A law student's narrative about experiences in law school reveals how helpful the ability to understand and tell stories has been in her success in learning and practicing constitutional law. (MSE)

To address concerns that college students do not develop adequate oral communication skills, guidelines are offered to faculty for designing oral presentation assignments within their courses, developing grading criteria, guiding students in their preparation for speaking, and addressing some of the unique challenges of this process, which include…

Presents findings from an analysis of classroom discussions aimed at constructing shared knowledge. Demonstrates how students build up new concepts by renegotiating and sharing meanings and ideas during argumentative exchanges. Suggests that collaborative discourse-reasoning can support students' gradual mastery of discursive practices…

Shows how students can use persuasive principles of communication (format and writer's purpose) and of classical rhetoric (organization, ethos, pathos, logos, and style) to improve their ability to analyze business letters. Shows how applying these principles to the analysis of business letters from other countries helps students write better and…

Examined whether and when children use information about others' mental states to invent or select persuasive strategies in three studies. Found older children, but not preschoolers, used belief information in stories to select arguments; and kindergartners' and first-graders' reasoning on false belief tasks suggested the failure to consider…

Responds to John E. Petrovic's article entitled "Moral Democratic Education and Homosexuality: Censoring Morality." Argues against Petrovic's notion that teachers must portray homosexuality positively and ignore their beliefs against homosexuality. Believes instead that when teachers educate their students about sexual orientations they must…

Discusses teaching argument using participatory action research (PAR), a recent phrase for the old idea of learning by practice. Describes the use of hypothetical cases that provide a context-rich series of overlapping issues, which involve students as principals, and which are addressed and resolved through reading, analysis of various arguments,…

Argues the limits of reductionism vis-a-vis computational-algorithmic approaches to music education and computers. Presents four paradoxes to support the notion of the mind as more complex than a cognitive device that could be simulated by computers. Warns about the limits of computational devices and false notions of an all-encompassing…

Responds to the article "The Past Need not be Prologue: Why Pessimism about Civic Education is Premature" by Stephen Earl Bennett. Addresses Bennett's (1) use of argument-by-exemplars, (2) discussion of William Bennett Munro, and (3) comments on the poor state of political science, increasing commitment to civic education, and attracting students.…

Shows how heterogeneous the theoretical reconstruction of intrinsic motivation is in both empirical pedagogics and pedagogical psychology, which research questions are being posed, and to what kinds of phenomena the respective conceptual variants are applicable. A critical-comparative analysis reveals that there are differences between the…

Asserts that the study of elites should be included when teaching modern world history, since elites significantly shaped the modern world. Explores sources of misinformation resulting from the failure to teach students about landed elites. Discusses how not everyone was happy to see the old elites disappear. (CMK)

Evaluates the usage of five concepts in the study of Islamic and world history that serve to perpetuate the image of Islamic civilization as the Other: (1) Middle East; (2) East and West; (3) Judaic-Christian heritage; (4) Islamic fundamentalism; and (5) jihad. Argues for replacing these concepts. (CMK)

Addresses the question: How do the modern theories of international relations account for the origins of the Peloponnesian War? Creates an historical fiction of Athenians debating the war's origins. (CMK)

Criticizes the Grade 11 Social Studies Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP), stating that it lacks incentives for all students; is not truly an exit examination; drives changes in local curriculum; and is too heavily grounded in structuralist assumptions. Appeals for a progressive redirection of the Social Studies MEAP. (CMK)

Examined possibility that increased speech rate affects persuasion either by acting as an agreement cue or through impact on message processing. Fast speech inhibited participants' tendency to differentially agree with strong versus weak message arguments under both moderate and high relevance. However, fast speech was associated with increased…