Suggests that people think about information as a process rather than a substance. Argues that in order to do this, schools need to slow down and do less, but do it better. Asserts that too much content coverage gets in the way of developing critical thinking skills. (NB)

Applies three distinct analyses to recorded and transcribed student conversations (n=240) about brine shrimps. The complementary analytic methods provide information on the content of pupils' conversations in terms of the observations made, the ways in which pupils make sense of their observations, and the ways in which students use conversation…

Examines shifting discourses of (corporate) leadership in the changing policy context of the English further-education sector, drawing on data from an Economic and Research Council project and highlighting middle managers' experiences. Awareness of varied, alternative interpretations of democratic professionalism may encourage new ways of thinking…

Examines the way Italian-Canadian youth negotiate their identities through their language practices. Views identity as multiple and shifting and shows how eight Italian-Canadian youths in Toronto lean on different aspects of their identities through their daily linguistic and cultural practices across and within multiple worlds. (Author/VWL)

Developmental research and educational practice involve conversations between children and adults. The conversational aspects of these situations have rarely been occasions for reflection. Discrepancies between the child's expectations and the adult's intentions can lead to misunderstanding, for example, at school or during a research interview.…

Science educators have recently begun to enact and study new, collaborative forms of professional development. Yet, few recognize that doing so requires contesting historical meanings of "university-school collaboration" and "professional development," both of which may operate to sustain a hierarchy model of collaboration. The hierarchy model…

The purpose of this article is to report findings from an ethnographic study that focused on the co-development of science literacy and academic identity formulation within a third-grade classroom. Our theoretical framework draws from sociocultural theory and studies of scientific literacy. Through analysis of classroom discourse, we identified…

Verbal marking of affect by older children with Asperger Syndrome (AS) and high functioning autism (HFA) during spontaneous interactions is described. Discourse analysis of AS and HFA and typically developing children included frequency of affective utterances, affective initiations, affective labels and affective explanations, attribution of…

To what extent does the wording and syntactic form of people's writing reflect their personalities? Using a bottom-up stratified corpus comparison, rather than the top-down content analysis techniques that have been used before, we examine a corpus of e-mail messages elicited from individuals of known personality, as measured by the Eysenck…

This article gives an account of an inquiry into two different postgraduate student groups' ways of engaging with a virtual learning environment. Using a variety of data sources, including learning artefacts, interview data, open-ended qualitative questionnaires and online discussion postings, the inquiry captured processes of engagement of the…

Group work offers a viable alternative to the teacher-centered, direct instructional model. However, many teachers have been reluctant to incorporate extensive group work into their teaching repertoire, citing concerns about the amount of English used and off-task behavior. This study reports the results of an analysis of five conversations of…

Background: Those engaged in research might argue that we are involved in a process of explaining the world to others and to ourselves. The way in which we go about that process differs. The kind of questions we are concerned about answering will determine the approach we use, the information we gather and how we analyse the data. Some research…

Background: Research into the practices of speech-language therapists in clinical sessions is beginning to identify the way communication in clinical interactions both facilitates and potentially impedes the achievement of therapy goals. Aims: This target article aims to raise the issues that arise from critical reflections on the communication of…

Drawing on data from a life history study of 11 women, this article explores the ways in which a group of newly qualified female physical education (PE) teachers constructed the "problem" of girls' relatively low participation in PE. It is suggested that, while these women voluntarily expressed a desire to change the gendered nature of PE, during…

There is considerable interest in the role of mental state language in theory of mind development. This study examines cognitive and desire state discourse of 43 mothers during play interactions with their two-year-old children and theory of mind as indicated by a battery of false belief tasks around the age of five. Desire state comments of…