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This research aims to produce a mathematics module on circle material based on the small group discussion model to improve learning outcomes. The fact is that there are 48% of students who get low mathematics learning outcomes. Another fact is that at the high school level, 62% of students in circle material scored below the minimum completeness criteria. Urgent development research was carried out to produce circular module products. The method in this research is research and development (R&D). The subjects and objects of the research were high schools and there were 32 students. Data collection techniques, material expert instruments, teachers, and student data were also obtained from the results of student pre-tests and post-tests. The data was analyzed by adding up all the assessment scores on the instruments adding up the test results and averaging the individual and classical scores. The results, and assessment of all module components by material experts, mathematics teachers, small group trials, and large group trials were 88.29%, 90.45%, 93.50%, and 92.10% in the very good category. The average score of students' post-test results is 87.50. Conclusion, this circle module can improve student learning outcomes significantly.

Many expect upward trends in online college course enrollment to continue. Despite perceived improvements in online pedagogical practice and advantages afforded by virtual platforms, most students and professors still perceive social interaction, engagement, and overall learning to be more challenging online than in person. More than 3 in 10 college students are less willing to participate in discussions online compared to in person. More than 7 in 10 professors report needing help with strategies for keeping students engaged online. As such, we must identify strategies that cater to students' academic, and social-emotional needs in an online environment. Breakout rooms have often been implemented to promote discussion and collaboration, however, when not well-structured, they often increase social discomfort instead. In this mixed methods study, using surveys, interviews and class observations, we examine student-led talking circles in an undergraduate adolescent development course (N = 61), in which student discussion leaders prepared questions and facilitated small group conversations using structured turn-taking protocols. Nearly 95% of students felt talking circles increased peer connectedness, 92% felt they improved content learning, and 90% felt they increased engagement. Students largely attributed these benefits to specific elements of the talking circle format. Regression results revealed significant associations between peer connectedness and perceived academic benefit, after accounting for demographics, basic psychological needs, dispositional factors, and norms of communication.

It is broadly admitted that social contexts of reasoning may prompt children and adolescents to improve the quality of their reasoning. However, it is not clear how this quality may be assessed when it comes to arguments expressed within oral interactions in diverse settings (whole-class or small-group discussions) by students of different ages and cultural backgrounds. This study aims to offer a methodological contribution to the issue of oral argument assessment of children and adolescents, by looking at a large, annotated corpus of dialogic discussions during 111 lessons taking place in five countries. Our analysis combines a structural (Toulmin Argument Pattern) and functional (Walton's argumentation schemes) approach to argumentative reasoning. Our findings show significant variations across age groups and social settings. The discussion points out the importance of sociocultural framing of argument reasoning development and the continuation of research in argument assessment methods able to grasp important developmental and cultural variations.

The use of #digitalpowerups is a technique that involves associating keywords with prompts in online discussion forums, which enables students to have more choice and voice. These powerups not only help structure responses but also enrich discussions and develop academic skills necessary for online assignments. The approach leverages the social media interaction space of discussion forums by introducing hashtags that remind students of the prompt being addressed and indicate the level of Bloom's being engaged. By using the powerups, students can engage in mid-levels and higher-order levels of Bloom's, along with the lower levels that they typically engage in based on the design and facilitation of the discussion. Students typically participate in the lower levels of Bloom's taxonomy (#remember, #understand) due to the way the discussion is structured and facilitated. However, the use of #digitalpowerups encourages students to move beyond these levels and engage in mid-levels (#apply, #analyze, #evaluate) and higher-order levels (#create, #connect) during discussions. The powerups also scaffold or frame student responses with habits of mind skills. This article examines how the #digitalpowerups strategy supports learning in a virtual community for Environmental Concerns in the Environmental Sociology Course through content analysis of student discussion postings. The primary data (total of 375 postings) were collected from the Environmental Sociology Class throughout the following academic years: Fall 2020 (96 postings), Fall 2021 (67 postings), Spring 2022 (92 postings) and Spring 2023 (120 postings).

