Researchers have argued that Twitter has potential to support high-quality professional development (PD) that can respond to teachers' questions and concerns just in time and "on the spot." Yet, very little attention has been paid to instances where Twitter has made just-in-time learning possible. In this paper, we examine one instance…

This article revisits Douglas Barnes's book-length exploration of the implications for teachers of a constructivist epistemology, notably in relation to the importance of small-group talk in classrooms. Empirically based consideration of small-group exploratory pupil-pupil talk enabled Barnes to reveal the learning strategies such a context…

Studies on students' use of corpora in L2 writing have demonstrated the benefits of corpora not only as a linguistic resource to improve their writing abilities but also as a cognitive tool to develop their learning skills and strategies. Most of the corpus studies, however, adopted either direct use or indirect use of corpora by students, without…

This article draws on Gee's notions of Discourse and specifically Discourse Models to explore Engineering Problem Solving1 and the different ways in which it can be understood in an engineering context. After Gee we attempt to identify aspects of doing, being and valuing that underpin people's Problem Solving Discourse Models. Interviews with…

This article reports that in Japan, a scholar of communications, in the hope of getting people to talk with one another, holds "boxing" competitions in which the blows are thrown verbally, in verse. In a crowded Yokohama hall, boxers file into a ring watched by cheering students and a panel of university professors. Nobody is predicting…

Analyzes why the transfer of formal learning to outside school situations is problematical in principle and undependable in practice. Recommends an alternative approach for building bridges between practices based on analyzing the discourses involved as a system of signs and looking for appropriate points of inter-relation between them. (Contains…

Presents strategies for encouraging dialog with students from eliciting preconceptions to bringing closure to a unit. Includes the general structure of an instructional unit that employs dialog, strategies for teachers to use, and strategies for students which include active listening. (DDR)

Investigating the relationship between learning and academic journal writing, a study examined features of journal entries and students' characteristics. Subjects, students enrolled in an introductory linguistics course for English, English education, and elementary education, were asked to keep a journal during the course. To determine students'…

At Massachusetts Bay Community College a course was designed to create a transition from the process-based basic writing course to the traditional required freshman English course. WTG 100 was designed as an inquiry into academic writing, where students would learn about the various discourse conventions and expectations they would encounter as…

Focuses on one target group of seventh-grade science students (N=19) who are working to achieve consensus and a coherent explanation of light and shadow effects. Articulates the beginnings of a framework for consensus building with inquiry discourse. Contains 41 references. (DDR)

This article contrasts traditional approaches to teaching science and mathematics with a research based alternative designed to promote conceptual level understanding in students. This alternative type of instruction should be focused and coherent, negotiatory in its interactive style, and strongly analytic or diagnostic on the teacher's part.…

Today, English language learners (ELLs) represent an increasing proportion of U.S. middle and high school enrollment. As a result, mainstream content-area teachers are more likely than ever to have ELLs in their classrooms. At the same time, education policymakers and researchers are increasingly calling for improved academic literacy development…

This booklet describes the ideas underpinning a learning to learn course, a course that teaches students what they need to learn to read and write in tertiary academic settings in Australia. An introduction explains how this approach to academic discourse draws on other approaches and also differs from them. Section 1 describes some forces shaping…

Discourse can be organized in many different ways, two of these being comparison and a collection of descriptions. These two discourse types correspond to schemata that vary in their organizational components, and these differences can be expected to produce differences in the processing of text. For example, research has shown that for young…

This text tries to explain what students need to learn to read and write in tertiary academic settings in Australia and to suggest some ways of teaching them. An introduction maps out what this text contains and summarizes the main features of the approach used to teach adults how to read and write academic discourse. The next section describes…