Considers how practicing and prospective teachers might address the needs and capabilities of both female and male students. Notes that current projects of the Commission on Gender Issues in English Teacher Education of the National Council of Teachers of English will explore how teachers negotiate the demands of discussing literature in a diverse…

Describes different girls' groups and organizations and discusses how to start a girls' group in a community. Presents a sample outline of activities in a creative arts and writing group conducted at a middle school in New York City. Identifies issues to consider as a girls group develops. Includes lists of print and Internet resources. (AEF)

Describes ways that emerging technologies foster intersubjectivity within online graduate courses by allowing for multileveled communication attentive to students' diverse needs and styles. Topics include interface design; communicative aspects of asynchronous and synchronous discussion; building online communities; and shared knowledge.…

Describes the sketch-to-stretch strategy, in which students show what a story means to them by sketching lines, colors, shapes, symbols, or pictures. Suggests the strategy is effective in encouraging a diversity of perspectives about a story, and in using it, many potential at-risk readers as well as stronger students become valued literary…

Using learning through discussion, an active or deep learning technique, nine occupational therapy doctoral students reported positive experiences, active engagement in critical thinking, and transformative learning. There were no significant differences in their perceptions of their performance over 9 weeks. (Contains 40 references.) (SK)

Looks at literature discussion groups from the student's perspective. Finds three major themes: (1) students have a clear notion of the conditions that are conducive to effective discussions; (2) students perceived the gender make-up of their group to influence how they participated in and experienced their discussions; and (3) students found the…

Explores the relationship between the teacher's role and the students' participation within literature discussion groups in a third-grade classroom. Finds two salient themes: the problematic nature of students' transition from a teacher-led to a student-led discussion format; and the responsive nature of the teacher's interventions relative to…

Describes an activity in which students categorize the sexual orientation (heterosexual, bisexual, homosexual) of 10 fictional people. Students study aspects of sexual orientation, including its resistance to rigid and consistent definitions. The activity has been used in Psychology of Women, Sexual Behavior, and Psychology of Sexual Orientation…

Demonstrates how Web-based bulletin boards can facilitate learning and dialogue based on a case study of graduate education students in face-to-face classes. Analyzes bulletin board postings, electronic journals, reflective essays, class discussions, and interviews from an adult learning perspective to reveal how these online experiences can…

In adventure education, debriefing is an art and a science. The facilitator must understand what is occurring and help people feel that they are learning for themselves. Categories of questions that move the conversation forward, explore deeper levels of understanding, and capture the "teachable moment" include open-ended, follow-up,…

Presents a method aimed at developing the ability of students to handle information, participate in group discussions, and accept and give constructive criticism. Involves synthesizing information in poster handouts and taking part in a student-centered assessment. Evaluates through an objective scoring strategy that leads to the identification of…

Documents three key strategies that the teacher used in her transitional efforts to make discussions possible in her low-achieving high school English classroom: developing an ethos of involvement and respect, using scaffolding and specific ways of phrasing questions to encourage discussion, and acknowledging and making space for the presence of…

Evidence on the effectiveness of school-based smoking restrictions on reducing pupil smoking rates is mixed. So far, the effect of such policies has only been considered using quantitative methods and "level of enforcement" has primarily been measured according to data collected from staff. This qualitative study is based on data collected during…

This contribution examines the methodological challenges involved in defining the collaborative knowledge-building processes occurring in asynchronous discussion and proposes an approach that could advance understanding of these processes. The written protocols that are available to the analyst provide an exact record of the instructional…

This study investigated changing attitudes toward reading among elementary and secondary teacher candidates participating in in-class book group discussions in an introductory language and literacy course taught by two instructors in a medium-sized state teacher education program. Qualitative methods focused on both students' weekly self-reports…