Due to the predominance of test-oriented practice, one major challenge faced in Japanese high school classrooms is the lack of learning activities to develop higher order thinking. The purpose of this action research study was to explore an extracurricular blended learning program created to develop the higher order thinking of English language learners at a public high school in Japan. In this one-month program, 16 participants engaged in online synchronous and asynchronous activities, with English as a medium of instruction and communication, supported by in-person face-to-face sessions conducted in Japanese. Data were collected via asynchronous forums, a post-survey, and my observation notes. Results indicated that participants demonstrated higher order thinking to a certain extent overall in the forums; however, learner-learner interaction was not as highly activated as expected, mainly due to limited social interaction within the forums. These findings suggested that constructivist asynchronous forums can be used to develop the higher order thinking of English language learners in K-12 settings, with appropriate program design, instructor mediation, and content.

This transformative autoethnography focuses on the authors' learning about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as a result of their participation in university diversity-related book clubs and subsequent extensive dialogue with one another. The paper features three implementation vignettes where the authors engage in critical self-reflection and self-critique as they (re)consider ways to improve their educational practice as it pertains to DEI. The paper ends with implications for educators to consider as they engage in critical self-reflection/self-critique around DEI in their work.

The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has ignited debates regarding its potential benefits and detriments for education. Despite widespread discussions, insights into GenAI's impact on education have been limited because early studies have often been narrow in scope and focused on specific contexts. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore and analyze the volume, engagement, and content of initial reactions to one leading GenAI tool, ChatGPT. Specifically, we collected and analyzed public online discussions of ChatGPT in the first four months following the tool's release. We collected 345 posts and 6,463 comments about ChatGPT from 25 education-focused subreddits. We analyzed the volume, engagement, and content of ChatGPT discussions through descriptive statistics and natural language processing techniques. Findings show relatively low volume of ChatGPT discussions, unevenly spread across education-related subreddits--with the majority of the discussions occurring in two subreddits, while six subreddits did not have any discussions. Despite this, the level of engagement within ChatGPT posts was substantial; for instance, a ChatGPT post hosted a median of 15 comments, and these comments were lengthy, indicating rich engagement rather than superficial. The content of ChatGPT discussions across the six largest education-related subreddits differed in the degree of analytical thinking and emotional tone even while sharing a predominant focus on students and AI. Diverse reactions to and perspectives on GenAI--observed from varied levels of volume, engagement, and content of ChatGPT across educational-related subreddits--highlights how diverse educational stakeholders reacted to GenAI differently, offering insights into how to explore, analyze, and comprehend the spread and adoption of technological innovation in education.

Facilitating students' learning in a massive open online context is challenging for instructors in online teaching. The instructors should enact their professional (epistemic) feedback-giving skills to understand when, how, and why to address learning problems. In this study, we address this issue in terms of agency and suggest strategies that teachers can use to address these problems constructively. This study examines how instructors' professional agency comes into play in selecting how to intervene to assist students in solving problems in course discussion forums (Facebook group and Canvas discussion forums), which we refer to as an epistemic intervention strategy (EIS). By analyzing discussion forums' dialogical posts using thematic analysis and epistemic network analysis, we found that instructors adopted five different EISs to address students' learning. The EISs emerged during the processes of facilitating students' learning and were influenced by the complexity of students' questions and positioning in learning in the discussion forums. The findings of this study can inform practitioners that facilitating learning in online discussion forums may demand that instructors go beyond their feedback-giving skills to enact professional agency.

This paper examines a literacy book study group as a potentially useful vehicle for the delivery of teacher professional learning in a primary setting. A small group of teachers, in conjunction with a university lecturer, participated in weekly workshop sessions centred around a chosen literacy-based text. The goal of this project was to provide practitioners with a safe space in which to examine, reaffirm and extend their current knowledge base and classroom practices with the intention of engaging with ideas that may be unfamiliar or potentially daunting. At the core of its design, was the desire to provide 'grassroots' professional learning opportunities which recognise and honour the participants' professional acumen and in turn, build their confidence. Data was gathered via the creation of voice files in response to a short post-project questionnaire. This was supplemented by the on-line discussion threads that took place during each weekly workshop session. Overall, the study was found to be affirming while also bringing a sense of welcome camaraderie from across various schools. Encouragingly, it was found that the ideas explored were authentically-applicable to the classroom without the weight of extraneous paperwork or arduous study commitments.

