Presents methodology and results of the focus group interviews with 21 people from elementary and secondary schools and 17 people from institutions serving adults which were conducted as part of an evaluation of the Career Information System of Iowa. Discusses the advantages and disadvantages of focus groups and additional applications to career…

Despite a growing number of publications on problematic Internet use (PIU), there is no consensus on the nature of the phenomenon, its constituent criteria, and its clinical threshold. This qualitative study examines the perceptions of addiction counsellors who have managed individuals with PIU in Quebec (Canada). Four focus groups were conducted…

This study reports on a mixed methods study which explored 32 Iranian pre-service teachers' perceptions of attending online asynchronous discussion forums during two seven-week online introductory courses in corpus linguistics. Data were collected through a questionnaire, discussion forum entries and online text-based semi-structured interviews.…

In this article, we address the methodological implications of analysing online discussion boards with a focus on participants' changing identities. More specifically, we propose the use of a Communities of Practice framework as a heuristic method for considering how participants' contributions to online discussion play a role in changing who they…

This study investigated the effects of a multi-pronged approach of increasing the nature of science (NOS) understandings of high school science students. The participants consist of 63 high school students: 31 in the intervention group and 32 in the control group. Explicit/reflective NOS instruction was imbedded within authentic inquiry…

Focussed dialogue (as lived and living practices) can have a powerful role in renewing professional practice, advancing its sustainability and development as administrative and political systems colonise the practices of teachers and teacher educators. However, participating in discussion groups for many teachers, including those in academia, is…

Background: Coaching holistically and viewing coaching as interdisciplinary, where different knowledges meet, interconnect and dissect, has increasingly gained recognition. In an effort to engage more effectively with this agenda and to educate coaches to meet the integrated, fluid nature of their work, Jones and Turner advocated a problem-based…

Innovation in enhancing the reflective abilities of physical education trainee teachers was explored in this study through establishing peer "training buddies" during their school placements. Opportunities for active engagement in peer- and self-reflection were provided to full-time Post-Graduate Secondary Physical Education trainee…

Online discussion forums have become popular in recent times. They provide a platform for people from different parts of the world sharing a common interest to come together and topics of mutual interest and seek solutions to their problems. There are hundreds of thousands of internet forums containing tens of millions of discussion threads and…

This paper investigates the use of conversational agents to scaffold on-line collaborative learning discussions through an approach called Academically Productive Talk (APT). In contrast to past work on dynamic support for collaborative learning, where agents were used to elevate conceptual depth by leading students through directed lines of…

This report is an outline of the content of a 3-year project which is divided into seven phases. Through a review of the literature and interviews with circle leaders, Phase I investigates what knowledge exists on study circles. Phase II presents information on the educational psychology of the study circle gathered through questionnaires,…

Many middle school students claim that their voices are ignored in the classroom, where the attitude is too often that the teacher holds the one right answer. Instead of this approach, teachers may wish to use the Socratic Seminar, which prompts students to examine issues and ideas through dialogue and actively involves and motivates them, giving…

This study explored how asynchronous discussion supported by a Web-based learning system facilitated collaborative learning. The participants in this study consisted of the instructor, facilitators, and the students in a master's level course at a university in the south. Different sources of evidence were used in the study (individual/group…

Discussion boards have the unique capacity to support higher-order constructivist learning and the development of a learning community, This chapter provides ten conditions that support the effective use of an online discussion.

The benefits of active learning are well documented; nonetheless, the implementation of active learning strategies can be challenging in large lecture environments. The project will examine the research supporting active learning, present the implementation of simple active learning techniques in large lecture classes, and provide evidence to test…