The author asserts that students can get "hooked" on praise to the point that they limit their creativity and manipulate others in search of it. He notes that teachers too may use praise manipulatively. He suggests ways for kicking this habit, primarily through more objective reinforcement messages. Three educators respond. (SJL)

Presents a transcript of a university class discussion and examines the questions it raises about traditional teacher/student roles and about the purpose of education. (GT)

College students taught a lesson on number theory in a "clear" manner learned more than those taught in an "unclear" or imprecise manner by the same teacher. (Ed.)

This article focuses on classroom behavior in the People's Republic of China. (MM)

Details, in a personal narrative, some techniques which have proved effective for enabling student success in the basic writing classroom. (PA)

A study of teachers and their students in five classrooms each at first-, third-, and fifth-grade levels (15 classrooms total) analyzed the discourse expectations of formal classroom lessons to provide an information base for curriculum-based language intervention. Implications for students with communication disorders are considered. (Author/CR)

Contends that if a teacher gives students "good words" (by reading aloud to them throughout the day and giving them plenty of time to read silently), students will give good words back in their writing. Advocates getting children in the letter-writing habit. Shares letters from students over the years. Lists Mark Twain's rules for…

Examines the oral discourse of four university teaching contexts (lectures, laboratories, writing classes, and writing conferences) for the incidence of exchange patterns. Defines exchange patterns and explores previous research on three-part exchanges. Presents new research on two-part exchanges. Focuses on how non-native speakers of English…

Analyzes the behaviors of over 60 student groups in professional writing classes. Finds gender-related effects on collaboration: tendencies to stereotype men as technical experts and to self-segregate into gendered working teams. Suggests new perspectives on the role of gender for collaborative groups in professional writing classrooms. (PA)

Twelve children (ages 4-11) with autism and 12 controls selected their preferred prosody of voice or a story passage recorded using monotonous, conversational, and enthusiastic prosodies. Significant preferences were found for 3 children with autism. Children were less likely to respond if a monotonous prosody was used. (Contains references.) (CR)

Deals with the organization of children's interaction in a school setting where the teacher is absent. Basing the analysis on a 30-minute session where a small mixed-group of pupils are working on a math problem, examines the ways in which the children accomplish the task, the on-task talk through which they organize and work through a particular…

This study investigates the effect of out-of-class communication on learning outcomes. Participants came from a predominantly white public university. The average participant was 21 years old, and had completed 4.66 semesters of college. The results provide evidence that out-of-class communication may play a causal role in student learning.…

The advantages of group consensus testing are discussed, procedures for preparing and testing students by this method are outlined, and research supporting consensus testing is reviewed. (MSE)

Examines strategies that students use to signal comprehension problems in classrooms, specifically, requests for clarification. Finds strategies differ with regard to the type and amount of communicative effort required of participants. (MS)

Suggests using a structured feedback form to facilitate communication between teacher and students. The form has columns for assignments/tests, scores, ways to improve, strengths, and teacher's comments, plus a response column for the student's comments. (MKR)