Students often struggle to comprehend complex text. In response, we conducted an initial, year-long study of Quality Talk, a teacher-facilitated, small-group discussion approach designed to enhance students' basic and high-level comprehension, in two 4th-grade classrooms. Specifically, teachers delivered instructional mini-lessons on discourse…

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 article focuses on students' perceptions of small-group activities, discussion, and technology-based interactivity implemented in two different learning environments, namely, in a large, traditional lecture hall and in a smaller classroom. The Engaged Learning Index, developed by Schreiner and Louis, was used along with several items to…

In the current U.S. sociopolitical climate marked by rising racial tension and civil unrest, social work students and educators are engaged in dialogues throughout the country regarding the role of the profession in combating injustice. The emergence of the Movement for Black Lives as well as numerous high-profile police shootings of unarmed Black…

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…

Consequent to the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, pedagogic changes were introduced in postgraduate courses in Physiology, where face-to-face teaching was replaced with synchronous virtual mode for leader-centered (seminar, symposium) and participant-centered (journal club, group discussion) academic activities. We hypothesized that the…

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…

Online adjunct faculty in Christian higher education have an important role in training students for church and ministry leadership. While their role is critical to many programs, online faculty often feel a sense of isolation from the university community. The purpose of this research was to examine whether a faculty cohort with a focus on…

Background: To succeed in school, young children must acquire the domain and vocabulary knowledge needed to read complex texts. Despite the growing literacy demands in the 21 century, fewer than 5% of US school children in the early elementary grades can evaluate complex nonfiction texts and there are larger gaps based on family income and student…

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…

The term "close reading" often conjures up an image of a teacher asking students several scripted questions that encourage them to reread and critically examine a text. The teacher then evaluates the students' responses. In this article, the authors offer another approach to close reading--one that places students' text-dependent…

The design and implementation of questioning, specifically in regards towards a higher level of thinking, is a common practice in many secondary social science classrooms (Bickmore & Parker, 2012). Questioning can help the teacher develop critical thinking concepts, scaffold discussions, and prod students towards an elevated level of cognition…

Whole-class discussions, in which students share and refine ideas with others, can now take place in online forums. In face-to-face classrooms, previous research has identified conversational techniques, such as open-ended questions and uptake of what others have said, that can promote dialogic, whole-class discussions. However, few studies have…