The use of protocols--oral verbalizations of the problem solving process--in a critical thinking and problem solving class offers a number of advantages to students and teachers alike. Protocols help students (1) learn to read problems carefully; (2) focus on the important characteristics of specific problems; (3) slow down their problem-solving…

Issues regarding the development of student's speaking skills and English as a second language (ESL) techniques designed to improve the teaching of conversation are described. Ten true and false assumptions about the teaching of conversation are considered: (1) everyone enjoys talking and participating in class discussion; (2) discussion topics in…

A study was conducted to determine the frequency of three types of prosocial interactions--empathy, helping, and altruism--which nonhandicapped preschool children could exhibit toward their handicapped peers. Subjects were 32 nonhandicapped 4- to 5-year-olds and 13 developmentally disabled 3- to 5-year-olds attending a mainstreamed preschool…

The function that a specific environment is said to fulfill depends critically on who is in control within the environment. The paper develops this argument and suggests how its implications might be tested empirically. (Author/AM)

A workshop leader and consultant makes an impassioned plea for more and better movement education. Provides ideas for focused movement explorations and discusses the overall goals and advantages of this new breed of physical education. (ED)

Mary M. Juzwik draws on a grounded study to propose a hybrid theory of classroom genres that builds on Bauman's conceptualization of the "dialogization of genres." This perspective foregrounds Bakhtin's earlier and more literary work, while backgrounding Bakhtin's later, more social scientific perspectives on genre. In particular, Juzwik…

A large undergraduate course in persuasion which is taught to multiple sections of 70 students (and has in the past been taught to sections with as many as 200 students) at Northern Illinois University required several innovations to handle the large numbers of students and to enliven such large classes. Innovations include: (1) the creative use…

Difficulty in comprehending mathematical concepts is a consequence of the system of knowledge acquisition prevailing in schools, and more specifically, of the typical pattern of classroom interaction. In the common task-setting/task-solving pattern, the teacher divides the subject matter into segments. Students are involved interactively in…

The necessity for maintaining and extending the public space within which argumentation may appear, whether or not represented in the classroom, stems largely from pressures which have increasingly restricted that space. To function as public spaces, classrooms must enable students as citizens to confer in an unrestricted fashion about matters of…

A study examined the relationship between communication apprehension (CA) and academic achievement among elementary school students and whether that relationship was different for males and females. Subjects were 144 (74 females, 70 males) students enrolled in grades 2-5 at a laboratory school on the campus of a midwestern university. Academic…

Even for gifted students, the writing process resulting in an effective composition is a complex one, often overlooked in gifted education. The process begins with expressive writing, wherein the writer explores ideas and tries to find a focus. Subsets in the writing process include inventing, gathering outside materials, drafting, and revising…

Within the field of linguistics there are several very different approaches to discourse analysis. Sociolinguists look at the structure of social interaction as manifested in conversation. Psycholinguists are concerned with aspects related to language comprehension. Philosophical and formal linguists are interested in the semantic relationships…

Research has shown that communication apprehension (CA) has an impact on academic achievement over and beyond intelligence, type of performance-oriented class, language proficiency, and amount of verbal activity. A study explored the idea that this relationship is context-based by examining the impact of CA in the generalized contexts of small…

A study of communication in a culturally diverse first grade classroom focused on one discourse device, conversational repair, and its use with one kind of conversational difficulty, protest sequences, or arguments. The data collected concerned the children's use of either non-response or conversational engagement following a fellow student's…

This paper examines possible applications of confluent education to the foreign language classroom. The confluent approach creates an opportunity for integration of intrapersonal, interpersonal, and extrapersonal components in the process of learning. Confluent curriculum has been designed in three broad goal categories: to achieve traditional…