Ambiguity in discourse is pervasive, yet mechanisms of production and processing suggest that it tends to be compensated in context. The present study sets out to analyze the combination of discourse markers (such as "but" or "moreover") with other discourse signals (such as semantic relations or punctuation marks) across three…

Fractions remain a difficult concept for students at the elementary level. On that ground, prospective teachers need to develop the conceptual knowledge to have a deep understanding of the concept and how the concepts are related to each other. Furthermore, they must be able to explain the concepts through media in the form of concrete objects or…

A growing body of literature focused on the pedagogical relationship between information literacy (IL) and metacognition suggests that facilitating learners' reflections promotes IL learning. However, activating and assessing this relationship is difficult. This article describes a constructivist activity that models for students how to practice…

The importance of argumentative writing has long been recognized. However, many foreign language learners struggle to make effective argumentation and use appropriate language in argumentative writing. In this study, we proposed a blended learning design to address students' problems with argumentation and language use in argumentative writing…

There are few studies devoted to analyze the relationships between the structure of the social network and performance in the online learning process as group. In this study, the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model is used as an analytical framework, along with quantitative content analysis and social network analysis, in order to identify the effect…

This article reports on the development of a new culturally sensitive approach to collecting group discussion data in the Pacific: "veivosaki-yaga." The new approach was developed during a project on Technical and Vocational Education (TVET) in multicultural Fiji. One challenge was to gain understanding from villages of parental…

Today, conferences for academic communities can provide continuous active participation in lectures through an accompanying academic-professional discussion written into a document known as an Internet 'chat'. In this environment, participants are invited to react, ask questions, contribute knowledge, and form a learning community. This pioneer…

Small-group discussions in which teachers and students interact with text are common in language arts classrooms. As documented in the extant literature, teacher discourse moves affect how the discussion unfolds and the resulting quality of the talk. What is not present in the literature is a unified lexicon or taxonomy for defining and…

Students receive little guidance on how to give the oral presentations that increasingly feature in third level modules. It has been observed that several communication tools employed effectively in conversation--in particular stories--are not used in presentations. The aim of this study was to demonstrate this effect and explore possible reasons…

This article highlights the interactional work involved in relational aggression, and how rules and norms around sitting are used by students to achieve exclusion and dominance. This research took place in an English secondary school which educates pupils from Year 7 to sixth form (ages 11-18). Drawing on observation, walk-and-talk and group…

In 2017, the Committee for Economic Development (CED) embarked upon a "listening tour" of business leaders and parents to discuss firsthand information about workplace demands and aspirations for high school graduates. With generous funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the listening tour made stops in five communities over…

In 2017, the Committee for Economic Development (CED) embarked upon a "listening tour" of business leaders and parents to discuss firsthand information about workplace demands and aspirations for high school graduates. With generous funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the listening tour made stops in five communities over…

Small-group discussions in which teachers and students interact with text are common in language arts classrooms. As documented in the extant literature, teacher discourse moves affect how the discussion unfolds and the resulting quality of the talk. What is not present in the literature is a unified lexicon or taxonomy for defining and…

Grounded theory is used to examine the role and application of both educator-led and student-led forums within a virtual learning environment (VLE) of a higher education institution (HEI). The study reports experiences and perceptions of academics in two faculties (business and technology) in the HEI who use both asynchronous VLE forums and social…

What is an action learning set (ALS)? An ALS is a regular, action focused peer discussion group, generally facilitated, to address work place issues. Methods of undertaking ALS: methods are flexible within a range of approaches according to the group's developing needs. Benefits of ALS: builds trust, professional development, enables action,…