Designed to help middle and secondary level teachers create spaces for students to explore multiple perspectives and interpretations of their texts, this brochure offers teachers who have experienced classroom talk that leads to gender divisiveness among students an opportunity to consider new ways of thinking about such talk. The brochure…

Children have much to teach educators about the kinds of group work that enhance their social, emotional, and cognitive development. Using children's own words, this playlet juxtaposes third-grade and fifth/sixth grade views of how group work helps and hinders their school experiences in literacy learning. Students in both age groups experienced…

The articles collected in this book use the testimonial narrative of Rigoberta Menchu, a Mayan-Quiche of Guatemala and winner of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize, to engage students in vital and relevant cross-cultural learning in a variety of disciplines, locations, and levels. The book tells teachers' stories of using Menchu's testimonial in their…

Many mainstreamed students with limited English proficiency continue to face the difficulty of learning English as a second language (ESL) while studying mathematics and other content areas framed in the language of native speakers. The difficulty these students often encounter in mathematics classes and their poor performance on subsequent…

This paper reports on a case study focusing on the development of students' capacity to develop and assess arguments in the context of instruction in high school genetics. It is part of a wider project whose goals were: (1) the identification of the conditions for argument (and in general scientific reasoning) to occur in science classrooms; (2)…

A study examined the perceptions of appropriateness regarding four types of touch between college students and professors. Subjects included 382 students, 108 men and 202 women, enrolled in a basic speech communication course at a large midwestern university. Using video depictions, an analysis of variance was conducted exploring differences in…

The abandonment of face-to-face voice conversations in favor of the use of electronic conversations in composition classes is an issue to be interrogated. In a recent push to "prepare students for the 21st century," teachers are asked to teach computer applications in the humanities--and composition teachers, who will teach writing in…

Similarities exist between Paulo Freire's radical approach to teaching and learning and the connected and constructed knowers discussed in "Women's Ways of Knowing" by M. F. Belenky, B. M. Clinchy, N. R. Goldberger, and J. M. Tarule (1986). The most important similarity seems to be their related understandings of the relationship between…

This paper argues that the goals of education, whether in university or kindergarten, are not achieved by the one-way transmission of knowledge, but through a dialogue between teacher and learner which has as its aim the co-construction of meaning in relation to tasks and topics of mutual interest and concern. The paper first addresses how the…

The use of picture line-up activities, classroom exercises in which students must place a series of pictures in correct order, is discussed. The advantages of use of a picture series instead of simple pairs are examined, a basic activity is described, and ideas for implementation, adaptation, and follow-up are outlined. The basic activity uses…

Writing labs should utilize the knowledge gained from a variety of fields to enhance further their programs, particularly with regard to the study of nonverbal communication. Regardless of the sincerity and importance of the tutor's suggestions, nonverbal messages often are sent to the student which undermine the session. Various channels of…

This pamphlet examines notetaking by college students in a discussion of: (1) student attitudes regarding notetaking; (2) observations of notetaking behavior; (3) the relationship between notetaking, quizzes, and college grades; (4) how notes help test performance; and (5) individual differences and notetaking practices. Based on observations and…

The most prevalent variable manifesting itself in schools is communication or, at least, it seems to be a most pervasive variable. What is communication? In what ways do humans communicate in schools? And how might the concept "school communication" be defined? To investigate possible ways to respond to these and other such questions,…

To investigate the interactional behaviors of minorities when placed in a mostly white educational setting, this study focused on examining the meaning held by particular students in regard to acceptance, inclusion, and invitation into a larger group, in this case, the seventh grade at a university laboratory school in Louisiana. Of the 28…

This article considers arguments for and against the use of coding systems in classroom-based language research and touches on some relevant considerations from ethnographic and conversational analysis approaches. The four authors each explain and elaborate on their practical decision to code or not to code events or utterances at a specific point…