In order to fill in the research gap related to the theory and practice of critical literacy in Taiwan, this article describes an English Conversation activity offered during the 2005 spring semester at a university in southern Taiwan. The article uses a critical instructional model to analyze students' team dialogues as responses to a…

This article summarizes the literature concerning the use of visual and textual metaphors and describes outcomes of a project designed to help teacher education candidates begin integrating their personal beliefs about teaching with their growing professional knowledge and emergent practice. By using metaphors, teacher educators have the…

This article elaborates a model for understanding pedagogy in online educational forums. The model identifies four key components. Intellectual engagement describes the foreground cognitive processes of collaborative learning. Communication processes operating in the background accumulate an ever richer store of shared understandings that enable…

Argues for a viable discourse community of the social studies profession. Suggests that such a professional conversation is characterized by an engaging and authentic topic and skilled conversationalists of equal status. Recommends that the first questions to be addressed deal with the nature of value, reality, and knowledge. (DK)

Advocates of computer-mediated instruction have pointed to the potential of online teaching for facilitating students' active learning behavior. Small-group online discussion can have a role in meaningful student interaction. Yet, what is less known are the conditions under which students actually engage in interaction in online discussion groups…