The following teaching brief outlines ways for advertising and public relations educators to discuss gender pay equity in the classroom. We know that educators are asked to teach about matters of diversity; yet many faculty members do not have adequate resources to do so. Faculty can rely on data and reports, but there are few hands-on activities…

Discussion boards have been around for more than two decades. They are a feature of most learning management systems (LMS)2 and are one of the earliest tools used in fully online classes, particularly for asynchronous classes. The goal of this article is to provide guidance to instructors in using discussion boards to create an engaging and…

An undergraduate online course on Applied Biochemistry and Molecular Biology was developed through different formats of case study that included lecture, class discussion, small-groups discussion, and individual work. Cases covering health, biotechnology, agriculture, and other issues were developed or adapted from the literature to reach the…

Instructors face challenges in facilitating higher levels of shared cognition in large enrolment classes. One strategy to foster shared cognition is the use of asynchronous discussions; however, these can be difficult to support with large numbers of students. Online protocols have been found to help students take more ownership of the discussion,…

Promising approaches to transforming English language arts classrooms into dialogic, democratic, and critical spaces for literature discussions involve the selection of compelling young adult literature (YAL) and the use of student-centered discussion strategies (e.g., literature circles). Scholars have demonstrated, however, the shortcomings of…

Teaching physiology can be challenging as students are initially required to understand basic and abstract concepts. Thus students typically view physiology as a "difficult" subject and place an emphasis on rote learning and memorization. Here, we attempted to address this knowledge gap by introducing a pedagogical intervention into the…

Formative assessments (FA), which can occur in or out of class, are a way for students to demonstrate their understanding of the material, to see progress, and to receive feedback from instructors related to their learning process. Examples of in-class FAs include clicker questions with peer discussion, while homework assignments are an example of…

Led by a premise that effective cooperative tasks play a vital role in enhancing Cognitive Engagement (CE) and task achievement in ESL/EFL teaching, this study investigates the effects of Cooperative Learning (CL) on Omani Bachelor of Education (B. Ed.) students' CE and task achievement. This quasiexperimental study has three objectives: (i) To…

Small-group discussion is a central component of 21st-century biology classrooms. Many factors shape these discussions and thus influence potential learning gains. This study examined how accuracy and idea consideration shaped small-group discussions in undergraduate biology labs (12 groups, M = 42.8 talk turns). To do this, we asked: (1) Is there…

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, courses were forced into an online format as universities paused in-person learning and consequently, students were required to adjust to online learning. The objective of the current study was to determine the effect of optional assessments designed to promote engagement in a fourth-year asynchronous online…

This paper reports on how a group of students think when trying to solve a set of thermodynamic revision exercises in the context of collaborative small group conversation at the undergraduate level. The revision exercises involved exploring the relationship between enthalpy and temperature, entropy and temperature, and entropy of a gas under…

Teacher-student group conferences (TSGCs) blend the benefits of one-to-one teacher-student writing conferences with those of peer response. TSGCs socialize student writers into discussions of academic writing, giving them an expert model (the teacher) and an opportunity to practice providing feedback to several peers. This article describes how…

As a high-impact educational practice, cooperative learning uses a structured group study to promote students' active learning. Currently, it lacks economical yet effective tools to facilitate the interactive nature of structured cooperative learning in regular classrooms. Here, we have established a mobile technology-based cooperative learning…

Collaborative Video Annotation (CVA) is a kludge where learners annotate video together, experiencing both the video and each other's annotations in a dynamic discussion. Three scenes from small group CVA discussions were selected for analysis from 14 CVA discussions where 8-12 learners interacted via the annotation tool on top of a video. The…

Past research on group work has primarily focused on promoting change through implementation of interventions designed to increase performance. Recently, however, education researchers have called for more descriptive analyses of group interactions. Through detailed qualitative analysis of recorded discussions, we studied the natural interactions…