Describes how the authors introduced and organized small-group literature discussions in a first-grade bilingual class. Discusses the four most frequent types of student responses in discussions: living through the experience; looking closely at text and illustrations; exploring social issues; and making connections (to other books, life…

Compared effects on achievement and verbal interaction of a cooperative learning instructional program promoting basic communication skills and academic helping skills (experimental condition) with those of a program promoting only basic communication skills. Results with 166 seventh graders show more elaborated help and higher achievement for…

Evaluates a pilot study conducted at the University of Glamorgan that investigated whether group process support technology has the potential to improve the learning experience of students in seminar groups by increasing participation and focusing debate. Describes how the use of the technology was varied among groups and suggests further…

This article describes the library media program at John Glenn Elementary School (San Antonio, Texas). The program's goal was to increase student involvement in the teaching/learning process through a library media program that would generate excitement, intensity, and commitment. The three strategies they employed to achieve this goal were: (1)…

A team of first-grade teachers began to question their literacy/phonics program, which used a whole-class format for instruction. The teachers felt that teaching the whole class did not allow them to meet the diverse needs of all their students. One of the teachers introduced the rest of the team to developmental-spelling research (i.e., research…

This article outlines the rationale for and development of a small group piano teaching approach for application in the higher education environment. The influences on and the rationale for current preferences in the piano teaching field are considered, prior to an investigation of the literature, which reveals a number of issues of concern in…

This paper explores the contribution of virtual tools to student learning within full-time management programmes. More specifically, the paper focuses on asynchronous communication tools, considering the scope they offer for group-based collaborative learning outside the classroom. We report on the effectiveness of this approach for an economics…

Long an advocate of literature circles, Daniels recaps the history of literature circles and cautions against the "terminology drift" that labels practices as literature circles when, in fact, they are not. He offers resources that anchor best practice in this area, and discusses how the concept is evolving and expanding. He also introduces us to…

This study compares teaching and learning activities in 4th and 5th grade classrooms that were permanently equipped with one laptop for each student and classrooms that share a cart of laptops that create a 1:1 laptop environment on a temporary basis. The study originated from a question posed to us by Andover Public Schools (MA): "How does…

Based on 198 independent findings from 71 studies with experimental or statistical controls, the results of this meta-analysis indicate that, on average, students learning with computers in small groups attempted a greater amount of task (d + = +0.15), used more learning strategies (d + = +0.36), had more positive attitude toward small group…

In any classroom, pupils will be drawn together for many purposes and we can refer to such within classroom contexts as "groupings". The teacher often creates these, and the way that they are set up, and how they are used for particular learning purposes. If the relationships between grouping size, interaction type and learning tasks in…

Objective: Psychotherapy instructors have used video technology to train residents for over 40 years. Though it has met with some controversy, many will argue that videotape review is essential for self-directed learning and accurate psychotherapy supervision. Methods: The author describes a technique of small-group videotape training as provided…

This article describes a teacher's approach of implementing hands-on musical experiences and expanding her repertoire of interesting activities that engage students and instill in them a love of music while remaining true to the philosophy and practice of Montessori education. The author shares her vision of Montessori music education which is a…

In Florida, a group of paraprofessionals worked with students struggling to read at grade level. The students' gains show that the intensive attention of these professionals to small groups of students can make a significant difference. This article presents a study about the effectiveness of paraprofessionals' and teachers' instruction for…

Purpose: The extant literature suggests that exposure to novel vocabulary words through repeated readings of storybooks influences children's word learning, and that adult elaboration of words in context can accelerate vocabulary growth. This study examined the influence of small-group storybook reading sessions on the acquisition of vocabulary…