Dialogic talk affords students opportunities to share ideas and co-construct knowledge while developing various literacy skills such as perspective taking, text comprehension, and argumentative reasoning. In this study, we examine how seventh- and eighth-grade students in four classrooms discuss a controversial topic about changing a National…

Sexual health education in the United States is seeing increased attention and is often viewed as a controversial topic. To better understand young adolescents' experiences within an LGBTQ+ inclusive sexual health education program ("Get Real"), we utilized Situated Expectancy-Value Theory to investigate 53 responses from 30 students…

With the development of the Internet as a main source of information, teenagers are increasingly faced with multiple documents which may contain contradictory statements, and whose reliability must be assessed. One way to assess information reliability is to evaluate the source of the information (e.g., author expertise, intention). However,…

This article describes an informal study that focused on teaching eighth graders to take a critical stance and talk back to texts. In this era of "fake news," "alternative facts," and what has been called a "post-truth" culture, it is imperative that students do not simply accept everything they read, see, or hear at…

In today's world, there is too much information pollution and people circulate it without questioning, and the claims on controversial issues often contain fallacies and conspiracy theories. Considering this point of view, it is necessary to create citizens who critically evaluate information. In order to achieve this goal, science educators need…

As the school National Science Curriculum in Turkey includes topics such as human reproduction, hormonal growth and adolescent health, elementary school science teachers (ESTs) are required to teach sexuality-related topics to their students. However, studies have shown that teachers in Turkey, like their counterparts in many other countries, have…

In this article, the author uses lesson reflection as a way to consider ethical issues that accompany teaching with texts that include death. More specifically, the article examines the relationship between moral education and analytic or skills-based education.

The endorsement of anti-corruption norms is a normative assumption in legal systems with freedom of information acts, where citizens are expected to act as monitors of the public service. Tolerance of corruption counteracts this assumption. We studied tolerance of corruption among 8th graders from Latin-American samples of the International Civic…

Oslo Accords have stringently underscored that both rivalries, the Palestinians and the Israelis, must abstain from incitement to terror and violence. Their educational systems, consequently, have to refrain from convulsive, fundamentalist, and heinous skirmishes leading to stalled reconciliation. History school textbooks are deemed, from both…

In this article, Cindy Coe describes how after wrapping up her eighth grade "To Kill a Mockingbird" unit, one of her students came to her about derogatory terms being used around school and expressed that she wanted to do something about it in light of their recent unit. In a meeting with the principal, the student shared her frustration…

This case study investigated how two 8th-grade teachers planned for, delivered, and reflected on their teaching of the 2016 Presidential Election. Data sources included classroom observations, teacher interviews, and lesson plans. Despite integrating student-centered lessons about the election with social and political events in US History from…

Being challenged by opposing views in a controversial discussion can stimulate the production of more elaborate and sophisticated argumentations. According to the model of argument reappraisal (Leitão, 2000), such processes require transactivity, meaning that students do not only give reasons to support their own position (e.g., pro/contra…

Although policymakers stress the importance of education in promoting peace, little research examines the ways that schools prepare students affected by conflict to participate in the restoration of peace in their political community. Post-conflict societies experience severe challenges in strengthening political processes and social cohesion.…

This article examines what can happen when teachers and students work to create a critical dialogic space, taking up issues of race, culture, and privilege in classroom discussions. The study focuses on middle school students of culturally and economically diverse backgrounds as well as their 2 White teachers. In English and social studies…

The internet abounds with free science education applications. But, on their own, these applications have limited capacity to teach students curricular concepts or skills. The author integrated several free web-based applications into a broader pedagogical approach called T-GEM, in which the teacher guides student investigations. In this article,…