Online discussion questions, which reflect differing instructional strategies, can take many forms and it is important for designers and instructors to understand how the various strategies can impact students' critical thinking levels. For the purpose of the study three instructional strategies used in the development and implementation of online…

This paper reports a 5-year design experiment on cumulative knowledge building as part of an international project. Through a longitudinal study and analysis of cumulative research data, we sought to answer the question, "what happened and why in knowledge building?" Research data constitute messages which participants have written into a shared…

A pilot was conducted to test the feasibility and compare the effectiveness of a group approach (facilitated group discussions) to that of a self-guided approach (newsletters) to weight management in postpartum women enrolled in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (baseline n = 151; final n = 64). Mean group…

While strategy instruction research generally focuses on the effect of the teaching on learners' use of the strategies targeted for instruction, the present study examines the "wash over" effect on learners' use of pre-existing, non-target strategies. The study involved a treatment class and a comparison class in the ESL oral classroom…

This paper reports on a study into the untutored ability of Grade 10 students to engage in argumentation about the interpretation of experimental data, and the effect of unsupported small group discussions on this ability. In this study, argumentation intends to promote critical thinking. The sample includes 266 students from five South African…

This article reports part of a wider investigation which is still being developed and analyzes in depth the lives of female university students who are both Spanish and Muslim. The first part of this research was published in the "Revista Espanola de Educacion Comparada," where the results of the study in Madrid are presented. Here, the…

The translation principle allows students to solve problems in different branches of mathematics and thus to develop connectedness in their mathematical knowledge. Successful application of the translation principle depends on the classroom mathematical norms for the development of discussions and the comparison of different solutions to one…

Children's books with characters that have disabilities have been touted as an avenue to introduce children to their peers with disabilities. Children's literature specialists have suggested that the use of these books may result in a more positive attitude on the part of children without disabilities toward their peers with disabilities. Working…

This article describes a new approach to debriefing that uses the discussion forum feature of the Moodle open source course management system to debrief a simulation game with undergraduate business students. The simulation game allowed the students to experience the fragility of trust when sharing knowledge in a global virtual project team. I…

This paper is a reflexive exploration of my teaching and evaluation techniques in a diverse class on minority literature. I explain my classroom evaluation and teaching techniques in offering an African literature course as a junior African professor trained outside the United States and teaching in a predominantly white institution. Using Paulo…

In the knowledge society, the appearance and development of new networked working and learning environments is increasingly common. In the "Accelera" project, which is the basis for this paper, we have developed an online community of practice which enables experiences and knowledge to be shared between various educational agents, and…

The goal of this study was to integrate previous research conducted on student participation in the college classroom. Numerous studies have been completed on engaging students in classroom discussions, but no study has synthesized this information in the form of an extensive literature review. Here, previous research is pulled together to gain a…

The conservation of biodiversity is an important socio-scientific issue that is often regarded as a precondition to sustainable development. The foundation for citizens' understanding of conservation issues can be laid down in formal school education. This research focuses on decision-making discussions about biological conservation issues among…

In this article, we describe a project on reasoning about socio-scientific issues (SSIs), involving French and Australian pre-service science teachers engaged in on-line discussion and development of a wiki. In the research, we developed frameworks for looking at the quality of reasoning about "socially acute" sustainability questions.…

A substantial body of research has collectively concluded that encouraging students to draw flexibly on multiple aspects of their linguistic repertoires is positively associated with developing bilingualism, metalinguistic awareness, and academic skills. However, most bilingual education programs--including transitional and dual-language--limit,…