William Glasser demonstrates the principle of conducting a classroom meeting with a third-grade class in an affluent, suburban elementary school. Class meetings stimulate creative and critical thought. They are a tool to help students to begin to think for themselves. (Author)

This paper describes an online collaborative process among three university classes in a cross-country project. Two of the classes were undergraduate courses at the Indiana University Bloomington and Northwest campuses, and the third was a graduate course at North Carolina A & T State University. Each course was a traditional campus-based…

A study circle is a group of diverse members of a community who meet with a facilitator to find common ground for solutions and actions. The Study Circles Resource Center proposes a program of Community-Wide Study Circles to talk about student success and develop ideas for action in the community and schools. This brochure provides a rational for…

This qualitative study investigated the role of the teacher in student-led literature circles by comparing the types of comments that students made when the teacher was and was not present. Comments were analyzed using specific Essential Academic Learning Requirements (Washington State, 1997) in reading and four other categories including text…

Combining lecture and small group discussion sessions, the course is divided into 5 units each centered about one major concept designed for arriving at some general understanding of a dimension of the total society. Grading is on a semi-contractual basis allowing the student unlimited opportunity to achieve the grade desired as well as desired…

Four exercises to help students get ready for class activities are presented. The exercises are designed to develop skills in listening and following directions, awareness and retention, giving directions, and office problem solving. The exercises involve paper and pencil, newspaper articles, and office problem situations. (MF)

Initial results of this study of post-graduate students using a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) as part of their course showed that both distance and face-to-face students, native speakers (NS) and non native speakers (NNS), working collaboratively on the same course through the VLE, had comparable outcomes on essay assignments and that NNS and…

A study compared the effectiveness of 4 study-group methods with 150 law students in a first year course in property law. None of the following methods was found to be superior: having students respond in essays to questions based on material covered in class; instructor-led discussion; weekly quizzes; or the control (informal study groups). (MSE)

Describes the functions and forms of metadiscourse as an alternative to recitation. Presents an analytic-narrative technique for studying discussion. Offers two illustrative examples from two different middle grade classrooms. (SR)

Describes techniques for promoting conversation in teaching action-research to preservice and inservice teachers, discussing the theory framing the study and examining how conversation was promoted in one action-research class. Data from observations, student work, and student evaluations indicated that students found the techniques for promoting…

Explored Banks' stages of ethnic identity development as a framework for discussing young adult, multiethnic literature in graduate level literature circles. Interviews, field notes, videotapes, journals, and ethnic identity protocols indicated that using the typology stimulated quality discussions, and students reflected on their own ethnic…

Asserts that to implement successful literature groups in which students discuss their responses to a common piece of literature they have read, a teacher must consider setting an appropriate classroom environment, choosing quality literature, forming heterogeneous groups, selecting reading schedules, teaching diverse methods of responding,…

Analyzes the content of 20 "Book Club Discussion Guides" from 13 different commercial publishers to understand the particular constructions of readers and reading embodied in these materials. Finds that the "curriculum" of these guides is not likely to foster a collective cultural or critical reflection on self or world--they…

Describes how an online conference was used in a graduate poetry class with students not accustomed to using technology in their coursework. Suggests that it extended the depth and quality of discussion, opening up new areas of discourse; and that students went beyond assigned topics to create and engage in their own discourse enriched by their…