Includes an interview with Cathy Fowler, a Year 7 teacher at Kawungan State School in Queensland, Australia. Explains that Cathy is a participant and coordinator of the extremely popular Harry Potter Book Rap, a guided Internet book discussion among students all over the world. Discusses how this activity fueled her students' love for reading. (PM)

Identifies and evaluates principle psychology resources available on the Internet and Bitnet networks. Sources include discussions of cutting-edge research and notices of seminars, conferences, employment, reviews, abstracts, and bibliographies; categories include electronic journals, electronic newsgroups, and electronic conferences. (Author/AEF)

Discusses a system of training inservice mathematics teachers based on the psychoanalytic theories of the Balint group. Illustrates this approach through the analysis of material taken from a recorded session concerning one particular teacher. (MDH)

Although traditional surveys are a valuable tool for college institutional researchers and others gathering data to support quality improvement programs, focus groups offer another technique for understanding university community members' needs and opinions by probing areas of special interest. University of Miami (Florida) experience illustrates…

Describes a college-level, mixed-gender date rape workshop provided to over 1,400 students. The workshop included student discussion. Evaluations indicated students were positive about the experience. Very few felt uncomfortable discussing date rape in mixed groups, and nearly all agreed that date rape was a topic worthy of discussion. (SM)

Researchers surveyed and interviewed teacher education students to understand their motivation to participate in class discussion. Students' estimation of the worth of their ideas was an important factor. Men and older students most often believed their ideas made important contributions. Topic, classroom climate, and advance preparation strongly…

Examines 31 book club discussion guides prepared by major book publishers for book club readers to explore which particular ways of reading and discussing books they might sanction. Finds that they steer readers toward a rather narrow collection of academic reading practices (analytic and text-based) and away from other types of responses. (SR)

Evaluated the use of an online discussion group to strengthen preservice teachers' communication, inquiry, and reflection. Analysis of participants' dialogue indicated that the most important benefit was that practicum students placed at different grade levels communicated their observations and concerns in a non-evaluative setting. The paper…

Schools which enforce a no-smoking policy may experience lower rates of pupil smoking. Little is known, however, about how young people view such restrictions and it has been argued that smoking bans might actually encourage adolescent smoking. This paper presents pupils' views on the extent to which staff could, and should, enforce smoking…

A future-search conference is a participatory planning and decision-making process in which a group of individuals with diverse perspectives come together; engage in a process of data collection, discussion, and learning; and decide on an appropriate course of action. The competencies, skills, and intellectual capital developed as part of this…

This paper describes a final year biosciences module consisting of workshops to which web-based tools were introduced. The ability of the online tools to facilitate group work and assess the students was investigated. The online module was delivered via WebCT as the VLE (Virtual Learning Environment). The initial concept was to enhance rather than…

As universities and history departments argue over how best to make history "relevant" to students of the twenty-first century, and as professors are increasingly under pressure to integrate technology into their courses, many questions remain unanswered as to the usefulness, reliability, and pedagogical soundness of the new and ever-changing…

Questions about the suitability of cognitively-oriented instructional approaches for students of different academic levels are frequently raised by teachers and researchers. This study examined student participation in knowledge-building discourse in two implementations of a short inquiry unit focusing on environmental problems. Participants in…

Although Web 2.0 technologies have been recognized as effective means of conducting group learning activities, a critical and challenging issue of Web 2.0-based learning is the lack of mechanisms for promoting information exchanges and sharing among participating students. To cope with this problem, an intelligent blog system is proposed in this…

This study examines online messages in a discussion forum that a group of K-12 history teachers used to discuss curriculum implementations as part of their professional development. It has 3 main research foci. First, it focuses on identifying the types of assistances provided to the teachers in an online forum. Second, it examines teachers'…