Social studies educators advocate discussion as an influential instructional method to encourage students to apply knowledge and develop higher-order thinking and understanding. The classroom reality, however, is that teachers only use the discussion method sparingly. Instead, teachers predominantly use a quasi-discussion form called recitation to…

This article is republished from "The Canadian Modern Language Review," 60, 4, pp. 501-526. It is published as an article exchange between the "MLJ" and the "CMLR." The articles for the exchange were selected by committees from the Editorial Board of each journal according to the following criteria: articles of…

In this paper, we draw upon a framework for analyzing the discursive interactions of science classrooms (Mortimer & Scott, 2003, "Meaning Making in Secondary Science Classrooms," Maidenhead, UK: Open University Press), to probe the movement between authoritative and dialogic discourse in a Brazilian high school science class. More…

Texas has combined innovative uses of technology, an effective communications strategy, and a multitiered approach, and enjoyed great success in its execution of Reading First. In fact, some education leaders now view Texas as a model for other states to adhere to in their own implementation of the program. In this article, the author describes…

This study focused on the effect of a cooperative strategy training program on the patterns of interaction that arose as small groups of students participated in an oral discussion task. The underlying assumption was that students could be taught to engage with each other and with the task in a way that would foster the creation and exploitation…

This article examines the didactic suitability of introducing models at an intermediate (i.e. mesoscopic) scale in teaching certain subjects, at an early stage. The design and evaluation of two short sequences based on this rationale will be outlined: one bears on propulsion by solid friction, the other on fluid statics in the presence of gravity.…

For years, instructional communication researchers have been advising teachers about the best classroom communication methods to achieve the greatest levels of student learning and motivation. However, traditional students (i.e., between the ages of 18 and 23) have consistently been the focus of this research. Given that over 43% of today's…

Mathematics is a central part of school curricula around the world. There has been much interest in linguistic aspects of the teaching and learning of mathematics, both from mathematics educators and from applied linguists. This short paper introduces a set of five articles exploring the intersection between these two communities. The articles all…

The study set out to investigate the impact of interactive whiteboards (IWBs) on teacher--pupil interaction at Key Stage 2 in the teaching of literacy and numeracy. As part of the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies, IWBs have been made widely available as a pedagogic tool for promoting interactive whole class teaching. In order to…

This article reports on strategies used by immersion teachers to modify their speech in order to maintain the use of the target language while sustaining interactive communication and the concomitant teaching of the content and the second language. This classroom-based research, undertaken at Methodist Ladies College (MLC) in Melbourne, sources…

The National Literacy Strategy with its accompanying daily Literacy Hour was introduced into all primary schools in England in 1999 and aims to enhance literacy standards. This paper is about the nature of interaction in the Literacy Hour. It is based on a collaborative micro-analysis of observational data from two poetry lessons conducted within…

Where the role of instructor discourse has been the focus of much recent research on asynchronous online instruction, the anatomy of effective instructional discourse of foreign language educators has yet to be examined. Indeed, the majority of work in the area of foreign language and telecommunications has concentrated on student-student,…

Preliminary report of the results of a project to introduce peer instruction into a multi-section first semester calculus course taught largely by novice instructors. This paper summarizes the instructional approaches instructors chose to use, and the subsequent results of student performance on common exams throughout the course of the term.…

This paper presents a case study that describes and discusses the problems encountered during the design and implementation of a blended learning course, largely taught online through a web-based learning environment. Based on Moore's theory of transactional distance, the course was explicitly designed to have dialogue at its heart. However, the…

This paper discusses research and thinking on the importance of interpersonal and intrapersonal effectiveness for teachers, school leaders and school improvement, and explores implications of the use of NLP in relation to personalisation and the children's agenda. It outlines initial research carried out as part of the Fast Track Teaching…