Investigates ways in which instructional techniques including discussions, case studies, and workshops can be delivered in a virtual classroom on the Internet based on experiences at the University of Pretoria (South Africa). Topics include collaborative and cooperative learning; metaphorical classrooms; and student-created Web sites. (Author/LRW)

Evaluates use of BSCW (a groupware system) shared workspaces in higher education by means of a comparison of seven courses in which this environment was used. Identifies different functions for which the BSCW environment has been used and discusses the relative success of these functions across the cases. (AEF)

The tenth in a series of articles designed to facilitate philosophical discussions with gifted students, this article explores whether technology is the savior of humanity or the tool of humanity's ultimate destruction. It draws from essays by Martin Heidegger to examine the benefits and disadvantages of technological advancement. (Contains 2…

At the end of the year, elementary students fear loss of daily routines, impending empty days, problems at home, and uncertainty about September. Teachers can help by promoting classroom discussion, acknowledging everyone's mixed feelings, mentioning that students will see teachers in the fall, gathering information about summer activities,…

Presents an instructional resource examining artwork by Charles Burchfield, Utagawa Hiroshige, Childe Hassam, and Georgia O'Keeffe that focuses on nature's four seasons. Offers activities to encourage students' observational skills and guide them to depict their personal views of nature in their own artwork (CMK)

Discusses yearnings in film and children's literature. Lists several questions about film and book characters' yearnings that can guide discussion and class activities. Presents sample creative activities with yearning as a theme. Lists book and videotape resources. (AEF)

Examined case discussions in two sections of a management course taught in English in Hong Kong by two different expatriate lecturers, one from an Asian country and one from the United States. Examined stylistic variations in questioning strategies of the case leaders and uncovered conditions that enhance or detract from the willingness of…

Focuses on an exercise where students were assigned social roles based on gender, class, and race and then selected division of labor and reward structures in order to explore inequality in work and production. Offers a review of literature on the power structure of work and production and an evaluation of the exercise. (CMK)

At University Laboratory High School, ethics lessons are integrated into the required eight-grade computer literacy course. Six messages are posted online, each containing an ethical scenario. Students add their opinions to each scenario's thread, read each other's postings, and respond to at least one student follow-up message within each topic.…

Explores nine myths about questioning techniques for teachers in social studies, such as questioning does not require planning, higher-level cognitive questions elicit higher-level answers, and teachers give students enough time to answer. Offers an alternative, with a description of its application, to each myth. (CMK)

What happens when a White, university teacher of diverse students tries to promote discussion of race by heeding Critical Race Theorists' call for multicultural curricula and student stories? This teacher and his co-investigator discover that adoption of multicultural curricula and privileging of student stories are not enough. That is, despite…

In a large online course, students were divided into 18 asynchronous online discussion groups with different gender mixes. The number and cognitive content of student messages were analysed. Females wrote more messages than males with no difference in the cognitive quality of message content. In mixed groups, females wrote fewer messages than in…

This paper describes the testing and refinement of an instrument for identifying and measuring Problem Formulation and Resolution (PFR) in online asynchronous discussions (OADs). The instrument was used to analyse a transcript of an OAD designed specifically for PFR with 30 participants in an undergraduate course for teachers in training. Results…

This article talks about leading significant learning opportunities through conflict of ideas in a school system. Catalyzing school change can turn emotional differences of opinion into learning opportunities. Leaders who want to deal effectively with these challenging, often tense situations need to be more than good managers. They need to be…

This article is concerned with an average student's understanding of the notion of function. It presents an analysis of a dialogue held with Kasia, a sixteen-years-old pupil of a general academic secondary school. The conversation concentrates on a non-standard problem--a functional equation. The theoretical framework used here is the PROCEPT…