This article reviews the developmental profile of a child with autism during the first 3 years of life. Analysis of home videos showed how the child appeared to make progress up to 12 months followed by decreases in social interaction, communication, and language. Discussion suggests that this particular profile is one of the possible pathways…

After a brief review of integrative small group learning models that have appeared in the educational psychology literature, this article then looks into the group dynamics literature and describes one of that field's most well-documented findings: that interactions among group members change somewhat predictably over time. How theorists from…

The authors claim that the principal contribution of research on teacher thinking is enrichment of understanding of what teachers know and what teaching entails. Studies of teacher planning, decision making, knowledge, and theorizing can be used to provide prospective teachers with a realistically complex picture of the cognitive aspects of…

Discusses the effect of the interactive accomplishment of conversational normalization. To illuminate this process, this article investigates how the parties to a news interview collaborate to normalize the interviewee's practices in operating a house of prostitution. The methodological impetus for this study involves a variant of conversation…

The Verbal Interaction Analysis System is presented as an assessment of initial, dyadic conversations. Application of the VIAS to two case studies featuring mildly to moderately intellectually disabled adults shows how the VIAS provides an index of competence and assists in the development of specific treatment strategies. (Author/JDD)

This case study is an inquiry about feedback in the context of professional development. It tells the story of the feedback process between a teacher and his colleague as they work with a group of adolescent science students. The entire process is reported in a day-to-day description of the interaction between the two men: (1) "Beginning the…

This document presents an overview and progress report on the Family Research Project, started in 1974 to (1) study the relationship between family process and individual development of family members, especially children, (2) conceptualize and measure system level variables describing family structure and process, (3) develop microanalytic…

The theory of the coordinated management of meaning (CMM) describes the structural relationship between a conversation as it appears in a verbatim transcript and as it appears in the meaning-system of the participants. The five essential features of CMM theory are: a set of four propositions about the nature of communication and human behavior, a…

The literature on intervention theory tends to overlook the pragmatic managerial issues and challenges of intervening. This paper analyzes the formative period of a school management development program to establish crucial differences between the program director's espoused theory and the actual experience of the intervention. These differences…

This paper describes the Youth Resource Center (YRC) of Glastonbury, Connecticut--a multifaceted treatment facility. The YRC is based on a Systems-Interaction (SI) model of service, which maintains that a system can be changed by intervention at any point in the system; consequently, the same goals can be achieved through various target groups or…

Examines interactional strategies in several South Asian languages. The norms that affect politeness in South Asian languages are very different from those that operate in native English. Implications for teaching English in South Asia are discussed in terms of the relationship between language and "grammar of culture." (Author/LMO)

A description of an intervention strategy that was designed on the basis of the initial level of interaction of an isolate preschool child with peers and adults is presented. The results of this case study are discussed. (Author/AL)

Case study recordings of a science lesson are assessed to examine the role of talk in the learning process. Implications are raised for similar informal assessments by practicing teachers. (Author)

Explores how the discourse context of metaphorical language supports children's understanding of sociocultural norms. Classroom data are examined to determine how language, situation, and interaction assist in the interpretation of metaphorically used language. (46 references) (Author/CK)

Describes the development of the Multidimensional Audioconferencing Classification System (MACS), an instrument for the tabulation, analysis, and interpretation of audioconferencing instructional interactions. MACS draws on three theoretical and empirical streams: (1) systematic small group interaction analysis; (2) systematic classroom…