Collaborative learning environments provide a set of tools for students acting in groups to interact and accomplish an assigned task. In this kind of systems, students are free to express and communicate with each other, which usually lead to collaboration and communication problems that may require the intervention of a teacher. In this article,…

This essay is a response to Barbara Applebaum's essay, "Engaging Student Disengagement: Resistance or Disagreement?" in which Applebaum explores privileged university students' "disengagement" when asked to confront institutionalized oppression. Applebaum analyzes and recommends Lynn Weber Cannon's rules for classroom discourse…

We investigated empowerment in the Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency (Alpha-1) community, a rare, genetic disease network in the United States. The research was motivated by nine years of observations in the community. After observing what seemed to be a heightened amount of activism among Alpha-1 community members, I had hypothesized that this…

We investigated the effects of gender and group size on perceptions of group variability, using groups of students taking different majors that varied in the proportion of men and women (female-majority, parity, and male-majority). We found that both group size and gender had consistent effects on perceived out-group variability, even when…

Pedagogical and scholarly representations of collaborative writing and knowledge construction in technical communication have traditionally recognized consensus as the logical outcome of collaborative work, even as scholars and teachers have acknowledged the value of conflict and "dissensus" in the process of collaborative knowledge…

Grounded in positioning theory, this study examined regular classroom teachers' views of their roles with regard to English language learners (ELLs) and the relationship between their teaching approaches and the students' reactions and positioning of themselves in the classroom. Findings suggest that the teachers' views of their roles varied based…

We report findings from the second phase of a study of co-operative, group-based assessment in Pharmacology for second-year undergraduates at The University of Queensland, Australia. Students (n = 285) enrolled in the 2006 Bachelor of Science degree program completed a group-based assessment task (weighted 10% of their course). Blended teaching…

An increasingly large number of educational facilities offer online graduate education courses. Their popularity grows as busy educators search for a way to advance their careers by earning additional degrees without spending more time in the classroom as a student. One concern with online learning is that online courses lack the interaction…

The progress and effects of a collaborative study group as a method of job-embedded professional development were studied. Eight high school teachers representing a variety of disciplines and the author (a literacy specialist) met monthly as a collaborative group for one school year to investigate materials and methods for literacy strategy…

Novice professionals entering the fields of early childhood education and early childhood special education face many challenges and often feel disconnected from the support system that nurtured them during their teacher education programs (Brindle, Fleege, & Graves, 2000). The Early Childhood Professional Mentoring Group (ECPMG) was established…

Chamber music provides myriad opportunities to develop students' ability to think like professional musicians while engaged in the authentic task of working closely with and learning from peers. However, the potential for musical growth inherent in chamber music participation is often unrealized due to either a lack of teacher guidance and support…

This study reports the impact of high sensitivity to early exchange in 11th-grade, CSCL triads solving well- and ill-structured problems in Newtonian Kinematics. A mixed-method analysis of the evolution of participation inequity (PI) in group discussions suggested that participation levels tended to get locked-in relatively early on in the…

Based on the idea that studying actual persons reading for their own purposes can shed light on such problematic concepts as literacy, orality, voice, and self, a study explored the literate practices of a community of women outside the academy who use their reading and writing to enhance their spiritual growth. Subjects were six women (age…

This paper presents a reflecting team work model that helps move a group system through increased process illumination. Grounded in second-order cybernetics and social constructionism, this model emphasizes the group as a linguistic system. In this group setting, language works to co-construct meaning and generate new narratives for client…

The dimensions of group leadership and group interaction were investigated using fourth grade students. (JMB)