This qualitative study uses an analysis of literature circle discussions to illuminate larger issues of gender and social class for a group of fifth-grade students. By examining how four students were positioned and positioned themselves within these literature conversations, I demonstrate that the roles reproduced certain gender- and…

The proliferation of information on the Internet introduces new challenges for educators. Although the Internet can provide quick and easy access to a wealth of information, it has virtually no quality control. Consequently, the Internet has rendered faculty more essential than ever as teachers of the analytic and evaluative skills students need…

In the current research climate favoring rigorous experimental studies of instructional scripts using randomly chosen treatment and control groups, education and literacy researchers and policy makers will do well to take stock of their current research base and assess critical issues in this new context. This review of research on classroom…

The facilitation of experiences through group discussion is well documented in adventure education literature. Using an ethnomethodological approach this article draws attention to how the leader in these facilitation sessions structures the discussions. It is argued that the current practice of facilitation based on verbal discussions conducted…

Communicative techniques in English Language Teaching (ELT) have their origins in Western English-speaking contexts and have been transplanted into EFL environments. This has occurred without a great deal of research about how they work in these new situations. Group work is one well known technique of communicative language teaching now commonly…

This article describes how a group of small liberal arts college faculty embraced the opportunity to create a faculty learning circle as an alternative professional development program. We provide a review of the program, discuss the lessons learned, and offer recommendations for future efforts in developing a similar faculty development program.…

On May 17, 2004, the United States will observe the fiftieth anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. By invalidating the doctrine of "separate but equal" in the field of public education, a doctrine that had been approved by the same court nearly sixty years earlier in Plessy…

A conference event is mediated through keynote speeches, power point presentations, professional role-playing and the turgid language of policy agendas, initiatives, benchmarks and outputs. Serious human concerns rarely surface in the orchestrated and anodyne arena of professional conference-going. The ready recourse to ritual and procedure means…

This is an inductive case study of a European-American fourth-grade girl who struggled with print-based aspects of literacy. The study highlights her multiple levels of competency as she participated over time in a heterogeneous literature discussion group that read and responded to three culturally diverse novels. Data include 27 audio-taped…

Serious incidents at school have profound consequences for many people the direct or indirect victims-and often cause major tensions within the school. The school board has few or no means at its disposal for giving a constructive response. The positive results of restorative group conferencing in a judicial framework created the expectation that…

Schools have a responsibility to prepare good citizens. This entails teaching moral education along with transmitting academic knowledge and skills. Moral education should be an explicit aim for every educator. Yet, ethical discourse is largely absent in K-12 classrooms and moral education has a small role in teacher education programs in the…

Maughn Gregory's refreshing essay presents an honest teacher's struggle to square theory and practice. It also demonstrates how difficult it is for any teacher to be public about one's identity, beliefs, and values without inhibiting or tainting the dialogue that promotes student and teacher growth. Gregory's position and goals reflect the…

Sophisticated software such as Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) are rapidly being deployed by universities. Despite widespread use of such systems, experience shows that there is frequently poor pedagogic development, leading primarily to use of VLEs as electronic document repositories rather than as online learning systems in which the…

This article focuses upon the need for character education through examining and promoting the values demonstrated by historical storytelling and encouraging the adoption of values for citizenship development. It is noted that historical figures should not be chosen by political correctness but should be examined instead for their transcending…

The advent of e-learning in higher education has entailed extensive use of online discussion boards to promote collaborative learning among students; however, the role of instructors as online facilitators is typically ill-defined due to a lack of sufficient standards or guidelines for good practice. In their audit of online discussion forum…