Many college freshmen find it difficult to explore their ideas about writing in the presence of teachers who have already decided the agenda for their student-teacher conferences. Teachers often feel compelled to lead the conversation and fall into an authoritarian model of interaction, "depositing" knowledge into students and ignoring…

The situation in Hong Kong secondary schools, where teachers of remedial English use some Chinese (Cantonese) in their classes, prompted a study of the question of language use in such classes. A literature review found very few instances of a researcher trying to implement theories or suggestions in a classroom. A needs assessment questionnaire…

Aware of some educators' concerns that computers isolate children and are too abstract for chilren under the age of eight, two studies investigated young children's use of LOGO and their interactions with the computer. Data were collected on kindergartners working in a public school computer lab and on preschoolers using computers in a…

Since the essence of teaching is communication, one of the core areas of the liberal arts component of teacher education should be speech communication. Teachers need oral communication skills to effectively facilitate learning, manage the classroom, and make professional decisions. A course designed to be both theoretical and practical--providing…

Expectation research has frequently assumed that teachers respond differently to students, based upon their perceptions of student ability. Because general student behavior is correlated with ability, however, it is possible that teachers are responding to differences in behavior rather than ability. A study examined the relationship between…

To provide a clear idea of the specific teacher behaviors involved in questioning and how these behaviors relate to each other, this paper develops a conceptualization of the interactional components of questioning and reviews research evaluating the benefits of alternative questioning techniques. The paper first describes different methods of…

Conducted as part of a research program examining teachers' use of compliance gaining strategies to control specific student misbehaviors, a study investigated the strategies used by experienced teachers in dealing with student misbehaviors. The purpose was to compare the findings with those of an earlier study with prospective teachers. Subjects…

Certain scholars in anthropology and education have recently suggested as an approach to combat school failure for minority students the concept of cultural congruence--the idea that learning is best accomplished in classrooms compatible with the cultural context of the communities they are supposed to serve. Although this concept is yet to be…

It is proposed that since patterns and routines seem to be of great importance in the early stages of first and second language learning, classroom conditions can promote similar early progress, both holistically and in the development of an internalized generative grammar. In addition, a modeled text is found to be more productive than unmodeled…

This study elaborates the cultural categories of meanings used by seventh-graders at a junior high school to describe their teachers. It examines the common expressions students used in open-ended interviews to describe their teachers and their experience within these teachers' classes. A semantic structure that underlies the terms that students…

To explore how fifth grade students used their oral language in small group discussions to remake information, a study set up a series of small group tasks in the curriculum areas of social studies, current events, science, poetry, and mathematics for one class of 28 Canadian students. Students were randomly divided into seven groups of four…

This paper reports research on differences between teaching in the primary and intermediate grades. Hypotheses concerning differences in teacher behaviors, teacher communications, grouping, teacher control, and types of materials were developed. Six 1st- and 2nd-grade classes and five 4th- and 5th-grade classes were observed for four 45-minute…

This handbook for teachers highlights issues related to the verbal participation of limited-English-proficient (LEP) students in the classroom, and provides suggestions for encouraging and integrating LEP students more fully into the ongoing verbal interaction in the regular classroom. The handbook's suggestions are based on the results of a…

With recent developments in assessment and syllabus formats in Ireland, the foreign language classroom has changed considerably, especially in the promotion of oral skills at the upper levels. Differences are found in the variety of classroom activities, with the emphasis now on group activities, and in the organization of learning and…

A brief questionnaire examining how teachers' rules of conduct facilitate learning was answered by 20 teachers in a Northeastern urban elementary school. Only two of these, from the upper levels, posted written rules. Verbal rules regarding inappropriate talking and seat leaving behavior were most frequently issued across all grades. Also issued…