An accounting professor stresses the value of the student-faculty relationship and a number of nonacademic factors, such as involvement in student life and the comfort of the faculty office, in developing an environment in which students want to learn and enjoy what they are studying. (MSE)

Reviews 2 studies of verbal interactions of early childhood teachers from 30 preschools and their 4-year-old students. Linguistically advantaged children, particularly those from lower-class backgrounds, benefited from regular attendance at preschool. (RJC)

Describes the development of the University of Washington's Center for Instructional Development and Research, highlighting the interface between communication and instruction. Provides examples of the application of communication concepts that influence daily operations, permeate instructional development activity, and provide a foundation for…

Discusses how collaborative writing can be a tool for activating students' multiple voices and multiple versions of self and the world within the classroom. Describes three collaborative writing projects in which special education students discussed and wrote about important knowledge that was formed in their own contradictory moments. (MM)

In literature instruction, a log notebook can help cultivate a critical consciousness through dialogical exercises involving the student's personal ongoing questioning, responding, rereading, reformulating, or revising earlier assignments. Sequences writing assignments can be used to stimulate dialectical thinking and writing. (MSE)

Analyzes extracts of classroom discourse involving teachers and groups of nine-year-olds in terms of what they reveal about the establishment of shared knowledge between teacher and students. Identifies this shared knowledge with the discourse "context," focusing on how classroom events are recalled and reconstructed. (MM)

The form of communication used in the classroom affects content of knowledge that teacher and students mutually construct. Described is how the polite discourse used by a kindergarten teacher and her students, as they engaged in a social studies lesson, formed a context for the learning of certain types of concepts about the world to the exclusion…

Techniques for teachers to use in asking questions and encouraging critical thinking in the classroom are offered. Discussion includes components of an effective question and methods for getting students interested, promoting success, and providing useful feedback. (MSE)

Describes "concoctions," a style of small group and pair activities that has proved highly successful in stimulating language interaction in a wide variety of instructional settings. Along with a theoretical discussion, numerous concoctions are included in the text and appendix. (JL)

Offers suggestions for administrators when they observe content area classrooms with a whole language thrust. Discusses instructional goals, sharing the learning-teaching process, classroom organization, classroom library, writing, and importance of meaning. (SR)

Describes the development of the Multidimensional Audioconferencing Classification System (MACS), an instrument for the tabulation, analysis, and interpretation of audioconferencing instructional interactions. MACS draws on three theoretical and empirical streams: (1) systematic small group interaction analysis; (2) systematic classroom…

Discusses a study examining the perspectives of three gifted middle school students on peer-led discussions and on each other. Highlights issues of voice, gender, interruption, and empowerment. (SR)

Natural and enthusiastic communication among students is a goal of every second-language class. Whole-class interaction activities promote interpersonal sharing as well as intense oral practice of targeted linguistic structures in a relaxed atmosphere. Examples are given. (Contains four references.) (Author/LB)

Reviews literature that offers important ideas about various learning styles in the foreign language classroom, style conflicts that can arise between teachers and students, and effective ways for handling those conflicts. (18 references) (CB)

Literature review found approximately 5-9 percent of school children having clinically significant voice disorders that interfere with classroom communication and may be a symptom of underlying illness. However, voice disorders are grossly underidentified and underserved, particularly in rural schools with personnel shortages. Proposes a teacher…