One challenge of teaching science is getting students to communicate as scientists do. Scientists employ many different forms of communication as they develop and pass on information to others. Unfortunately, in many classrooms, student communication about science concepts is limited to filling in information on worksheets, finishing…

Many faculty interpret student responses to faculty questions as evidence of an actively engaged classroom. Because of this conviction, class participation, whether graded or ungraded, appears in many course syllabi in colleges and universities and is often promoted as the responsibility of students to contribute to the learning environment. Class…

In college level chemistry courses, reasoning using molecular and particulate descriptions of matter becomes central to understanding physical and chemical properties. In this study, we used a qualitative approach to analyzing classroom discourse derived from Toulmin's model of argumentation in order to describe the ways in which students develop…

Classroom discussions of multimodal texts, in particular historical fiction picturebooks, offer an interpretive space where readers are positioned to construct meanings in transaction with the written language, visual images, and design elements created by authors, illustrators and publishers (Serafini & Ladd, 2008; Sipe, 1999). This study was…

Many educators would say that pencils, paint, and paper are the most important tools in the artroom, but are they really? If they look deeply at how students create art, it is their beginning ideas and concepts that gauge the success of a work of art. Without proper planning and guidance, even the most talented students will struggle through their…

In this article, the focus is on task construction and the importance of this process to develop and promote classroom communication in mathematics. The students' tests, examination of students' mathematical work, the teachers' lesson plans, and reports of the lessons' instructions are the basic data for this article. The analysis indicated that…

With classroom observation and stimulated recall interviews as research instruments, the present study investigated some of the factors that affected learners' attention to teacher talk in nine English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms. The results revealed five such factors, namely, learners' self evaluation of their language knowledge, the…

This study examines how bilingual second-grade students perceived of their reading competence and of the work of reading in two contrasting settings where texts were regularly discussed: a monologically organized classroom (MOC) and a dialogically organized classroom (DOC; as determined by prior analysis of classroom discourse). Interview data…

The transgressive use of language by out-group speakers, or crossing is used in a variety of ways to achieve both affiliative and disaffiliative ends among youths. However, crossing can also be used as an affiliative resource in asymmetrical power relations between teachers and students. Reporting on the findings of a 1.5 year ethnography of an…

By developing two case studies of expert teaching in action, this study aimed to develop knowledge of talk in whole-class teaching in UK primary science lessons and understand this in relation to both the teachers' interpretations and sociocultural theoretical frameworks. Lessons were observed and video-recorded and the teachers engaged in…

What happens when pupils encounter unfamiliar musical expressions in the music classroom? What responsibility do we have towards those whose music we "use"? Underlying these concerns is the need for an ethical underpinning for music education. Drawing on a year-long ethnographically informed case study of music-making in the lives of a…

The accepted framing of mathematics pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) as part of mathematical knowledge for teaching has centered on the question: What mathematical reasoning, insight, understanding, and skills are required for a person to teach elementary mathematics? Many have worked to address this question in K-8 teaching. Yet, there remains…

This paper provides a descriptive narrative on some recent research processes and outcomes in general classrooms in Australia that include students with multiple and severe disability. A mentor-model approach to professional development for the teaching staff was employed and this paper outlines what happened, along with some of the specific needs…

The Indonesian education system is striving for an inclusive approach and techniques are needed which can support children with severe learning disabilities and their peers in this context. Manually signed language has proved useful both in supporting the development and empowerment of children with severe learning disabilities and supporting…

This paper examines student and teacher talk in a first grade classroom in a two-way immersion school in Central Texas. Drawing on audio and video data from a year-long study in a first grade two-way classroom and using a methodology that fuses ethnography and discourse analysis, the authors explore how pluralist discourses are constructed and…