Encouraging critical thinking in classroom discussions when the class consists of students with similar backgrounds and professional experience can be challenging. This article reports on one method for introducing multiple viewpoints into discussions by requiring students to represent views from well-known personalities who are vocal in current…

The situations created by individual style of problem solving in mathematics by children are discussed. Children can solve their mathematical problem by correcting their misconceptions on their own with the use of open discussions with others.

In this article I discuss an excerpt from a group discussion between five 15-year-old boys who, in the presence of an adult moderator, engaged in the act of "slut bashing" while telling a minimal story about an incident of female promiscuity. The analysis proceeds microanalytically in a three-step procedure that details the positions taken by the…

This article briefly describes a role-playing exercise designed to break the ice in a classroom literature circle from The Ultimate Small-Group Reading How-To Book: Building Comprehension through SmallGroup Instruction, written by Gail Saunders-Smith. The members of a literature circle participate in the group discussion according to the…

This is a summary of some of the issues raised in a recent online discussion forum organized by the IATEFL Young Learners' Special Interest Group. To mark the close working relationship between IATEFL and ELT Journal, and to give our readers access to these discussions, we are planning to publish more summaries of this kind from other IATEFL SIGs…

In this article we discuss how classroom voting can be used to create an active learning environment, to provide immediate feedback for both students and teacher and to motivate students to participate in discussions about mathematics.

The purpose of this review is to give a comparative overview of current listservs for applied linguistics researchers, with particular focus on their relevance to research on second language acquisition and use. Six listservs, based in different locations and targeted at different general audiences were selected and monitored for a six-month…

In this article, the author presents the dangers in group work. He states that one common dilemma is when groups tend to come to agreement too quickly. Another dilemma is when the team is getting bogged down and becoming defensive or adversarial when members express new ideas or introduce new data. Finally, a very common danger is group members'…

This case explores the aggressive mimicry behavior of "femmes fatales" fireflies--female fireflies in the genus Photuris that mimic the flash pattern of females in the genus Photinus to lure Photinus males to their death. The case features entries in an old field notebook as well as a series of handouts that the instructor presents to students for…

This article reports a grounded theory study of the moderation of asynchronous online discussions, to explore the processes by which tutors in higher education decide when and how to moderate. It aims to construct a theory of e-moderation based on some key factors which appear to influence e-moderation. It discusses previous research on the…

We are delighted to welcome you to the International Psychological Applications Conference and Trends (InPACT) 2017, taking place in Budapest, Hungary, from 29 of April to 1 of May, 2017. Modern psychology offers a large range of scientific fields where it can be applied. The goal of understanding individuals and groups (mental functions and…

This companion Instructor's Guide to "Managing School Districts for High Performance: Cases in Public Education Leadership" includes detailed teaching notes on each case in the coursebook, with an emphasis on making cases drawn from other disciplines relevant to education administrators. Both experienced instructors and those new to the…

This article describes the formation of a pedagogy-focused online discussion group for middle school mathematics teachers. Advice is offered for those seeking to establish similar conversations among their colleagues.

This article presents a Vygotsky-inspired analysis of how a teacher mediated a "thinking aloud" whole-group discussion in a 6th grade mathematics classroom. This discussion centered on finding patterns in a triangular array of consecutive numbers as a phase towards building recursive and direct algebraic formulas. By a "thinking aloud" discussion…

Two questions are considered in this article: (a) What should professionals in school psychology do in an effort to stay current with developments in applied statistics? (b) What should they do with their existing knowledge to move from surface understanding of statistics to deep understanding? Written for school psychologists who have completed…