Emphasizes that literacy involves more than simply knowing how to read and write. Explains how a teacher expanded reading and writing activities to all areas of the curriculum to demonstrate to first grade students that writing can be used as a tool to make sense of the world around them. (SKC)

Describes a strategy to motivate adult basic education students to comprehend text in a manner that draws on their background knowledge and is based on peer interaction. (RS)

Describes a study of the development of a new oral proficiency test which could replace the existing English as a Foreign Language Oral Matriculation test in Israel. The deficiencies of the existing Oral Matriculation test are specified, and the components of the experimental test are described. (Author/SED)

This paper reports on a case study of a U.S. high school literature class during an e-mail exchange with a high school literature class in Moscow (Russia). During this project, the students in both classrooms read short stories by Anton Chekhov and O'Henry. By using the stories as a catalyst, the students' goal was to help their distant partner to…

The use of electronic technologies for the delivery of instruction has grown at an exponential rate over the last five years. Institutions of higher education, corporations, and K-12 environments continue to seek ways to use online tools to deliver instruction. While the increased interest and need is an exciting development, several challenges…

This first phase of a content analysis of online, asynchronous, educational discussions is designed to generate a method for automatically categorizing messages into cognitive categories using neural network software. This phase of research answers two questions regarding the method of automatically analyzing discussion messages: Can a neural…

This study investigated the nature of preservice teachers' instructional actions during Directed Reading-Teaching Activities (DR-TA) to involve students in reading and enhance their understanding of text, noting scaffolding processes used to engage children in making sense of text. Twenty-eight preservice teachers who were first-semester K-8…

This study examines the role of dialogue and collaborative reflection in guiding teachers' identification of issues and contextual barriers in their practice. It analyzes teachers' social interactions and academic self-efficacy during the dialogic process and evaluates the quality of inquiry that teachers proposed to change their practice.…

The shift from traditional classroom education to computer-mediated distance learning poses enormous challenges to instructors and learners. The concept of the classroom where students meet to interact with other learners and the instructor no longer exists. Learners lack a natural social outlet to engage with other learners thus leading to…

This paper describes the LATTICE (Linking All Types of Teachers to International Cross-Cultural Education) project, which has been bringing together Michigan public school teachers, international students, and internationally oriented faculty from Michigan State University for several years. Through LATTICE, participants can learn about other…

This paper examines the importance of the electronic community and its conversation for educators. Highlights include: (1) connections in electronic communities, including listservs, World Wide Web-based discussion groups, and the "conversational web"; (2) cyber-collaborative learning, including virtual classrooms, developing student…

A science classroom was used to study the effects of a shared intranet environment on students' problem-solving ability and metacognitive reflection skills through shared contextualization. Subjects were first-time 9th- and 10th-grade biology students from three public high schools. An evaluative analysis of the CourseInfo software (Blackboard,…

A cognitive-based system of analysis of spoken discourse was designed to provide details about the way pupils think and talk about issues arising from prose material. Written and spoken responses were analyzed to examine the effects of intellectual ability, differences in the stimulus passage, and prior small group discussion. (Note: Page…

A new look at the standard lecture/discussion format for the large introductory college course is offered, along with suggestions to upgrade its quality. Foci for improvement include organization of lecture material, teacher-student interaction, lecture delivery, feedback, discussion group supervision, and course evaluation. (JMD)

Introduces a simple student-centered activity that can effectively complement a traditional lecture by encouraging group discussion and reflection. Students orally review the lecture in groups and submit summaries to the lecturer that are ultimately compiled into a course review. Discusses the benefits of this practice and students' responses.…