The goal of this study was to increase our understanding of the learning-oriented verbal interactions taking place between students during the problem-based learning (PBL) cycle. The verbal interactions of one PBL group of five students throughout an entire PBL cycle were recorded in this data-intensive case study. The verbatim transcript…

Much has been written about what constitutes effective literacy teaching and learning, the power of effective "teacher talk" and the impact on student learning outcomes. There is a growing body of research into pedagogical change to improve literacy outcomes and the implementation of schoolwide approaches to teaching and learning,…

Thousands of U.S. faculty travel abroad each year to teach host-country students (George, 1995). This study explores the "teach-abroad classroom", defined as "the teaching and learning processes and interactions between faculty and students" in this learning environment (George, 1987, 1995; Slethaug, 2007). Faculty and student…

There has been an increased emphasis for college instruction to incorporate more active and collaborative involvement of students in the learning process. These views have been asserted by The Association of American Colleges (AAC), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and The National Research Counsel (NRC), which are advocating for the…

This dissertation examines the relationship between an instructional style called Interactive-Engagement (IE) and gains on a measure of conceptual knowledge called the Calculus Concept Inventory (CCI). The data comes from two semesters of introductory calculus courses (Fall 2010 and Spring 2011), consisting of a total of 482 students from the…

In this study, twenty-five high school English language learners were observed in their classrooms in a New York City public school while they worked in small groups. All observations were video recorded or done by the researcher while in the classrooms. The videos were then transcribed. Communication strategies that the participants used were…

This study investigated the impact of content-based language instruction (CBLI) on EFL young learners' motivated behaviours, namely attention, engagement, and eager volunteering, and classroom verbal interaction. Situational factors play vital roles in shaping language learners' motivation particularly in EFL contexts. While many private schools…

Students with hearing loss attending general education classrooms have been reported to experience difficulties in social skills and relationships. This 5-year longitudinal study examined the social skills and problem behaviors of students who were deaf or hard of hearing, and who attended general education classrooms. Data were obtained from…

The aim of this paper is to account for language choice and alternation phenomena we have observed in a French complementary school classroom in Scotland. In this classroom, talk can be conducted in French (the official medium of instruction), in English (the other language in contact) and in both French and English. A critical review of the…

The purpose of this classroom-based study was to discover the kinds of skill integration tasks that were employed by English teachers in Kuwait and to measure their attitudes toward implementing the skill integration technique in their classrooms. Data collection involved recording 25 hours of classroom-based observations, conducting interviews…

Grounded in discourse analytic and language socialization paradigms, this dissertation examines issues of language and social identity construction in children attending a Russian Heritage Language Orthodox Christian Saturday School in California. By conducting micro-analysis of naturally-occurring talk-in-interaction combined with longitudinal…

At the time of writing, primary English education is, once again, at a crossroads. Within the context of a continuing focus on underachievement in writing for key groups of learners and a large body of research, which suggests that classroom talk is a powerful means of improving children's success in all areas of the curriculum including writing,…

Mauritius is a linguistically diverse island: most people on the island are native speakers of Mauritian Creole, a French-lexified Creole; English is the written medium of instruction in primary schools and French is taught as a compulsory subject. The discontinuity between the home language and the school languages is viewed as problematic by…

The demographic changes in Greek schools underline the need for reconsidering the way in which migrant pupils move from their everyday culture into the culture of school science (a process known as "cultural border crossing"). Migrant pupils might face difficulties when they attempt to transcend cultural borders and this may influence…

This study examined the impact of two approaches to use of student response systems (SRSs) on achievement in a study designed to better understand effective use of the devices. One condition was anonymous use of SRSs, in which graduate students selected a random clicker when entering the classroom. The second condition assigned devices to students…