Background: A lack of student 'buy-in' and engagement are often major obstacles in academic literacy courses. To create a dialogic learning environment which encourages student investment and challenges traditional student-lecturer hierarchies of power, the curriculum of a first-year academic literacy course at a South African university was reconceptualised around an action-learning project. Objectives: The aim is to determine whether the reconceptualised course enabled dialogic learning that fostered a sense of investment in students. Method: An interpretivist paradigm was followed, drawing on a qualitative research approach. To explore the nature of student investment, discourse analysis was used to analyse group reflections submitted at the end of the 21-week course. Student reflections were coded thematically using an inductive approach. Results: These reflections indicate that specific mechanisms need to be in place for effective dialogic engagement. If in place, findings suggest that the dialogic approach could encourage critical thinking, help students to develop problem-solving skills, lead to cognisance of multiple perspectives, deepen understanding of course material and expectations, promote inclusivity, and encourage reflection on the learning process. Conclusion: This study indicates that purposefully embedding a dialogic approach into a curriculum through purpose-driven group activities, can lead to more engaged learning. Contribution: The paper contributes to the field of academic literacy studies by showing how academic literacy practitioners may use the now-established pedagogies of action-learning and dialogic teaching and learning to design courses that create an enabling environment for students to draw on deep approaches to learning.

In this essay I concentrate on a distinct aspect of teaching courses online postpandemic: concrete steps both to ease workload burden and to increase student learning efficacy. There are ten lessons that can facilitate moving instruction online: 1. Organize the Course in Weekly Modules; 2. Communicate on a Regular Schedule; 3. Post Key Lectures; 4. Implement Discussions; 5. Provide Frequent Feedback; 6. Solicit Student Feedback; 7. Reconsider Deadlines; 8. Use Online Assessments; 9. Experiment and Learn from Others; and 10. Proactively Seek Administrative Support. I applied these lessons to a specific course: Public Speaking. Traditionally based on face-to-face presentations, the ability to move this course online bodes well for adapting all instruction to the requirements of online learning.

There are many problems faced by students in an online discussion forum, specifically regarding platforms that accommodate a large number of students such as the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) platform. One of the problems is that the teacher cannot respond one by one to student comments that may contain questions or ideas. Therefore, the objectives of this research were to develop an adaptive instructional scaffolding feature that can be applied to online discussion forums and to perform usability measurements for this scaffolding. This feature provides an immediate response to student posts in the discussion forum in the form of article recommendations sourced from the Scopus database. These recommendations are based on the students' comments posted on online discussion forums. The development model used in this study is the instructional model ADDIE (Analyze, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation). To test the usability of the developed features, usability measurement using the usefulness, satisfaction, ease of use (USE) questionnaire was employed. The survey was conducted with 137 students at a public university in Indonesia. The results of the measurement showed that the usability level of the features we developed was shown to be high.

The Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT) is an artificial intelligence technology that engages in dialogue with humans, capable of generating formulations in the form of micro-narratives that can be problematized as a learning tool in the virtual space. This research aims to understand how ChatGPT can be used in teacher training as a didactic tool to facilitate learning in the virtual space through micro-narratives. We conducted a qualitative study using an action research approach with Brazilian students from the Graduate Program at the State University of Ceará in Brazil. The research consisted of five phases: diagnosis, which involved a mixed questionnaire to assess prior knowledge about generating micro-narratives using ChatGPT; action planning, which involved developing a training plan; implementation of the action, which included practicing the use of ChatGPT to generate micro-narratives and working with them in a didactic perspective in the virtual space; evaluation, which involved sharing the micro-narratives and engaging in circular discussions about them; and learning, which involved documenting the educational possibilities and limitations of micro-narratives. The results, processed using IRaMuTeQ, showed limited prior knowledge about ChatGPT and the importance of micro-narratives for educational work, as well as their fruitful pedagogical use for learning in the virtual space through conscious utilization.

