods that the Postpartum Education for Parents (PEP) program has utilized in training volunteers. PEP's training programs are designed to enhance the natural communication abilities that parent volunteers possess. The…