Focus groups conducted with 17 working adults found they were attracted to a degree completion program because of the adult learning environment, flexibility, applied content, and collaborative climate. The high level of participation, quality of responses, and dynamic group interaction confirmed the usefulness of focus groups for continuing…

Describes the establishment of a hermeneutic circle of portfolio researchers (writing teachers from Alaska to Florida) acting as "outside readers" for each other--six months into the project, the group established an e-mail network called "Portnet." Contemplates the group's experiences during Portnet's first year. (PA)

Contributes to scholarship on communication in groups, and to scholarship on decision-making processes, by discussing five communicative challenges juries face in the course of their deliberations. Reports results of a content analysis reflecting the rules invoked for each of these situations by 97 citizens summoned for jury duty. (SR)

Describes the "parent panel," an approach to building appropriate communication, resolving conflicts, and creating mutual respect between teachers and parents of children with disabilities. Delineates benefits to parents and teachers, describes how to organize the parent panel, provides content guidelines, and provides an example of a panel…

Teachers can improve practice by examining students' work collaboratively. This paper describes how student work can be the basis for collaborative discussions about teaching and learning; notes that collaborative discussions of student work is increasing with the growing use of portfolio assessment; explains how to analyze student work to promote…

Describes a method for using case studies in which student groups alternately present and discuss cases. Discusses balance in team selection, the benefits of exposure to varied perspectives, and the adaptability of the technique as well as the potential for both group and individual assessment. (SK)

Discusses the importance of talk in the classroom, in particular talk about books. Includes student conversations and comments about such discussion, and the lack of it in their classrooms. Describes what such discussion has to offer to individuals, classrooms, and society. Notes the difficulties of achieving discussion in the classroom. (SR)

Describes some of what educators have learned about the complex task they ask students to tackle when they put them in peer groups to talk with each other about their writing. Analyses the work of one peer revision group and illustrates the complicated work that students can engage in as they struggle to justify their writerly decisions to their…

Provides insights into the design of effective educational planning conversations derived from the metaphor of enthalpy (the amount of heat energy released when chemical reactions occur). Interprets enthalpy changes in the context of energy and the dynamics necessary to sustain an effective systems design conversation. (AEF)

States that the contrast of face-to-face communication with computer-mediated communication (CMC), either experimentally or experientially, may be a valuable way for teaching group dynamics and group decision making in educational settings. Suggests several ways to facilitate the use of CMC in single-session experimental and experiential…

Examines the effects of process structuration by means of a training video on maintenance behavior and outcomes in 55 student virtual decision-making groups. Finds that trained groups had higher levels of social support, greater participation rates, and greater satisfaction with the group; wasted less time and energy; and made significantly more…

Uses the Gregorc Style Delineator (1982) as the basis for translating learning style theory into the following developmental education teaching practices: teacher-led lesson presentations, student group discussions and projects, independent assignments, and testing situations. Notes that most of the ideas presented should also apply to other adult…

Defines active learning as students actively involved in the learning process. Suggests that to learn actively, students need to know their learning styles and engage with the subject matter. Concludes that students who know their learning styles and are allowed to choose time management methods, note-taking systems, textbook marking methods and…

Explores the inadvertently harmful effects of questioning and brain-storming but goes on to argue that these techniques can enhance pupil autonomy and motivation if properly used when such intentions are made clear. Includes some classroom management suggestions to facilitate the constructivist teaching approach and counteract the prevalence of…

Presents a teaching method that provides students with the necessary tools to analyze college-level poetry. Suggests that because reader response has greatly overplayed its corrective to "New Criticism," the HEI (Hypothesis-Experiment-Instruction) method of teaching literature could serve as a third choice among teachers interested in avoiding the…