The purpose of this study was to explore enhancers and inhibitors that impacted 4 secondary physical education teachers to make changes in their programs. An interpretivist approach was used to understand the physical educators' change process. Data were collected from document analyses, participant information sheets, interviews, discussion…

Choosing the "right" type of technology, either synchronous or asynchronous, to facilitate learning outcomes is a new challenge as the pace of emerging technologies increases and diversifies. Teachers are encouraged to design courses that require collaboration in online learning communities to facilitate the development of higher order…

The 30 papers presented at Wake Forest University's 1997 Annual Research Forum (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) are as follows: "To Sprint or Crawl: The Effect of Classroom Activities on Student Behavior: (R. Allen); "Generating Good Grammar: Traditional and Whole Language Approaches" (D. Alexander); "Effective Teaching…

Academic mailing lists are formed by scholars and professionals interested in intellectual discussion and professional exchange of ideas. Academic mailing lists focus on academic and scholarly subjects, but they are not immune from "flaming," hostile, insulting language in computer-mediated communication. Two scholarly mailing lists,…

The extent to which television can be used to promote prosocial behavior is examined in this study. A total of 132 boys and girls (age range 8 to 18 years) with behavior problems serious enough to require institutional care participated in the study. The average IQ (WISC) was approximately 88. In the course of a year each of four treatments was…

The purpose of this study was to compare the knowledge and attitude test results of a student-led discussion group in two college-level introductory health courses. The 70 students enrolled in the courses were divided into eight groups represented as equally as possible concerning sex, age, year, and major in school. Student discussion leaders…

Examined friendship formation as developing a common understanding of social reality. Individuals engaged in weekly discussions completed repertory grids and attraction ratings after the 4th and 18th weeks of acquaintance. Deteriorating partnerships were significantly less similar in their assessment of other group members than were developing…

Results indicated that the moral discussion group had a significant impact on the moral reasoning ability of delinquent and predelinquent adolescents as compared with a placebo group and a control group. Findings also indicated that gains in moral reasoning do not necessarily lead to improved classroom behaviors. (Author/ABB)

A study of the effects of variation in student preparation and leadership (emergent vs. assigned) in discussion groups found that both factors influenced verbal inactivity. The leadership effects were explained in terms of interaction-expectation theory and behavior modelling. (MSE)

Used asynchronous electronic discussion groups across sections of a required introductory U.S. Government course. Findings for three course sections show the ways in which initial parameters affect student participation and perceived value. (SLD)

Examines effectiveness of a teachers-as-readers discussion group in (1) suggesting how teachers can use multicultural literature to foster an ethical respect for others and (2) engaging teachers in conversations about multicultural literature that challenge prevailing patterns of school literature discussions. Suggests success of the second aim…

Considers if it is possible for fourth-grade teachers and their students to implement Collaborative Reasoning, an instructional frame that transfers much of the control over discourse to students, during their reading lessons. Shows that the teachers and students were generally successful at implementing the new instructional frame. (SG)

This article reports on an investigation of students' perceptions of an online discussion group conducted using PalTalk, which is Internet-based audio conferencing software. After initial practice with the program, students conducted four group sessions in which they discussed nonconfidential topics related to supervision of counseling. Students…

This paper uses Conversation Analysis to investigate the ways in which participants in an online asynchronous postgraduate reading group managed and negotiated their contributions within the discussion. Using the conversation analytic concerns with sequential organisation, adjacency pairs and topicality, this article shows the analytic insights…

The present study focuses on the use of thinking types as a possible way to structure university students' discourse in asynchronous discussion groups and consequently promote their learning. More specifically, the aim of the study is to determine how requiring students to label their contributions by means of De Bono's (1991) thinking hats…