Argues that student-to-student discussions are effective in clarifying thinking, reviewing concepts, and developing meaning from text. Discusses ways that cooperative learning principles and techniques can provide a framework to encourage true discussions in classrooms. (SR)

A computer bulletin board system (BBS) called "A Place with No Name" was developed for the gifted and talented community in the greater New Orleans (Louisiana) area. The BBS values warmth, responsiveness, and intelligence; has a system of user classes to reward users who contribute most to the quality of discussion; and currently offers…

Presents four Dutch teachers' experiences with concept mapping, identifying features of the concept mapping task that helps it provoke and support a productive student discourse and explaining that the design of the task can affect the quality of student interaction. The paper describes the concept mapping task, student articulation of feelings,…

Compares the assumptions, strengths, and weaknesses of seven approaches frequently used in the public sector to involve large numbers of people in planning and implementing change. The approaches are real-time strategic change, search conferences, future searches, strategic options development and analysis, strategic choice, technology of…

Explores what happens in senior medical student group sessions when students bring their own cases to the groups for discussion. Suggests that most groups run on a case-presentation and discussion format and that students want tutors to act as expert resources and be flexible in allowing students to direct the discussion. (Author/MM)

In this article I discuss an excerpt from a group discussion between five 15-year-old boys who, in the presence of an adult moderator, engaged in the act of "slut bashing" while telling a minimal story about an incident of female promiscuity. The analysis proceeds microanalytically in a three-step procedure that details the positions taken by the…

This article briefly describes a role-playing exercise designed to break the ice in a classroom literature circle from The Ultimate Small-Group Reading How-To Book: Building Comprehension through SmallGroup Instruction, written by Gail Saunders-Smith. The members of a literature circle participate in the group discussion according to the…

This is a summary of some of the issues raised in a recent online discussion forum organized by the IATEFL Young Learners' Special Interest Group. To mark the close working relationship between IATEFL and ELT Journal, and to give our readers access to these discussions, we are planning to publish more summaries of this kind from other IATEFL SIGs…

In this article, the author presents the dangers in group work. He states that one common dilemma is when groups tend to come to agreement too quickly. Another dilemma is when the team is getting bogged down and becoming defensive or adversarial when members express new ideas or introduce new data. Finally, a very common danger is group members'…

The focus of this article is the reliability of content analysis of students' computer conference communication. Content analysis is often used when researching the relationship between learning and the use of information and communications technology in educational settings. A number of studies where content analysis is used and classification…

This study investigated the process by which shared understanding develops in a chat learning space. It used a practical inquiry model to assess the development of cognitive presence. The study also explored how the pattern of conversation in synchronous discussion supports cognitive presence and how cognitive presence changes over time. Results…

This study focused on the effects of peer moderation on meaningful interactions in online discussions. A meaningful interaction was defined as a message relating to a discussion topic, responding to a previous message, and adding substance to the discussion. A randomized-subject, posttest-only control group design was used to test the first…

In this study over the course of one school year, I set out to look closely at what the diverse fifth-grade students in Ms. Jean's urban class were learning from the social justice curriculum. As a former kindergarten teacher at Gonzales myself, in this project I wanted to know what children said, thought, and did when they were asked to read…

P. L. Thomas provides a framework for discussing plagiarism and calls on us to avoid overly simplified policies. After considering various perspectives on intent and the purposes of documentation, Thomas advocates developing standard definitions and guidelines for plagiarism in the department or the classroom. We should also offer professional…

This article describes a study which was designed to explore how sentence openers supported students' construction of arguments in an online learning environment. The study involved a group of students from a teacher training institute in Singapore. As part of the overall teacher training program, the students attended a course that equipped them…