This article describes the evaluation of separate discussion sections for special admissions students participating in a developmental program and attending an introduction to psychology course. In year one, the special admissions students were segregated into separate small enrollment discussion sections within the larger course. In year two,…

Contemporary discussions of education in blended-learning environments increasingly emphasize the social nature of learning which emphasizes interactions among students, or among students and instructors. These interactions can occur asynchronously using a text based discussion forum. A text-based discussion forum, however, may not work well for…

Online instructional design and how to engage students cognitively in online asynchronous courses have been an ongoing question. This case study presents an intentional design of an asynchronous online graduate course to foster cognitive presence. The research questions investigate students' cognitive presence (CP) captured by two measures:…

With increasingly rapid advances in machine translation (MT) technology, such as Google Translate, MT has become an indispensable learning resource for second or additional language learners. Many studies indicate that MT or postediting of MT (PEMT) can be an effective tool for L2 learning and teaching. Nevertheless, little research illustrates…

Research indicates that peer interaction in the online classroom engages students in academic reflective deliberations. This study assesses student peer interactions on a purposefully designed collaborative website in an American politics course offered across two courses. Significant evidence reveals that students are open, candid, and…

In the past decade, misinformation has become more challenging to decipher. While separating fact from fiction has always been difficult, it has only grown more difficult with the increasing ubiquity of social media and ongoing political polarization. This is especially the case for students with disabilities, who have traditionally struggled with…

Peer-mediated instructional strategies such as cooperative learning are commonly used in general education classrooms in secondary schools; however, students with disabilities often lack the group interaction and discussion skills necessary to fully benefit from evidence-based interventions. The present study used a multiple baseline across…

The concept of communities of practice (CoP) was first introduced by Lave and Wenger in their short monograph, "Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation." Since then, the concept has become immensely popular in a variety of disciplines. This dissertation traces the concept of CoP back to its inception and early transformation at the…

School violence is a complex cultural problem that affects most schools. This study used a participatory action research model involving mapmaking, photography and intercultural grouping to understand how one school's physical environment and social geography contributed to interethnic tensions on campus. The study found that mapmaking allowed…

Online learning is an important and rapidly growing area, and asynchronous discussions are a vital component of online courses. This doctoral study examined the influence of discussion moderator messages, specifically messages with direct instruction content, had on those discussions. This study obtained data from content analysis of course…

The influence of asynchronous discussion in a virtual learning environment, Blackboard, on subsequent coursework grades was examined with 166 psychology students to determine whether asking questions of the tutor online, and/or reading the questions and the given advice, influenced the grades on the report they were writing. A repeated-measures…

Diagrams illustrating research on discussion forum content in online education practices can assist to clarify an author's thoughts and assist with the reader's comprehension. A review of past practices in the use of diagrams to explain, demonstrate or propose research findings shows a diversity of practices emerging from naturalistic settings.…

In recent decades, changes in society have deeply affected the internal organization and the main goals of schools. These changes are particularly important in science education because science is one of the major sources of change in peoples' lives. This research provided the opportunity to investigate how these changes affect the way teachers…

This work aims to investigate the reflective thinking instructional model for enhancing empowerment of pre-service and in-service educational students in Roi-Et Rajabhat University, Thailand. In this research, qualitative methods, observation, interview, short note, and group discussion were used to indicate students' desirable learning outcomes,…

With the rapid advancements of technology, online communication in both K-12 and post-secondary instruction has been widely implemented. Instructors as well as researchers have used various frameworks to evaluate different aspects of online discussions' quality. The online discussions take place synchronously or asynchronously in chat rooms,…