This article presents a conceptual framework for the research and practice of educational computer conferences that shifts the focus from the on-line messages being exchanged to the participants' engagement with the conference. This framework, known as the "Iceberg Metaphor" or the "Michigan Model of educational…

The purpose of this study was to create the portrait of a teacher educator implementing the case study method to determine what knowledge helps a teacher educator facilitate a case study discussion and what dilemmas teacher educators may encounter when teaching a case. Two portraits titled "Dealing With Discipline and Classroom Management…

This report is based on an in-depth study of early education in five multicultural primary schools in England's West Midlands. The aim of the study was to identify developments and features of organization that facilitate communication between teachers and children and among the children themselves. Specifically examined were the abilities of 247…

Teachers of English as a second language need classroom communication activities to help students develop communicative competence. A procedure which uses a group-learning approach and which ensures real communication is the "Strip Story," an adaptation of scrambled story exercises in which each student is given one sentence of a story…

The Minnesota Project on Ethnic America inaugurated an experimental program to explore the problems of a culturally diverse college population in a small setting. The program utilized techniques borrowed from related programs and reflects recent social sciences findings on the continued impact of the ethnic factor in American society. The…

This paper discusses Mapping Temporal Relations of Discussions Software (MTRDS), a Web-based application that visually represents the temporal relations of online discussions. MTRDS was used to observe interaction characteristics of three online discussions. In addition, the research employed the Practical Inquiry Model to identify indices of…

This study verified the efficacy of the intentional repetition technique in improving interaction in asynchronous online discussions by taking into account the learning styles of the participants. A conceptual framework served for the development of the technique, which conceptualises efficient and cohesive interaction on a continuum of process…

In this quasi-experimental case study, we compared five sections of a basic undergraduate technology course. Within an asynchronous web forum, pre-service teachers wrote short critiques of websites designed by their classmates. This peer feedback was provided anonymously by students in two classes (n = 35) whereas providers and recipients of peer…

This study was designed to combine the voices of advocates for a multicultural teacher education curriculum with the voices of advocates for the case study method in order to explore the possibilities of addressing multicultural issues in preservice teacher education coursework. To examine how preservice teachers make sense of diversity through…

This study examined the effect of an experimental educational psychology course on preservice teachers' ideas about teaching. The experimental course immersed students in writing as a response to reading, writing to reflect on previous beliefs, and a teaching model to help students question their experiences and beliefs founded in previous school…

This report summarizes several group discussions with parents of high school students, high school students, and nursing students regarding the world of work and the advantages and disadvantages of a youth apprenticeship program. Section I is an executive summary that describes the methodology, summarizes key attitudes toward youth apprenticeships…

Sentences are understood by outlining associative relations between the concepts representing the meanings of the words. When the words are received the activation spreads from their conceptual counterparts to the other concepts in memory, so that some implicit thoughts are often added to the mental representation of a sentence. As sentences are…

To determine the relative contribution of team competition and peer group practice sessions to the effectiveness of a classroom instructional technique, Teams-Games-Tournament (TGT), 299 seventh grade mathematics students participated in an experiment varying reward system (team vs. individual competition) with practice mode (group vs.…

This study analyzed student contributions to an online interactive discussion forum. Participants included six graduate students enrolled in a graduate education course; the instructor also contributed to the online discussions. Students read articles, posted commentaries, and responded to each other on weekly discussion topics. Students also…

The disparity between the ethnic and cultural makeup of our teaching force and the ethnic and cultural makeup of the student population demands initiatives on the part of teacher preparation programs. Preservice teachers need to learn about the various cultures of their students in order to increase communication and understanding. As preservice…