Outlines a model of classroom discourse analysis that provides evidence with which to establish the operation of two discourses. A secondary purpose is to demonstrate how the method of analysis can expose some significant limitations in much educational practice and to point to ways of addressing those limitations. (32 references) (VWL)

Offers a narrative based on a real event, in the form of a "docustory," describing that moment when teaching worked--when, in an instructional setting, communication was "perfect,""best," or "excellent." Offers a teacher's stream of consciousness observations as he teaches the Gilgamesh epic in a high school…

Discusses perspectives on teaching garnered from 13 stories about teaching in the same issue of the journal, focusing on three questions: (1) When does teaching work?; (2) What is the essence of pedagogical communication?; and (3) What sort of relationship is the teacher student relationship? (SR)

Eight teachers' interaction with their preschool students with deafness, while sharing selected books, revealed that story-reading was more successful when children became involved, teachers followed the text closely in their own words, children had more than one exposure to the text, and when the confusing use of simultaneous communication was…

Presents a portrait of a grade 5/6 classroom engaged in conflict resolution. (SR)

Discusses what was discovered by "Journal of Blacks in Higher Education" staff who sat in on some of Dr. Leonard Jeffries' classes following his freedom of speech court victory against City College of New York. Observations disclose that racially biased and controversial topics are presented in part by Jeffries' lecturers and by his…

Reviews current thinking on the uses of metaphor, and suggests ways in which awareness of, and experimentation with, teachers' metaphors for teaching might usefully be incorporated into training programs. (29 references) (GLR)

Investigates the relationship between teacher immediacy and student state motivation and the combined impact of these factors on learning. Reveals significant relationships between learning and both immediacy and motivation--immediacy appears to modify motivation which leads to increased learning. (SR)

Describes a study done by the Middle School Math through Applications project (MMAP) on informal assessment. Discusses some valuable techniques that MMAP teachers and researchers developed for organizing informal assessment so that it produces a coherent story of student progress, helps students make more progress with greater focus, and…

Illustrates how examination of children's "condensed" utterances can reveal the emergence of complex thought processes. Shows how these expressions, often brief and easily overlooked, when negotiated and probed by the teacher, reveal multiple connections, the drawing of analogies, divergent frames of reference, intertextual…

Focuses on one central aspect of epistemological mathematical knowledge, namely the problematique of how mathematical signs and symbols gain meaning in the interactive social processes of teaching and learning. Describes a teaching episode and analyzes it from an epistemological perspective. Identifies three components of epistemological knowledge…

Reports on a study in which two Israeli seventh-grade classes, one consisting of mostly females and the other gender balanced, were monitored. The two teachers manifested different communication styles and did not have any bias against females. Findings indicate that gender, academic composition, and teacher communication style are important…

Based on a database of lesson extracts, this article attempts to characterize task-based interaction in the second-language classroom as a variety, discusses its pedagogical and interactional advantages and disadvantages, and considers what kinds of learning it might be promoting. (Author/VWL)

Presents an alternative pedagogy implicit in Imre Lakatos's "Proofs and Refutations: The Logic of Mathematical Discovery." Lakatos reveals that learning mathematics is a discourse-laden activity in which it is acceptable, if not preferable, to refute conjecture. Provides examples of using a Lakatosian approach in an elementary classroom.…

Drawing on research from the field of communication, this article proposes a framework that identifies, classifies, and organizes foreign language teachers' nonverbal behavior. It describes an observational study in which each nonverbal behavior in the framework is defined and illustrated as it occurs in a foreign language class. (Author/VWL)