This paper uses quantitative analytics to study talk-based participation in 100 mathematics classrooms across one racially diverse urban school district in the USA. Using the EQUIP observation tool and hierarchical linear modeling, we characterize the quantity and quality of participation for students across 3025 coded turns, by race and gender. We found that in general, boys participated significantly more than girls. We also found that Latinx and Asian/Pacific Islander students had significantly fewer turns than Black and White students. To interpret these findings in context, we analyzed interviews from 29 district leaders using a poststructural framework organized around D/discourse.

In online learning at scale, wherein instructional videos play a central role, interactive tools are often integrated to counteract passive consumption. For example, the forum or discussion board is widely used, and an emerging functionality, danmaku, which enables messages to be synchronized with video playback, has also been utilized recently. To explore how mass participation is accommodated and what categories of interaction learners implement, this study utilizes analysis of interaction and manual content analysis through learner-generated text data from two specific tools employed in a massive open online course (MOOC) setting: the discussion board (N = 739) and danmaku (N = 2435). Results of the analysis of interaction indicate that mass participation is managed differently by the tools: danmaku fosters a collective space for massive participants, while the discussion board organizes them into threaded small groups. In addition, results of the content analysis show danmaku primarily supports indirect interaction with a focus on the socio-emotional dimension, while the discussion board serves as a platform for direct discussions, particularly in the cognitive dimension. Furthermore, within the context of large-scale engagement, various levels of joint interaction, in addition to collaboration, are discerned and discussed in both socio-emotional and cognitive interactions. The findings offer insights for developing sociable and scalable socio-technical environments in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL), addressing emerging educational trends. Practical implications for educational design based on these findings are also discussed.

Youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) aspire to participate in a variety of activities after high school, such as attaining paid employment, enrolling in postsecondary education, being involved in their communities, living independently, and building friendships. However, complex and longstanding transition barriers require comprehensive solutions that are tailored to a local community's unique needs and available resources so that local youth with IDD may achieve their desired outcomes. This article presents "virtual community conversations" as a promising approach for bringing together local communities to tackle barriers to good outcomes for residents with IDD. Attendees were able to effectively generate innovative recommendations for addressing issues in their local communities. We offer recommendations for enhancing and extending implementation of this approach.

Background: Investigating emotion sequence patterns in the posts of discussion forums in massive open online courses (MOOCs) holds a vital role in shaping online interactions and impacting learning achievement. While the majority of research focuses on the relationship between emotions and interactions in MOOC forum discussions, research on identifying the crucial difference in emotion sequence patterns among different interaction groups remains in its infancy. Objectives: This research utilizes deep learning and sequential pattern mining to investigate whether there are differences in emotion sequence patterns across different groups of learners who exhibit various types of interactions in online discussion forums. Methods: Data from a comprehensive array of sources, including log files, discussion texts and scores from 498 learners in online discussion forums, were collected for this study. The agglomerative hierarchical algorithm is used to classify learners into groups with different levels of interactions. Additionally, we implement and evaluate multiple deep learning models for detecting different emotions from online discussions. Relevant emotion sequence patterns were identified using sequence pattern analysis and the identified emotion sequence patterns were compared across different groups with different levels of interactions. Results and Conclusions: Using an agglomerative hierarchical algorithm, we classified learners into three distinct groups characterized by different levels of interactions: high, average and low level. Leveraging the bi-directional long short-term memory model for emotion detection yielded the highest predictive performance, with an impressive F-measure of 94.01%, a recall rate of 93.83% and an accuracy score of 95.01%. The results also revealed that learners in the low-level interaction group experienced more emotion transition from boredom to frustration than the other two groups. Therefore, the aggregation of students into groups and the utilization of their MOOC log data offer educators the capability to provide adaptive emotional feedback, customize assessments and offer more personalized attention as needed.

