Introduction: Since the Japanese government has called for English to be taught through English (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, 2003), there has been increasing interest in English language classrooms in upper secondary schools. The government has proposed English proficiency scores that Japanese teachers of…

Vision and Change states that one of the major changes in the way we design biology courses should be a switch in approach from teacher-centered learning to student-centered learning and identifies active learning as a recommended methods. Studies show performance benefits for students taking courses that use active learning. What is unknown is…

The study reported in this article investigated the influence of a research-informed, school-based, professional development workshop programme on the quality of classroom dialogue using the interactive whiteboard (IWB). The programme aimed to develop a dialogic approach to teaching and learning mediated through more interactive uses of the IWB,…

An interaction is the heart of language teaching and learning. Classroom interaction initially refers to conversational exchanges between teacher, as an initiator, and students, as responders. However, the dimension of interaction in the classroom is not solely on conversational adjustment among interactants. The aim of the study was to report the…

In recent years, I have cultivated an almost pathological resistance to grading. Here I explore the reasons why and describe how I eventually recovered. In particular, I propose that although grading, or more explicitly, effective assessment of student learning, is a challenging component of a mathematics instructor's job description, reflective…

This study explores the foreign language learning emotions of four EFL adolescent students in Romania and the ways in which their emotions emerge in their sociocultural context. Multiple qualitative methods were employed over a school semester, including a written task, semi-structured interviews with the learners and their teachers, lesson…

The practice of a dialogic pedagogy inspired by the writings of Bakhtin is increasingly popular in different parts of the world. This article is an account produced in the spirit of such pedagogy. Two professors (one from Brazil, the other from the United States), both members of an international dialogic pedagogy study group, write together to…

This study explores one novice learner's development of interactional competence in English as a foreign language based on data collected over a 4-year period at an after-school English program in Japan. Using conversation analysis (CA), the study focuses on how the learner develops methods to participate in the multiparty classroom interaction in…

As English-medium instruction (EMI) spreads around the world, university teachers and students who are non-native speakers of English (NNS) need to put much effort into the delivery or reception of content. Construction of scientific meaning in the process of learning is already complex when instruction is delivered in the first language of the…

Objective: This study aimed to describe Discourses on vegetarian food in the Swedish school subject Home and Consumer Studies. Design: The study involved the observation of naturally occurring classroom talk, with audio recording and in some cases video-taping. Setting: The study was conducted during Home and Consumer Studies lessons in five…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between undergraduate student course engagement and several independent variables. Total participants included 300 (N) undergraduate students. Students completed three instruments measuring course engagement, teacher verbal immediacy, and teacher nonverbal immediacy. It was concluded that…

Collaborative problem solving, when students work in pairs or small groups on a curriculum-related task, has become an increasingly common feature of classroom education. This paper reports a study of a topic which has received relatively little attention: how teachers can most usefully intervene when students are working in a group, but have…

Questioning is one of the most frequently used strategies in classroom teaching, as well as the most influential teaching skill. It is a useful way for teachers to output information, to convey information and to obtain feedback from students. Teachers can also use it to communicate with their students. Effective questioning in class can encourage…

This book provides a wide-ranging and in-depth theoretical perspective on dialogue in teaching. It explores the philosophy of dialogism as a social theory of language and explains its importance in teaching and learning. Departing from the more traditional teacher-led mode of teacher-student communication, the dialogic approach is more egalitarian…

Although we now have a growing number of general suggestions for improving instruction in principal preparation programs as well as studies on particular instructional models, there is a dearth of studies that compare the broad range of traditional and innovative instructional strategies available to professors of educational leadership. Moreover,…