Questioning is one of the most popular modes of teaching, but it has the capacity to turn a child off to learning if done incorrectly. This digest provides teachers with information on the types of questions and questioning behaviors that can facilitate the learning process and on the types of questions that are ineffective. Good questions foster…

This paper presents a grounded theory study that developed an explanatory theory of influences on teachers' use of classroom discussion. This paper further suggests that grounded theory of this sort should be useful for studying the persistence of recitation under the guise of discussion and for improving instruction with classroom discussion.…

Preliminary efforts to operationalize more fully the concept of the instructional conversation (IC) approach for second language learning are reported, and an observational tool, the IC Rating Scale, is described in an examination of classroom-based reading comprehension lessons. Preliminary data on the reliability and validity of the IC scale are…

National Issues Forums (NIFs) were conducted for adult basic education (ABE) students in a Pennsylvania adult education and job training center. The forums provide a process of sharing thoughts and opinions about areas of pressing national concerns in an open exchange of everyone's opinion. After instructors participated in NIFs, they developed a…

Designed to improve the rigor and clarity of children's reasoning about ethical issues, this book provides a practical, down-to-earth, discussion-based approach to teaching ethics to fourth- through sixth-grade children. The book provides stories, lesson plans, questioning strategies, guidance on using children's books for ethics lessons, and a…

This program guide provides a forum for discussing the different beliefs that influence public policy about homelessness as well as policy goals. The central question is addressed in two parts: (1) what society ought to do for homeless people; and (2) laying out a range of possible answers for part 1. Four possible answers are discussed: help only…

James Berlin has idenitified three common ideological approaches in rhetoric in composition courses crucial to an understanding of how collaborative learning works in writing courses: the expressivist, cognitivist, and social-epistemic. One of the primary distinctions among these rhetorics is how the subject is perceived. In an expressionist or…

The manual offers a process and suggestions to help support groups working to make disabled individuals less dependent on professional recreationists and segregated programs. The manual is divided into 10 steps and can be completed in a 1-day meeting or over a period of weekly meetings. Step 1 focuses on leisure, what it is and how it happens.…

Recommendations are presented for dealing with difficult students and the questions they ask during classroom discussions. Brief ideas are provided for handling argumentative individuals, long-winded questioners, and questions for which the instructor does not have a good answer. A discussion of curved or loaded questions (pseudoquestions)…

Three brief articles present (1) the use of adrenaline related to the preparation and properties of amines; (2) a non-lecture approach to organic chemistry; and (3) the use of comic books in teaching chemistry. (RH)

Relates a study designed to measure the extent to which trust-destroying communication affects verbal fluency of members in small group discussions. (MH)

Authors considered a teacher training course which brings students into closer contact with the classroom. (Editor/RK)

Various classroom questioning techniques are examined. Emphasis is placed on using questions that require higher cognitive operations by the student. This journal is available from 307 Peabody, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514.

Communication among students, faculty, and administration is difficult to establish and maintain in a high school with more than 1,500 students. One attempt to promote communication at Thomas Jefferson High School in Council Bluffs, Ia., is through rap sessions. (Author)