Describes a course unit on Goethe's "Werther," in which an inductive approach to discussion teaching is used to introduce German literature to college students with little literary background through class activities and discussion topics to stimulate student interest. (Author/CB)

Presents an accessible method to help adolescents become thoughtful decision makers, which combines social decision-making/problem-solving activities with the literature of the eighth-grade English classroom. (SR)

Conversations of British 7-year olds and Canadian 11-year olds were analyzed to establish 3 criteria for assessing oracy in classroom situations: ideation (quality of information and its validation); interpersonal (sensitivity of relationships with listeners); and textual (choice and organization of words). Differences between the two groups point…

Discusses two studies conducted in the same classroom at overlapping times that contain apparent contradictions about the teacher's effectiveness and the nature of discussions in his classroom. Concludes that the forms and mechanisms for conducting this type of research are inadequate and that the inherent issues of subjectivity and objectivity…

Small groups of gifted high school students meet weekly during lunch periods to have topical discussions, with the goals of developing self-awareness and affirming capability. As the school year progresses, the group discussions become less structured, with more free-wheeling exchange. Topics include learning styles, stress, suicide, and college…

Debriefing is a process of guiding reflection on experience. Ideally, facilitators conduct debriefing sessions frequently and in proximity to the experience location. Includes a model "debriefing funnel" into which the facilitators pour experiences, pass those experiences through five reflective filters, and distill a learning change in…

Discusses the need within higher education for a nursing curriculum that addresses all ethnic and cultural perspectives. (JOW)

Provides an in-depth examination of the multiple, often conflicting concerns, that arose as an academic group "did" intellectual discussion. Offers a model of how intellectual discussants generally make attributions about each other. Uses results from the case study to critique context-general communicative theories (attribution,…

Advocates a revival of oral communication, historically an element of classical rhetorical training. Points out that talk that focuses on noticeably literary texts and approaches does not encourage dialogic inquiry. Provides a model for fostering more casual discussion of student writing and literary texts. (HB)

Describes the activities in a student-centered advanced-placement English classroom, specifically methods used to foster discussion. Shows how student journals aid in generating discussion of literary works. Provides numerous concrete methods for fostering discussion. (HB)

To remain viable, classrooms must be transformed into learning communities wherein deep ideas are developed. A Pennsylvania superintendent (Owen J. Roberts School District, Pottstown, PA) describes how discussions of great literature among administrators, faculty, and board members have helped forge shared understandings as they tackled thorny…

Posits a theoretical process model of group argument. Uses the Group Valence Model and two versions of the Distribution of Valence Model to investigate argument-outcome links. Finds that both frameworks were good predictors of group outcomes, and that all argument acts tested were good predictors of group decision choices except those of…

Examined grade nine student reflection during mathematics problem-solving situations in which students worked individually, collaborated in small groups, subsequently wrote group reports, then engaged in a teacher-led discussion in which students reported on the process. Found that reporting was a social practice through which private artifacts…

Describes the role of class discussion and a teacher's particular discourse moves in the development of an inclusive learning culture in a high school English literature course with a rigorous academic curriculum. Focuses on how the teacher transformed previously tracked gifted and talented and general students' understandings of what counted as…

At a Virginia private school, a student-led organization inspired by the National Coalition Building Institute works to end minority groups' mistreatment. In a comfortable, small-group setting, participants examine information and misinformation about themselves and others. Sharing a universally painful human experience is the starting point. (MLH)