This study reviews the current body of research into reasons for Japanese university students' reluctance toward spoken class participation in English, along with a critical review of general teaching suggestions for encouraging participation. It then identifies the limitations of teaching strategies that may not take into account certain reasons…

The gap between educational knowledge that is taught in universities and actions by teachers can be sizeable. A sustainable change in teachers' efforts requires particular sensitivity and awareness of this gap between subject-specific educational thinking and acting and between theory and practice. This study explored the extent to which a…

This study investigates how Swedish learners make sense of and perceive English instruction and the process of foreign language learning in a target language-only primary school classroom. In small group discussions, 26 learners aged 9-10 were audio recorded while discussing questions related to their language learner beliefs and their classroom…

In the wake of rapid development of Language MOOCs (LMOOCs), numerous studies have proposed principles and guidelines to inform curriculum design. Very few of them have, however, reported on learners' views. This study aims to contribute to this line of research by bringing in a learners' perspective. It is based on a content analysis of 3,510…

The purposes of this study are to understand the effects of using Synchronous Discussion and Reflection System (SDRS) platform in the elementary students' perception of the learning environment and students' cognitive outcomes regarding the Genetically Modified Food (GMF). A total of 22 students from Elementary School in Taichung Taiwan joined…

This study focuses on "circle time," an innovative technique to promote classroom organization in primary schools across Germany and the rest of the world. Unlike previous research which primarily emphasizes on the functional and instrumental dimensions of circle time, the current study examines the non-cognitive aspects that emerged…

Purpose: This commentary aims to echo Wilkinson, Bailey, and Maher's (this volume) arguments about the affordances of videos and video databases in studying learning and teaching. Design/Approach/Methods: This article illustrates a multivocal approach to the videos from the "Video Mosaic Collaborative" (VMC). In particular, three…

This article attends to the affective-political dimensions of doctoral aspiration. It considers why doctoral students continue to hope for an 'academic good life' in spite of the depressed and precarious features of the academic present. The article emerges from 2013 research with ten doctoral students in the Arts and Social Sciences, at a…

The purpose of this study was to enhance our understanding of the relationship between collaborative talk and metacognitive talk during group mathematical problem-solving. Research suggests that collaborative talk may mediate the use of metacognitive talk, which in turn is associated with improved learning outcomes. However, our understanding of…

From a commognitive approach, this article focuses on the discourse generated by preservice primary teachers who are solving didactic-mathematical tasks. Our aims are to study the characteristics of the aforementioned discourse and, through these characteristics, identify whether a discourse close to the one of primary teachers is beginning to…

This six-week action research study explored the use of a media-based adaptation of a popular student-centered, extensive reading-based activity known as Literature Circles (LCs). Twenty Chinese students decided upon groups and assigned themselves specific roles before viewing episodes of a selected television series for homework. The prepared…

The research has the purpose of analyzing the experience of the students of the first course of the Early Childhood Education Degree on the methodology of the Dialogic Literary Circles. The aim is to examine the variables that influence the academic performance of the future teacher, as well as the conditions that have an impact on their…

This article expands upon research into task planning effects by looking at how the addition of planning prior to group discussions may positively and negatively influence performance. 24 Japanese university students performed three weekly discussions in groups of four. Prior to each discussion, they undertook either no planning, strategic…

Of the major aspects of language use, perhaps the least frequently taught and the least understood by teachers is the system of turn-taking Wong and Waring [2010. "Conversation Analysis and Second Language Pedagogy: A Guide for ESL/EFL Teachers." New York: Routledge]. For second language learners, this may be an important contributing…

This study analyzes the types of peer discussion that occur during lecture-based tutorial sessions. It focuses in particular on whether discussions of this kind have certain characteristics that might indicate success in the post-testing phase. The data were collected during an introductory physics course. The main data set was gathered with the…