This paper presents both a conceptual and empirical investigation of teaching and learning in online courses. Employing both the Community of Inquiry framework (CoI) and the Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO) taxonomy, two complete online courses were examined for the quality of both collaborative learning processes and learning…

The purposes of this study were (1) to develop a teacher training program that integrates knowledge management (KM) and blended learning and examine its effects on pre-service teachers' professional development in creativity instruction; and (2) to explore the mechanisms underlying the success of such KM-based training. The employed KM model was…

This article draws from an evaluative case study of a group work approach--Support Groups--designed by the author to support pupils perceived as having Social and Emotional Behavioural Difficulties within a Secondary school situated in an area of multiple deprivation in Scotland. The study, which is principally qualitative, draws from the accounts…

Background: To develop pupils' team invasion games (TIG) performance within physical education (PE), practitioners have traditionally adopted teacher-centred, skill-focused approaches. Teaching Games for Understanding and the Tactical approach are alternative approaches to TIG teaching that aim to develop overall game performance, including…

Describes four general teacher competencies for conducting ordinary whole-class discussions. (author)

Authors offer seven content manipulation techniques teachers can use successfully in leading discussions in almost any classroom situation. (GB)

This study focuses on how to support students who have to work together in small groups, and who do not know each other, in performing grounding discussion. It compares two different implementations of a script, one using a structured interface, one using a textual instruction, on students' discussion behavior. The experiment involved two…

This research project examines classroom discussion in its relationship to reading as made visible through the practice of textual annotation. In order to develop a rich description of student reading/discussion processes, we targeted multiple undergraduate seminars at a liberal arts college as they encountered the first two Acts of Shakespeare's…

Comprehension has often been conceptualized in ways that privilege either the "right" understanding of a text (comprehension-as-outcome), or getting to that "right" understanding (comprehension-as-procedure). This article makes a case that we should, instead, teach with an eye toward fostering comprehension-as-sense-making--a socially purposeful…

The Provocative Question icebreaker encourages students to ask questions, cultivating a lively, interactive, student-centered climate. It engages all students, empowers them to initiate conversations, and stimulates their knowledge construction. Although this activity lends insight into students' thinking, it is dangerous to make hasty assumptions…

The purpose of this article is to describe a classroom approach for training counseling students in the area of cross-cultural competence. The authors describe real scenarios that form the foundation for an intensive classroom discussion and lecture format regarding cultural awareness, knowledge, and skills.

Tishman argues that directing students to closely examine physical objects is an excellent way to motivate and strengthen thinking. Even simple objects reflect the social and physical contexts in which they were created and can spur deeper observations and questions. Teaching thinking through objects appeals to many different kinds of learners and…

Newly hired faculty and their needs have been studied in various arenas in higher education. However, there is limited research documenting current newly hired faculty programming in Canadian institutions of higher education. The present study attempts to capture the various types of professional development programs for newly hired faculty at…

For the forty-second time, the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Proceedings of AECT's Convention are published in two volumes. Volume 1 contains 37 papers dealing…

Online learning critically relies upon good communication between engaged parties in order to convey ideas, meanings, and values. Emerging technologies in collaborative virtual environments are providing new affordances in establishing greater online presence and, in turn, greater abilities to communicate and learn. This study examines how…