Drawing from the theories of Paulo Freire, Patricia Bizzell, and Ira Shor, this article describes a five-year ongoing classroom research project that examines the use of peer evaluation as a process for teaching academic discourse. The findings of the project suggest a critical and democratic pedagogical antidote to the national "standards"…

Most of the research on case-based science teaching at the university level involves comparative studies, which contrast student perceptions of case-based science teaching with more traditional teaching. Sometimes this type of research is being done to convince colleagues that case-based science teaching is equally effective if not better than…

Evidence-based practice is highly valued in health care literature at this time. But research suggests that U.S. RNs face many obstacles when implementing evidence-based practice including a lack of value for research in practice (Pravikoff et al, 2005). Additional obstacles may exist for traditional U.S. BSN nursing students who may not value the…

The aim of this paper is to present an application of a sample lesson plan which aimed to develop critical thinking skills through educational games. The participants were 46 second year pre-service English Language teachers who were taking a course titled Advanced Reading and Writing II in the Faculty of Education. The lesson plan included a set…

Studies on classroom interaction have typically focused on relationships between turn-taking patterns and some larger unit of analysis of varying length and nature. However, two questions still left unanswered are how teachers talk differently from students in general and how linguistic variation between two participants might relate to…

This article argues that it is possible to look at children's texts in relation to the lens of literacy events and practices from the New Literacy Studies, and apply this perspective to an understanding of creativity. Teachers can then use the possibilities within a text to ask children different kinds of questions. Drawing on a 2-year…

US government mandates to implement intensive phonics instruction in elementary classrooms invoke an alleged scientific superiority of this approach over more meaning-centered models. But curiously absent from this scientific enterprise is a study of the phonics system itself. Advocates of intensive phonics have not demonstrated that the commonly…

This article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using information and communication technology (ICT) as a mediating artefact in the classroom compared to alternative tools with illustrations from a qualitative classroom study. The aim of the article is to describe and show the conditions that have to be satisfied if ICT is to have an…

Two female students worked together collaboratively as a strategy to counter the alienating discursive practices of the classroom. Hopefully, their experience might show that community can serve as a contingent response to situations of exclusion and teach the possibilities of collectivity too long omitted from conceptions of literacy. The link…

Researchers and two elementary teachers designed a cross-age tutoring program in which they examined the features and processes of peer interaction from a Vygotskian and Piagetian perspective. The study specifically focused on the following issues: characteristics of the tutor and tutee that are most likely to enhance learning; types of learning…

Instructors search for methods to enhance students' motivation and learning. Immediacy and relevance have been linked to increased motivation in the classroom. A study extended research by A. Frymier and G. Shulman (1995) that found immediacy and relevance to be associated with one another. A 2 (high and low immediacy) by 2 (high and low…

This paper argues for the development of a new type of combined bilingual and bicultural/multicultural program or curriculum based on recent research. Some issues concerning bilingual education are addressed, followed by a short review of the findings of ethnographers concerning cultural differences in the classroom. The applicability of the Whorf…

A study in which the ability of Peruvian teachers of English as a Second Language to simplify their own use of English appropriately for classroom use was examined, is discussed. It is noted that the study provides new data and has implications for future research on classroom language. It supports prior work on teacher talk and implies that…

This paper explains how teachers can set up good research problems to study in their classrooms. The purpose of the research is to provide teachers with a tool for reflection, change, learning, and renewal in student-centered classrooms. Teacher-researchers learn to ask critical questions, collect data, document findings, and share results with…

A study examined teachers' views about the role of children's literature in reading instruction, how teachers use literature in classroom reading programs, and the congruence between teacher beliefs and teacher practice concerning literature-based reading instruction. Surveys were sent to a representative sample of 1,000 teachers in Ohio (200 from…