Discussion and writing are very powerful ways to support learning. This article describes the use of a free, synchronous online forum to expand student-teacher discussions beyond the time/place constraints of the physical physiology classroom. The main participants were medical students enrolled in physiology class at the University of Zagreb…

Newly hired faculty and their needs have been studied in various arenas in higher education. However, there is limited research documenting current newly hired faculty programming in Canadian institutions of higher education. The present study attempts to capture the various types of professional development programs for newly hired faculty at…

This paper considers the value of reflexive pedagogical approaches in the teaching of academic communication and writing. We focus on a course developed for pre-degree foundation students at a London higher education institution. Drawing on the students' learning journals, we examine their reflections of the approaches practised on the course.…

This paper focuses on the speaking proficiency of advanced foreign language learners. It looks at performance on two different tasks: oral presentations and group discussions. Success in giving an oral presentation in front of an audience is assessed with the help of evaluations, which are then measured against various linguistic phenomena…

This booklet, developed by England's Department for Education and Employment, provides information and teaching strategies to support the teaching of speaking and listening skills and develop confidence as speakers and listeners, by providing models, carefully planned activities and tasks that promote different kinds of talk and listening, and…

Educators concerned with the preparation of adults are aware that students engage in lengthy discussions with their peers. Increasingly, this is encouraged in educational settings through formal pedagogy. However, little is known about its value to adult cognition. In a phenomenological study investigating the professional development of degree…

This study involved a teaching experiment in which academic argumentation was practiced during a ten-week email course in a Finnish university. During the course, two working methods were used: free debate and role play. The aim of the study was to clarify how these two working methods activated students in mutual argumentative dialogue and…

Efforts to further education for peace through Buberian Learning Groups, which include Israelis and Palestinian Arabs, are discussed. Participants learn through a dialog that leads them to recognize distortions in their existence and to end their passive acceptance of problems. Organization of the groups and their successes and difficulties are…

Suggests that the contrasting cultural and material circumstances of children in the United States and Spain contribute to their relative capacities for critical thinking and discussion. Suggests that Spanish adolescents hesitate to take a stand without openly discussing their feelings, while North American students hate discussion that wanders…

Identifies the features of effective educational talk, using contextual differences between educational and social settings as starting points for the examination of students' seminar discourse, videotaped during a study of small-group classroom discussions in the United Kingdom. Findings reveal that these features include an appreciation of the…

An ethnomethodological approach was used to analyze the organization of talk, the leader-student interaction, and resultant social order during group discussion among 2 male leaders and 15 ninth-grade Australian boys participating in a school-sponsored outdoor experience. Results focus on how the leaders structured the interaction and regulated…

Describes how student learning from a series of laboratory practicals was improved using small group methods and a structured learning cycle that encouraged reflection on group performance and investigative techniques. Discussion includes evaluation of learning benefits by means of written records, a questionnaire, observation, and the role of…

The 15-year history of research and application in cooperative learning in primary and middle schools in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Israel is described. A specific application is discussed of some cooperative learning structures in a postsecondary foreign language classroom. (12 references) (Author/LB)

Reports on a study of undergraduates at the University of Strathclyde (Scotland) that was designed to explore computer support for peer-based learning in methodology tutorials. Describes software that was developed to organize group discussion and discusses student ratings of their reactions to the software and to the tutorial sessions. (Contains…

This paper discusses the findings of two case studies (two primary schools in Singapore), which are part of a larger research study, that aims to examine and analyze where and how information and communication technologies (ICTs) are integrated in Singapore schools to engage students in higher order thinking activities. For students to engage in…