Studies on the identification of power bases within five Canadian universities were designed to develop a utility function for each sub-unit that will generate a series of power rankings. The unit of study is the faculty, and the tool is designed to identify the relative power of separate faculties and various combinations of faculties. Two power…

Dynamics of negotiation interaction between education researchers and Native Indian community members, to define researchers' normative roles, are illustrated by examples from a research project in a northern British Columbia community. Negotiation types are categorized as game actions: face games, relationship games, exploitation games, and…

Explores the effect of variations in caregiver sensitivity on the timing of their severely and profoundly deaf infants' acquisition of communication skills. Found that caregivers of deaf infants showed considerable variation in comparison to the caregivers of normally hearing infants. Contextual factors of a dynamic nature operate with varying…

Investigates the social background of oldcomer Taiwanese in Japan while examining their language behavior in intraethnic communication and in interethnic interaction with Japanese. Analysis of two conversations reveals that many Asians seek to pass as Japanese, a behavior contributing to the reproduction of the existing social hierarchy of…

Focuses on interethnic interactions in which adolescents of Asian descent put on strong Indian English accents when addressing Anglo teachers and adults; discusses the extent to which these code switchings constitute acts of resistance within a racist society. Findings indicate that the term "resistance" is too crude to do justice to the…

The School of Education, Training and Development at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg offers a Bachelor of Education (Honours) to practising teachers who already have a four year teaching diploma. The programme is delivered through interactive learning materials and Saturday tutorial sessions. However, interviews and a student survey seem…

This paper presents a study of the organization of 60 junior school classrooms in Great Britain. The study was conducted to examine changes occurring as a result of the move towards comprehensive secondary education in Britain and as a result of the recommendations of the Plowden Committee for more individualized instruction at the primary level.…

In this paper, three models of participant interactions in a Web-based instruction courses were identified among a diverse group of seven adult learners in a Course-On-Line, Masters of Instructional Technology Program at the University of Malaya (Malaysia). The three models were named the cyclical model, the hierarchical model, and the parallel…

This paper reports on research with a group of students in grades 3 and 4 who live on isolated grazing homesteads in the Australian desert in western New South Wales. The paper examines an alternative mode of delivery involving the application of satellite-based systems to provide a teaching-learning environment for these students. The trial of a…

Identifies how well immigrant students can communicate among themselves. This research consists of eight steps: (1) identifying the problem; (2) investigating suitable research methods; (3) defining terms; (4) reviewing the literature; (5) doing preliminary investigations; (6) hypothesizing; (7) realizing outcomes for learners; (8) reporting. (12…

The spoken language occurring when primary school children work in groups at the computer was examined. Findings suggest that discourse accompanying highly structured software conforms well to the initiation/response/follow-up (IRF) structure, with the computer often taking the initiating role. The more open-ended the program, the more…

This paper describes an evaluation of a web-based consultation space (a dynamic frequently asked questions environment--DFAQ) in which learners consult one another using questions, and in which both the flow of interaction and its artefacts become a resource available to a community of learners. The DFAQ is a special form of a…

Teacher-student conflict is attracting people's attention in China. This study utilized attribution theories to investigate the attribution features of Mainland Chinese teacher and student groups for negative events in their interactions. It found out that due to the factor of social identity, the two groups revealed a significant self-serving…

Background: To overcome the "teacher bandwidth problem" in supporting large groups of students, both automated process support (cueing) and face-to-face feedback by peers during small group work (collaboration) can be provided to students. Aim: The purpose of this experimental study was to examine whether a multimedia practical…

Written in Swedish with an English-language summary, this report describes a study which examined the interaction between mothers or caregivers and their children with profound mental retardation and multiple disabilities, particularly looking at the function of play in communicative interaction. The six children all had five or six handicaps in…