The way in which teachers communicate with their students partly determines what they communicate. This book addresses the communication issue by building on a series of papers whose first versions were presented in 1992 at the Sixth International Congress of Mathematics Education in Quebec. Papers include: (1) "Crossing the Gulf between Thought…

Two meanings of the word "discourse" are distinguished. The first treats discourse as conversation (D1), and the other refers to different ways of understanding (D2). Rather than seeing the two kinds of discourse as different, they are seen as having an important connection, particularly in classroom communication. Examples are drawn from the…

A study was conducted to identify variables associated with question-asking in the college classroom. Specifically, the study examined the influence of instructional interventions on intentions to ask questions. Subjects, 220 university undergraduates enrolled in a basic communication theory course at a midsize, midwestern, urban university,…

The phenomenon of the modified register, here termed Foreigner Register, the register of language that is used by language teachers with students of perceived low language proficiency, is discussed. As used by language teachers, Foreigner Register is well formed and simplified or modified in terms of syntax, phonology, and lexis. The…

This article examines how classroom space is utilized and what this communicates about the teaching conducted there. (RC)

Article considered the place of the special child in the regular classroom and how the regular teacher and the special teacher can cooperate to assist the special child make the transition from special to regular education. (RK)

Discusses research on kinetic structure, a microstructure concept (concerned with sequential organization of individual verbal statements or individual behavior acts). (PEB)

A model constructed by combining nine theories relating wait-time, teacher expectations, equity and fate control to inquiry behaviors is described. Results indicate implusive students can be converted to reflective pupils by providing them with time to think and by allowing alternative answers. (BR)

Second language curricula vary in their relative emphases on process and product and on the control exerted by the teacher and learner. Discourse analysis can be used to gain insight into classroom interaction. One model for this kind of analysis classifies utterances according to the structural predictions created by the preceding utterance,…

Most students leave school with good or acceptable grades in mathematics, despite the fact that very few actually grasp basic mathematical concepts. Schools appear to be providing ways of acquiring the necessary knowledge without promoting true mathematical comprehension. This is made possible by reducing mathematics, cognitively, to a merely…

A teacher describes what happens when professional writers are invited into his college composition classroom to talk about and show the processes they employ in revising their work, and reports that students benefit not only by hearing about but also by actually seeing successive drafts. In the class, the students begin the semester by analyzing…

When introducing doublespeak in the classroom, there is a great temptation to pose as the good guy exposing the lying words of all the powerful bad guys. To a degree teachers should do this. But they cannot stop there, for it implies a posture of moral superiority. A solution to this problem is to focus on questions of choice and to be aware of…

This system for describing teaching events is intended to facilitate the analysis of classroom observations for purposes of comparing, documenting, or evaluating different instructional techniques. The typology is designed to describe a wide range of settings and teaching styles. The descriptors are organized into two groups that simultaneously…

Most of our language use involves asking and answering questions, and in the second language classroom such exchanges tend to be rare. When there are opportunities for sharing, the teacher usually asks all the questions and the student answers. Some strategies that give students more practice in asking questions include: letting them devise and…