Virtual environments are able to extend the space of interaction beyond the classroom. In order to analyze how distributed cognition functions in such an extended space, we suggest focusing on the architecture of intersubjectivity. The Euroland project--a virtual land created and populated by seven classrooms supported by a team of…

In this study of an Indonesian language class in Australia, I propose that students are agentive in adopting, rejecting and deploying discursive positions within the classroom. There are a range of identities made available in the classroom, only some of which are taken up and privileged within specific moments in the classroom. I apply the…

Collaborative learning may be an approach to for a liberal arts college program to help improve the retention of minority students. The importance of collaborative learning can be seen in the power of collaborative action in the Civil Rights Movement and the Women's Rights Movement. In a collaborative experience the teacher acts as a facilitator…

Current reform efforts in education emphasize role changes for students and teachers within classrooms and schools. A phenomenological study examined one teacher's internal conflict while negotiating the shifting boundaries of power relations between teacher and students. The goal of this study was to explore the processes and constraints involved…

For the past decade there has been a surge of international interest in Japanese education in the wake of its economic and technological successes. This paper discusses eight distinctive features of Japanese education, identifying their advantages and disadvantages and how they have been brought about. These eight features of Japanese schooling…

This digest looks at the communicative approach to the teaching of foreign languages. It is intended as an introduction to the communicative approach for teachers and teachers-in-training who want to provide opportunities in the classroom for their students to engage in real-life communication in the target language. Questions to be dealt with…

While recent arguments often propose that students should be engaged as writers in service to the larger community, the question remains how to engage students as intellectuals, writers, and creators of knowledge in an intellectual setting that mostly asks them to be passive learners. In Project Renaissance, leaving behind the familiar boundaries…

An ethnographic study of a linguistics classroom produced insights into student perceptions of in-class speech that can contribute to the ongoing debate about the place of student participation in academic classrooms. The study was conducted in an elective undergraduate linguistics course at Michigan Technological University. Fifteen classroom…

In second language instruction, it is important to examine the learner's effort in carrying out classroom activities in order to relate teaching activities to learning theories. Any impact of a teaching activity on the learner's language development must result from what the learner does, not what the teacher does or intends for learner to do. The…

The meanings and roles of democracy and education, and the interaction of the two, are some of the most difficult questions society faces. The definition of democracy varies widely from a political mechanism to an ideal. Past efforts to infuse democracy into schools have generally been of two types. One is requiring a greater role for teachers in…

Peer-mediation, an approach whereby students take the responsibility for learning from and teaching one another, is presented as an innovation in ESL classes. A rationale for this approach is presented based on actual classroom situations in which small-group, peer-mediated instruction is utilized. (Author/RM)

Discusses the need for college administrators and student personnel workers to pursue the goal of making higher education institutions places which contribute fundamentally to the growth, development and fulfillment of the individuals involved with them. (EJT)

It is argued that three misconceptions about language learning have limited the utility of performance objectives in individualized second language instruction. These misconceptions--confusion between competence and performance, inadequate identification of linguistic elements, and assumption that linguistic elements correspond to learning…

Reports a study of student and faculty perceptions of the importance of 70 possible attributes of "an effective instructional climate." Students and faculty members alike are concerned more with teaching than with learning. Evidently, students and faculty must be prepared if community college education is to become learning-centered. (DC)

For those who consider themselves teachers, "cultural literacy" is an issue worth pondering. In "Education for Critical Consciousness," Paulo Freire deplores the "banking concept" of education, in which a teacher "pours" knowledge into "passive receptacles," because Freire believes that texts have…