This study examines how a first-year biology teacher facilitates a series of whole-class discussions about evolution during the implementation of a problem-based unit. A communicative theoretical perspective is adopted wherein evolution discussions are viewed as social events that the teacher can frame intellectually (i.e., present or organize as…

Analysis of transcripts of nine undergraduate lectures in the humanities and social sciences found that professors used asides and local breaks in topicality to increase global semantic and pragmatic unity, introduce various mutually reinforcing interpretive frames, resolve apparent contradictions, highlight contrast, and establish relevance and…

The dynamics of classroom behavior in a college lecture class were observed for five semesters. The questioning process analyzed question types and their effect on the development of discourse. Sample English-for-academic-purposes activities are given using the question typology. (LMO)