Communication is essential to the establishment and maintenance of a democracy. Democratic society is distinctive in that civic talk plays a determining role. A long tradition of civic talk exists in western democratic civilization. The Greek teacher, Protagoras, the Father of Debate, required his students to speak first on one side of an issue or…

The senior seminar course in speech communication at Ripon College (Wisconsin) helps students to draw together their educational experiences and to focus on the task of planning for immediate and long-term career goals. In its initial year, it was taught in a two-semester sequence. The first semester focused on the discipline and the profession…

The effectiveness of a pedagogic strategy which involved the development of descriptive tactics and individual exploration into the meanings and significance of photographic images was investigated. An additional purpose of the study was to reveal methods which enhanced student responses toward photographs, and their production, function, and…

One of a series of secondary level teaching units presenting case studies with pro and con analyses of particular legal problems, the document presents a student's lesson plan, a teacher's lesson plan, and a lawyer's lesson plan designed to expose students to the basic concepts of "ownership" of personal property and how courts decide in…

The electronic medium continues to play an increasingly important role in the delivery of management education despite a paucity of empirical studies on its impact and efficacy. Results from a study of competitive attitudes and feedback-seeking behaviors across seven "hybrid" electronic cum live classes showed that…

This study compared the effects of system-initiated (low-level) facilitation with that of facilitator-initiated plus system-initiated (high-level) facilitation on cognitive restructuring and learning achievement. Graduate students participated in facilitated online discussion within a web course for one semester. This study found no significant…

This study is, as an inquiry into the effectiveness of discussion leadership taxonomy, designed to help online discussion leaders support and facilitate discussions conducted by undergraduates. Participants were approximately two hundred preservice undergraduate students taking an Introduction to Educational Technology course. Each week students…

Students' preconceptions (also called misconceptions) interfere with desired learning and resist attempts to eradicate them. By applying previous findings about misconceptions regarding the particle model for gases, a new approach was designed for teaching the subject. A "critical situation" was treated in which students in sixth and…

The 23 articles in this collection suggest practical speech and drama activities for the English classroom. Among the topics discussed are the following: classroom discussion as theatre, using groups for more effective teaching, role playing activities that teach language concepts, improvisation as an instructional method, an oral approach to…

This handbook for high school English teachers includes sections on curriculum planning and course design, ideas for teaching English, and resources for teaching English. The topics in curriculum planning include course planning and design, individualizing, teacher-constructed materials, grading alternatives, aims and priorities, and…

The role of the teacher in a classroom discussion is addressed in this guide. The underlying construct is that of teacher-learner dialogue: a symbiotic interaction in which each person plays a complementary role. The following ideas are regarded as myths about discussions: (1) by definition, discussions are always nurturant; (2) students are…

This teacher's guide is intended to be used as a companion to the student guides covering the first 20 programs in the film series, Footsteps, which focuses on some of the major problems and concerns faced by all prospective parents and parents of young children. The complete curriculum material from the student manual is reproduced in reduced…

The inservice self-instructional minicourse described here is intended to give teachers knowledge of and practice on using specific questioning techniques that increase students' participation and learning during class discussion. The classroom techniques include redirection, refocusing, handling incorrect responses, pausing, using higher…

After 177 college students in 49 groups participated in group tasks, their perceptions of those groups and individuals in the groups were analyzed for gender differences. In the discriminant analysis of the three interpretable factors for perception of groups (group cohesiveness, power, and personality), gender was a predictor of an individual's…

Suggestions are presented in this paper to help teachers improve their questioning about students' reading as one way to improve the teaching and learning of reading. The paper first outlines three areas in the teaching of reading--the symbol, comprehension, and pleasure areas--and notes that teacher questions should aim at development in all…