This dissertation draws on textual reader response theory and humanities-based Disability Studies theories to explores the ways in which preservice teachers participating in a course called "Issues of Diversity in Children's and Adolescent Literature" and their instructor, who is also the researcher, made sense of representations of disability in…

Science is a social process--one that involves particular ways of talking, reasoning, observing, analyzing, and writing, which often have meaning only when shared within the scientific community. Discussions are one of the best ways to help students learn to "talk science" and construct understanding in a social context. Since inquiry is an…

Online conversations help teachers engage in constructive criticism and attend more carefully to aligning lesson plans with problem solving. This article describes a strategy for using an online discussion board to help teachers evaluate one another's lesson plans. The online peer-review activity suggests that fostering critical pedagogical…

Some experiences with a new technique for improving workshop communications. Two references. (LY)

This article aims to shed light on our understanding of how teacher reflection could be fostered through online teacher professional development. In this respect, the presented article starts from three theoretical foundations, namely the characterisation of online teacher professional development, logic modelling and fostering teacher reflection.…

Despite nonnative English-speaking teachers' (NNESTs) professional qualifications and increasing contributions to research in TESOL, the native speaker (NS) myth (Phillipson, 1992) continues to undermine these teachers' sense of professional legitimacy and pedagogical efficacy. Thus, due in great part to the notion of an idealized NS teacher of…

Previous research studies on how to promote student participation in asynchronous online discussions have largely focused on the role of the instructor or tutor as facilitators. Not many investigated student facilitation. This article reports a qualitative study examining the facilitation techniques used by student facilitators to attract their…

This article aims to outline key factors to be considered in the development of communities of enquiry in an educational context and to establish a conceptual and theoretical framework within which much needed empirical work can be carried out. The literature surveyed considers both different types of community and different theoretical positions…

This article addresses an online discussion board referencing a domestic violence related murder trial. Findings from qualitative analyses based on narrative and grounded theory suggest that online discussion boards can help survivors of domestic violence to tell their stories and support each other. The perceived anonymity of Internet discussion…

This study evaluates the effects of teacher candidates' having access to expert teachers' modeling analytic thinking as the experts read case studies used in teaching educational psychology. Videos which consisted of selected segments of multiple expert teachers thinking aloud were developed. In the first experiment, one of these videos was viewed…

The nearly universal requirement of English study in colleges has afforded the language an unprecedented institutional status and given rise to an increasingly large English-literate public in the Expanding Circle countries. Adopting the lens of domestic diaspora, the present study explores Chinese white-collar workers' multilingual creativity…

The primary purpose of this study is to explore the knowledge construction behaviour and cognitive patterns involved in students' online discussion using online forum and Facebook (FB). This study employed quantitative content analysis and lag sequential analysis to examine the content and behavioural patterns of 50 students from a private…

This Teaching Tips describes a yearlong process of facilitating meaningful discussion groups about literature with first-grade students in an urban Title I school. At the beginning of the year, the teacher provided explicit instruction in speaking and listening skills to support students with the social skills needed for thoughtful discussion. She…

Readers, texts, and readings can take unpredictable and seemingly tangential detours that educators might find undesirable and difficult to control. Readers can stray far from the text to seek out desired meanings. In the same way, media outlets can reappropriate favorite literary fictions in ways that can perturb educators and readers alike.…

The purpose of this study was to identify and explain factors that motivate and assist adult, online chemistry students to both enroll and persist in successfully completing general chemistry. Secondarily, the study sought to identify aspects of the online education process that are most challenging for adult, online chemistry students. Using a…