Comprehension is the overall goal of reading. One approach to help students increase their comprehension is to discuss a text in small-group settings. Yet, many students struggle to fully engage in meaningful discussions within these groups. Students' ability to retain and share what they read is one reason for this lack of discussion. Teaching…

The primary obstacle that can derail the effectiveness of a debate is one in which few students are involved and all of the energy and learning is limited to a few students. This leaves the majority of students passively absorbing information and does not encourage participation among those students that typically do not talk in class. This quick…

Extensive international research demonstrates that various forms of teacher collaboration can be one of several factors or activities that contribute to teacher learning. However, less is known about how and in what contexts learning can take place in the framework of a collective teacher role in contrast to an individual teacher role. Based on…

A single fact-focused number-string discussion is unlikely to result in all students adopting more flexible and efficient fact strategies; however, these authors have found that repeated engagement in such discussions over time does promote student reasoning about relationships, which in turn leads to increased fact fluency. By cultivating a…

In this research note, the author checks for correlations between different dimensions in an analytic rubric used for scoring discussion performance. Highly correlated dimensions can be cause for concern that the different aspects of performance are not well defined or not adequately observed. The author's analysis showed some weak to moderate…

At the Philadelphia-area manufacturer GGBearings, employees representing every corner of the plant--from the company president to machinists, engineers, and finance staff members--have assembled in the conference room. The balanced mix of men and women varies in age, race, and background. Some are in uniform, others in business-casual dress. A few…

How we engage the community within our institutions, from higher education to social services, requires consistent reconceptualization. Many fields benefit from engaging the community; yet research around practical methods for engagement is limited. This study describes the process of using nominal group technique as a practical method for both…

Classroom discussion is widely used and highly valued for actively engaging students in their own learning. A recent study has shown that cold-calling increases the number of students who participate voluntarily in class discussions and does not make them uncomfortable when doing so (Dallimore, Hertenstein, & Platt, 2013). However, there are…

Traffic congestion and road tolls are familiar economic concepts for most undergraduates; however, students often have difficulty explaining exactly how theoretical principles like externalities and social welfare are related to their real-world experiences, such as driving. The authors present a classroom exercise to demonstrate how congestion…

Using the philosophy of mindfulness is an innovative way to teach about perception. By participating in a mindfulness awareness practice, engaging in an activity with all your senses and being in the moment without judgment, students learn about the concepts of perception and mindfulness; analyze their personal perception process before and after…

Discussion protocols are processes that help groups achieve deep understanding through dialogue (Easton 2009). Protocols can provide structures for practitioners with different interests or perspectives to interact in ways that are productive and inclusive. To best support leadership and college teams, coaches should be aware of when and how to…

Effective class discussions are often frustrated by dual challenges: lack of participation and poor quality of contribution. To address both challenges, we describe an experiential exercise for managing classroom discussion that is based on an adaptation of a classic creativity model. It motivates student participation by generating structured…

The current work reports the results of students' social presence in web-based discussions for their conceptual learning of organic chemistry. The results in this study were collected from the examined students-students, students-instructor, and students-learning materials interactions via the designed web-based discussion. We created an online…

While the multiliteracies framework proposed two decades ago has had a considerable effect on the field of second language (L2) teaching and learning, its successful implementation has been found challenging, both on the conceptual and practical levels. In this paper, we discuss the main hurdles of putting the approach into practice and argue for…

Podcasts are audio files that are automatically delivered to the student's computer, smart phone, iPad or MP3/MP4 player. They can be automatically updated. Students typically subscribe to podcasts using "podcatcher" software such as iTunes. The present study proposes a model for integrating grammar podcasts in teaching English grammar…