Teachers have the ability to influence a child's sense of belonging and peer relationships in the classroom which are important for a child's social development. Currently, little is known about the ways in which they do this. Vygotsky's concept of the social situation of development and Hedegaard's model for learning and development were used to…

Most US students attend coeducational classes, but to what extent do students feel integrated into the entire classroom of their peers, especially with other-gender (OG) peers? The major goal of this study was to investigate how variations in gender integration (GI), measured by students' expectancies about inclusion, efficacy, and social costs of…

Most US students attend coeducational classes, but to what extent do students feel integrated into the entire classroom of their peers, especially with other-gender peers? The major goal of this research was to investigate how variations in gender integration (GI), measured by students' expectancies about inclusion, efficacy, and social costs of…

Get an inside look at the discourse interactions of third- and fourth-grade students as they consider various design proposals to solve an engineering problem and negotiate a group decision. The authors present possible factors that impact student teamwork and provide recommendations for teachers to develop students' skills for group engineering…

Although previous studies have underlined the importance of social interactions, multicultural education, prediction/imagination, and bilingual/bi-literacy learning, the intersection of all these four areas is yet to be explored. This qualitative case study explored how young bilingual readers create meanings and develop literary responses through…

Using data from a 4-year longitudinal ethnography in a multiage classroom, this study followed one "struggling" reader/writer from his first day of kindergarten into first grade in order to explore how time shapes young children's beliefs about reading and writing as well as constructions of literate identities. Using mediated discourse…

This paper aims to demonstrate the importance of controlling for endogenous peer effects in estimating the influence of gender peer effects on educational outcomes. Using Manski's linear-in-means model, this paper illustrates that the estimation of gender peer effects is potentially biased in the presence of endogenous peer effect in education.…

The purpose of the study was to examine Japanese and Korean kindergarteners' perspectives by asking them to photograph play and explain why their photos represent play (photo elicitation interviews). The participants consisted of 50 kindergarteners on Japan's main island and 50 kindergarteners in South Korea. Japanese and Korean kindergartners…

This study examined children's expectancies about interactions with own- and other-gender peers. Goals were to examine expectancies about the outcomes related to own- versus other-gender group interactions, assess cohort and temporal changes in expectancies, and assess the effect of expectancies on school-related outcomes. Students in second and…

In this article, we analyse how and if participation affects the learning experiences of pupils. Our research questions are: (1) What constituted positive learning experiences for pupils in a multidisciplinary learning module? (2) How do the methods used in this study give pupils an opportunity to express negative emotions and participate in…

It is essential for teachers to provide a setting where student interaction is fostered as a mediational tool for learning, thus expediting the natural transfer of language and knowledge among students (Cummins, 1979). Doing so provides students a way of learning in an additive environment (Soltero, 2004). Could such a classroom have the potential…

Using discourse analysis methodology, this dissertation describes the literacy practices of first grade students as they engaged in researching, writing and illustrating nonfiction. The research focused on two instructional units on writing nonfiction that included a poster unit and a research report unit. The data consisted of 27 days of video…

The impact of spoken language skills on the social inclusion of children with hearing loss is of interest for listening and spoken language early intervention providers. This study used spoken language assessments and a parent-report social inclusion survey to investigate this impact for 95 children with hearing loss (M = 5.1 years of age). The…

Peer influence and social interactions can give rise to spillover effects in which the exposure of one individual may affect outcomes of other individuals. Even if the intervention under study occurs at the group or cluster level as in group-randomized trials, spillover effects can occur when the mediator of interest is measured at a lower level…

This study explored the role of school in promoting positive bicultural and bilingual identities through the encouragement of Spanish use in 7 Latino children in 1 kindergarten classroom in North Carolina. Using a case study approach, researchers collected data through participant observations and interviews to examine the classroom practices of…