The advocacy of task-based language teaching (TBLT) has met with resistance. The critiques of TBLT and the misconceptions that underlie them have already been addressed in Ellis (2009) and Long (2016). The purpose of this article is to move forward by examining a number of real problems that TBLT faces--such as how a "task" should be…

As someone who values collaboration with her students, supports students' ownership of their own learning, and looks for opportunities to increase their critical learning skills, Ce Rosenow finds many benefits to using task-specific rubrics that evolve from class discussion. She explains that this process is ideal for honors students because of…

In this paper I trace moments of spontaneous insight occurring among a group of young children in an environment where they are encouraged and supported in their efforts to collaboratively interrogate their own and one another's ideas. I argue that noticing, confronting, and responding to enigmas, surprises, and evolving meanings as they are…

In this article, the authors suggest that many of the problems struggling readers encounter while reading stem from distinct yet fundamental sources of difficulty related to the types of text read (print or online), the task or activity readers engage in, and the sociocultural context of reading. The authors further argue that although these…

One of the major problems from which students suffer has to do with reading: reading with diligence, understanding, and, ideally, with the pleasure that attends discovery. Many students have long been hermeneutical-readers-of-a-sort. The problem has deep roots in a widely diffused media and technocyber environment that thins down and disperses the…

This article reports on a teacher-talk training course for Japanese primary school teachers, who are preparing to teach "communicative English" for the first time. The article argues that teacher-talk training is important for communicative classes with young students because most of the input and interaction is by default teacher…

Describes the elaboration model of instruction and the six major steps for implementing it. (JEG)

Purpose: Today's technology supports the design of more and more sophisticated interactive learning environments. This paper aims to argue that such design should develop from first principles. Design/methodology/approach: In the paper by first principles is meant: learning theory and principles of course design. These principles are briefly…

A project requiring undergraduate students to prepare job analyses and use them to develop other personnel procedures is described. The project requires analysis of a job, preparation of task statements, and description of requisite abilities for that job. Discusses positive feedback from students and provides recommendations for instructors.…

Presents a single integrated set of procedures for both analysis and design of instruction according to the Elaboration Theory. (JEG)

Offers new insights into learning and teaching critical numeracy. Makes distinctions between generative or computational numeracy tasks and interpretive numeracy tasks, and between mathematically confined interpretation and critical evaluation that leads to action. (Author/VWL)

Presents contrasting views on the role and value of task-based learning. The first article is critiqued in the second article, and the original author responds to the critique in the third article. (Author/VWL)

Teachers who design meaningful and developmentally appropriate tasks will motivate their students to engage in the content and as students work through the Big6 process, interacting with the content, they learn and practice information and technology skills. A valuable task definition technique is to develop questions that students in each group…

Suggests that technical writing theory, which views the writing process as a process of design, can be applied in the writing classroom. Presents several strategies for teaching design, including teaching editing by levels, making better assignments, and stressing organization. (MM)

The author suggests that the specification of common literacy demands that are valid on the societal level, that is, which are applicable and meaningful to diverse adults living in diverse environments, is an impossible task. He further suggests that the development of a valid and uniform national curriculum for functional literacy is equally…