Maintains that a major source of intercultural misunderstanding is the clash of culturally conditioned perceptions of reality. Describes the use of a family history project in an introductory college sociology course. Provides an appendix including the project description. (CFR)

Provides four sample activities and illustrations to develop students' perceptual skills. Seeks to help teach students that (1) understanding art takes time and effort; (2) personal reactions are important; (3) understanding the culture in which artworks are created is useful; and (4) many different approaches are available for understanding art.…

Fourth and fifth graders (n=38) were trained in four thinking roles (task definer, strategist, monitor, and challenger) through small-group discussions to determine whether they retained and transferred their self-directed critical thinking skills. They applied the thinking roles effectively in comparison to untrained children up to eight weeks…

Shares an experience from a mathematics methods course for elementary teachers that used concrete materials to teach the concept of rounding in different bases. Discusses how this experience modeled recommendations by the NCTM "Professional Teaching Standards" in creating classroom climate and conducting discussion. (MDH)

Describes a problem to challenge students as they come back from summer vacation. Working in small groups, students discover Pick's Theorem, the formula to calculate the area of a polygon constructed on a geoboard. A writing assignment evaluates the students' efforts. (MDH)

Attempts to draw comparisons between the different ways that distance education methods have been used for postsecondary education. Emphasizes the differences in scale, curricula, teaching approaches, and resource levels at different institutions in different nations. Explores problems such as lack of discussion, inflexibility, high cost of…

Describes informal curriculum discourse in a group of graduate students and their teacher who met regularly to discuss curriculum theory and research; examines power structure and assumptions, discussing ways in which habitual responses, roles, expectations, and identities were constructed by intersections of personal, social, historical, and…

Describes "talk-through" model of peer teaching in which student pairs are asked to verbalize their thinking processes as they work through a mathematical problem. Lists five benefits of using this method. (MDH)

Suggests that a discussion-based approach focused on experiences of actual environmental issues, encountered problematically, should characterize environmental education activities. An ecology exercise dealing with organic pollution of a river provides a context for the educational principles and ecological concepts included the study. (24…

Relates findings of an empirical study of student use of an interactive videodisc to theories of learning and to other research findings. A study of 12- and 13-year-old students in England is described that examined problem-solving strategies, learning styles, conceptual understanding, group discussion, and the teacher's role. (Contains 17…

Outlines an instructional framework for peer discussions about literature. Describes two teacher roles: "scaffolding" during peer discussion and "coaching" before and after peer discussion, roles which promote students' social and interpretative abilities to manage their own literary discussions. (SR)

Icelandic teachers discussed perceived changes in their work and students' social interactions during a program to foster students' social competence. The program emphasized classroom discussion on interpersonal relationships and conflict resolution to promote social growth. Teachers believed they gained confidence in handling interpersonal…

A list of reflective strategies that can be used in elementary science methods classes is presented and includes science education autobiography, critical incidents, reaction papers, scenarios, role playing/peer teaching, journal, instructor-student dialogue, and self-evaluation. The reflective approach to teacher education and science, a…

Effects of 2 cooperative conditions on group discussions and metacognitive awareness of 206 fourth- and fifth-graders were examined. Discussions for those in the strategy condition (which emphasized the connection between strategy use and learning) were more focused toward substantive task content than for those in the reward-receiving condition.…

Presents methods and questions for discussion, activities, role plays, and assessment methods for helping students understand the importance of water conservation. (PR)