Illustrating with a real-life problem involving a 12th-grade math teacher's decision to fail a college-bound minority student, this article shows how case studies enhance preservice teachers' learning and awareness. In the classroom, teaching strategies, evaluation methods, and decisions about students' lives are inextricably entangled with a…

Discusses four elements of cooperative learning in science classrooms: cooperative task structures; cooperative incentive structures; individual accountability; and heterogeneous grouping. Presents and describes seven cooperative learning methods. (MDH)

This paper, in French, describes possible links between moral discussion, moral judgment, moral action, and moral atmosphere in a readaptation unit for male adolescent delinquents in which the Just Community Approach was used. Results showed an improvement in individual moral judgment and decreased frequency of misbehaviors after group…

Proposes that students learn about their environment by taking field trips into their own schoolyard. Students observe, classify, hypothesize, infer, predict, and measure aspects of the schoolyard. Engages the students in discussion to process their experiences. (MDH)

A four-year study followed teaching changes of an experienced economics professor as he participated in an informal faculty discussion group. Results are presented in three sections, each representing a different perspective: a narrative based on two interviews; a framework depicting teaching improvement as a dynamic process of conceptual and…

In an experiment in cross-disciplinary collaboration involving three courses at Morehead State University during spring semester, 1997, small groups worked collaboratively within a virtual environment to define solutions for children's health issues as described by an early childhood education class. The instructors and a consultant utilized…

Recommends that mathematics instruction should promote student discourse by orchestrating situations in which each individual's thinking is challenged and asking students to clarify and justify ideas. Provides a vignette of a heterogeneously grouped seventh-grade mathematics class to illustrate the process of mathematical discourse. (ASK)

Describes how the author used class letter writing to fulfill both academic functions and affective functions. Discusses the remarkably different results produced using two different methods (a class newsletter and an electronic forum), noting that circumstances of the class and the purpose of the instructor help determine which method is more…

Reflects on how the author's third-grade students, experienced in literary conversation from their reading workshop, transferred the practice of literary conversation to their writing workshop. (SR)

Describes and evaluates a technique used in two science lecture courses (biochemistry and introductory meteorology), in which lectures were interspersed with frequent, brief discussions within spontaneously formed small groups. Some differences were found in the ways the two professors managed the technique, but both felt in-class participation…

Examines the presence of two factors, cooperative learning training and problem-solving computer-based instruction (CBI), in 23 studies which compared cooperative CBI (C-CBI) and individual CBI (I-CBI). Results provide more evidence that cooperative learning and problem-solving CBIs are important factors in increasing achievement, group…

Reports on a study in which 31 undergraduate students practiced academic argumentation by e-mail. In the two "tutored" e-mail study groups, discussion topics were selected by the tutor, while in the two self-directed "student-led" groups, selection was by the students. Results support the superiority of the student-led mode over the tutor-led mode…

Compares the effectiveness of two types of art museum tours, the lecture and the inquiry/discussion tour, in promoting learning by college-aged students. Finds that both were equally effective in helping subjects acquire information, but neither encouraged retention; both types were equally enjoyable. Highlights the inconclusiveness of the…

Looks at the discussion of a small group of girls (ordinarily reticent or diffident in class) in a senior English class as they interpreted the character of Ophelia in Shakespeare's "Hamlet." Discusses the idea that thinking can develop through dialogic (collaborative) rather than dialectic (conflictive) transactions. Notes classroom…

Argues that networked classrooms offer a number of opportunities for effective writing instruction. Argues that shared discourse in the networked-computer classroom has three levels forming a continuum of interactivity: students sending messages "at,""to," and "between" each other. Offers classroom examples of each level of discourse. (SR)