The effectiveness of pausing for learning from lectures was investigated. Pause location and kind of activity conducted during the pause were varied. Free-recall and cued-recall tests were administered immediately after the lecture and two weeks later. Interspersed pauses coupled with group discussion was the most efficient procedure. (Author/RD)

Discussions about death, dying, and dissection during the first-year curriculum were initiated at the University of Massachusetts Medical School to deal with personal questions and emotions evoked by cadaver dissection. The evolution of these discussions, their timing, the present content of the sessions, and student response are described.…

Contends that television workshops are an opportunity to foster open and dynamic communication across generations. Reports on several successful programs using this approach. (FL)

In teaching mathematics to preservice elementary teachers, the author presents classroom incidents for which each student must write what he or she would do in the situation. The write-ups are then discussed in small groups. This technique seems to help students apply the mathematics they are learning to the classroom. (SD)

The training procedures used in teaching senior year pharmacy students the skills necessary to perform a medication history are described. The training involves videotaping medication histories with actual patients and evaluating the videotapes in small groups. (LBH)

Survey of Israeli parent-child pairs revealed portraits of moderate parents and radical children, but follow-up of family conversation while watching and discussing television news suggested harmony and unity in Israeli living rooms. Reconceptualization of the theoretical canon of political socialization analyzes the conversation as a moment of…

High school students in the SAXophone (Students All over the world eXchanging over the phone) Project use videoconferencing to discuss local culture, science, literature, and environmental issues. A virtual field trip and other activities, planning, and future projects are described. (AEF)

Describes how the current mathematics education reform principles are implemented in a third-grade classroom. Focus areas include how to conduct whole-group discussion and examination of children's thought processes. (AIM)

Examines what can happen when collegiality as process is opened to include students as well as teachers. This paper presents an example from one fourth-grade classroom where teachers and students alike engage in thoughtful conversations that lead to higher levels of learning and growth. (SM)

Describes the use of the Concerns and Decision-Making Strategy with probationary college freshman in which, through a structured dialog, students take turns assuming the role of the teacher. Finds that this reading/discussion strategy is valuable for learning social studies material, and enhances comprehension, recall, and higher-level thinking.…

Discusses the use of synchronous conferences via electronic mail in training new writing tutors, highlighting the benefits of such an approach. Describes two synchronous conferences held at the University of Richmond related to dealing with resistant writers and tutoring across disciplines. Provides recommendations for implementing synchronous…

Suggests that the contrasting cultural and material circumstances of children in the United States and Spain contribute to their relative capacities for critical thinking and discussion. Suggests that Spanish adolescents hesitate to take a stand without openly discussing their feelings, while North American students hate discussion that wanders…

Examines classroom dialog about arranged marriages in Ali Ghalem's "A Wife for My Son" (as well as several other postcolonial, nonwestern texts) as a means of defining and sharing appropriate curricular and pedagogical modes for classroom discourse and discussion. Urges rethinking the boundaries of English studies and redefining the study of…

Identifies the features of effective educational talk, using contextual differences between educational and social settings as starting points for the examination of students' seminar discourse, videotaped during a study of small-group classroom discussions in the United Kingdom. Findings reveal that these features include an appreciation of the…

Face-to-face discussion has been shown to increase cooperation behavior in social dilemmas. Two general explanations of this effect were tested: group identity and perception of consensus. Female undergraduate students (N=160) participated in four-person groups in one of four experimental conditions. Findings indicate the most plausible…