This study of six teachers focuses on the ways they organized the classroom discourse, attended to student thinking, and adapted complex tasks from a Standard-based middle school curriculum. The study explores Cohen's (2011) premise that the knowledge teachers develop is related to their attentiveness to student teaching. This study explores the…

The action research project report was created to remedy a lack of multicultural literature within the regular level sophomore English class and to assist regular level sophomore students' connection to their reading. The teacher-researcher also examined her students' own ethnic backgrounds, cultures, religions, economic status, gender, and/or…

"Strategy sharing" is a certain type of discussion that centers on students' ideas and occurs when children present different approaches to problems and provide information about how they solved the problem (Wood, Williams, and McNeal 2004). A teacher may orchestrate a strategy-sharing discussion to achieve one or more of the…

Previous research into enhancing children's educational dialogues during group work has recognised the role of teachers in modelling dialogue and guiding their students' engagement in reasoning. Whole-class plenaries also offer teachers such opportunities but the technological support of dialogue in plenaries remains relatively unexplored. The…

A problem common to university faculty and students is an implicit sense of inadequacy regarding institutional hierarchies and disciplinary boundaries. Through a focus on multidisciplinarity, learning communities enable members to navigate multiple points of view within, between, and beyond apparent institutional boundaries. After having led a…

Advanced verbal ability is a trait associated with giftedness, and as a teacher, the author observes that many high-ability children flourish in the classroom when they are encouraged to explain their thoughts and reasoning. Engaging children in discussion helps students gain knowledge, think creatively, and develop critical thinking skills.…

Government budget constraints had forced the Emergency Dispatch Center (EDC) at a military installation to work with less than the normal number of staff. A Program Proposal was developed previously that had determined that a learning gap existed in the researcher's work environment at a military installation. To counter this gap, Learning Tasks…

This study explores the potential for the band rehearsal setting to be a reflectively collaborative space. School bands are traditionally large, performance-centered ensembles where discussions between director and student are limited by time and the size of the group. Recognizing the need to base rehearsals less on the conductor's…

Talk is at the heart of classroom instruction and, according to the vast research on classroom talk, the teacher that does most of the talking. Thus, an asymmetry of power is created between teachers and students. These asymmetrical relationships are most obvious in urban elementary classrooms where test prep literacy curriculum has become the…

Experiential education programs seek meaningful ways to connect field experiences to classroom instruction. To illustrate one way to make this connection, the authors drew on Q methodology, a systematic approach for identifying clusters of people who share common viewpoints. Q methodology was employed in a two-year demonstration project with…

This microgenetic study examined social influences on children's development of analogical reasoning during peer-led small-group discussions of stories about controversial issues. A total of 277 analogies were identified among 7,215 child turns for speaking during 54 discussions from 18 discussion groups in 6 fourth-grade classrooms (N = 120; age…

This case study investigated patterns of interaction and participation in a large online course. 88 Korean undergraduates participated in online fora during 2 weeks. It was found that there was a comparatively high portion of metacognitive interaction and higher phase of knowledge construction. However, it was found that students posted required…

This is an experiment in conversation on the topic of "a post-occidental globe". It emerges from a moderated discussion group where members of a class--master's and PhD students--reflected upon a set of resources provided as part of a course in Global Studies in Education at the University of Illinois. The conversation threads were moderated and…

Principals are the front-line administrators being asked to do more with less--strengthening teaching and learning, maintaining morale and building a culture of trust, and creating high expectations while managing scarce resources. Given the challenging roles that these school leaders play, giving voice to principals' needs as well as their…

Intergroup dialogue is designed to foster commitment to action. This article analyzes papers written by students in 52 intergroup dialogue courses (N = 739) to test a theoretical model of how intergroup dialogue is expected to encourage frequency of acting to educate others and to collaborate with others. The theoretical model posits that dialogue…