Over the past eight years, the author has had the pleasure of facilitating discussion groups with gifted middle and high school students. These groups focus on affective concerns, giving students the opportunity to talk about issues they have in common and how life looks and feels through the lens of giftedness. The best school situation for…

The authors describe a Web-based classroom experiment with two assets: cash and a stock that pays a random dividend. The interest rate on cash, coupled with a well-chosen final redemption value for the stock, induces a flat trajectory for the fundamental value of the stock. However, prices typically rise above this value during a session. The…

In this article, we address the ways children collaborate to inquire about text in the context of group discussions, addressing the question: How do students stay on-topic and sustain their discussions of text? We speculate that a framework for dialogic discourse, referred to as exploratory talk, allows students to understand that discussions of…

This paper describes how the development of critical reflection in student teachers has been made an explicit part of a teacher education programme. Using a rubric presented by Ward and McCotter, (2004) and supported by an online discussion forum, the rubric was used in a meta-analysis activity where students identified the quality of critical…

This study investigates the influence of interpersonal communication and intergroup identification on members' evaluations of computer-mediated groups. Participants (N= 256) in 64 four-person groups interacted through synchronous computer chat. Subgroup assignments to minimal groups instilled significantly greater in-group versus out-group…

Previous research has shown that questioning is a key strategy that facilitators use to promote discussion in Problem-Based Learning (PBL). Yet, there is a lack of detailed understanding on what questions facilitators ask and how those questions affect discussion. In this study we examined different types of questions that experienced facilitators…

Recitations and discussions are two types of interactions which have long been of interest to researchers who study classroom discourse in secondary English and Social Studies. According to research, teachers control the discourse during recitations through "inauthentic" questions requiring pre-specified answers. In contrast, discussions involve…

The purpose of this study is to examine textual features in Native American children's literature and Native children's responses to these textual features. Culturally authentic children's literature was used to gain insights into children's perspectives as they engaged in responses within literature circles. This study utilized qualitative…

The aim of this study is to further the understanding of foreign language (FL) learners' development of intercultural competence in an instructed learning environment. In this study, second-semester U.S. French language learners enrolled in a Midwestern two-year technical school were directed to access explicit cultural instruction, authentic…

This paper reports on two upper primary teachers' use of particular scaffolding practices, individual discussion and the use of manipulatives. The cognitive and affective impact on four low-attaining students in these classes is described. The teachers and students were observed during eight to ten sequential tasks. "Scaffolding…

In today's culturally diverse classrooms, students possess and use many culturally, ethnically, and regionally diverse English language varieties that may differ from standardized English. This book helps classroom teachers become attuned to these differences and offers practical strategies to support student achievement while fostering positive…

A multiple family discussion group program was implemented and evaluated by school counselors working with families of young children referred by their teachers for aggression and attention problems. The logic guiding construction of the program and the program's unique aspects are described. Outcome data revealed that the program was effective in…

This study examined the effectiveness of introducing elementary teachers to the scholarly literature on personal pronouns and hedges in classroom discourse, a professional development strategy adopted during a summer institute to enhance teachers' social understanding (i.e., their understanding of the social functions of language in science…

Through their study of classroom talk about and around literary text, the authors discovered that their application of Rosenblatt's (1938/1995, 1978) "aesthetic" stance to elementary (primarily Grades 4-6) students' affective responses to literary text uniformly lacked the simultaneous articulation of "the real impact between the…

Ethics education for professionals has become popular in Japan over the last two decades. Many professional schools now require students to take an applied ethics or professional ethics course. In contrast, very few courses of professional ethics for teaching exist or have been taught in Japan. In order to obtain suggestions for teacher education,…