This study describes an initiative to support first-year teachers and address the following questions: During a year-long, asynchronous support/study group to help first-year teachers with classroom management, what SEL practices would the teachers identify as effective in supporting their classroom management and what SEL competencies would those practices help their elementary and secondary students develop? Data were collected from questionnaires and wiki space discussions. Findings demonstrate that the first-year teachers' initial conceptions of classroom management became increasingly aligned with the ways in which culturally responsive SEL practices can support classroom management and help elementary and secondary students foster important SEL competencies.

Project-based Learning (PBL) provides an effective environment for collaborative engineering design education. However, it is difficult to assess students' engagement and provide process-oriented feedback on their collaboration due to limited resources and scalability challenges. This paper presents an empirical study examining the application of Machine Learning (ML) to evaluate student engagement in PBL. A supervised ML model (SML) was developed using Natural Language Processing (NLP) to predict engagement levels using conversation data in online chat groups and comparing them to the ground truth metrics. Eleven teams of engineering students participated in the PBL courses on systems engineering while employing text-based discussions. Communication messages were manually labelled for active engagement metrics collected in our prior research. The SML was constructed with Gradient Boosting to classify engagement levels. The model was trained using more than 5,000 manually classified text messages, and it demonstrated an accuracy range of 0.75 to 0.81 on held-out test data. The model's predictions for complete team communication showed a meaningful association with the actual levels of engagement as determined by log data and surveys. Moreover, the model reproduces general patterns of team engagement and collaboration. According to the findings, conversational data can be a scalable source for ML-driven engagement assessment. This shows how AI has the potential to scale up process-oriented assessment in PBL. Future research should look towards instructor-AI dashboards and individualized feedback systems. The work adds an empirical evaluation of AI for automated engagement analysis, extending earlier research on feedback systems to tackle PBL issues.

Background: Maintenance of speech outcomes following speech-language therapy (SLT) in Parkinson's disease (PD) is an unmet expectation of people with PD (PWPD) and poorly defined in SLT practice. PD Check-In, a model for supported self-managed maintenance of speech following Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT) LOUD was investigated. Aims: To investigate the impact of the semi-structured component of PD Check-In on the adoption of self-management concepts and behaviours and the identification of facilitators, barriers and strategies for speech maintenance by PWPD over 24 months post-treatment. Methods and procedure: Following LSVT LOUD, 16 PWPD participated in individual PD Check-In semi-structured discussions with a SLT at 6 and 12 weeks, and 6, 12 and 24 months post treatment. A two-stage qualitative content analysis was applied: directed content analysis using categories from the theoretical framework of PD Check-In followed by inductive content analysis to identify subcategories. Outcomes and results: Statements from PWPD indicated adoption of seven concepts of self-management across participants and across time. Six concepts from the theoretical framework of PD Check-In (partnerships, self-reflection, maintenance barriers and facilitators, revision of LSVT LOUD skill, goal setting and maintenance strategies), and one new category, participation, emerged from the analysis. Self-reflection, maintenance facilitators and barriers and participation were most prevalent in discussions. PWPD identified facilitators, barriers and strategies for maintenance across time points. Conclusions and implications: Statements from PWPD indicated a positive impact of SLT-supported self-management of speech using self-tailored strategies for sustainable maintenance according to their individual circumstances and needs.

This work considers group discussion data, as recorded in video conferencing settings, and demonstrates the ability to use readily available computational tools to glean important information characterizing the dynamics of the group discussion. In particular, our toolbox reveals a number of important characteristics of a discussion, including who is speaking when and each participant's relative sentiment throughout the discussion. We also identify the moments of the discussion where specific events occur, such as reading or quoting from source material or when questions are being asked, etc. Finally, we conduct a topic analysis to characterize the amount of time spent on various themes in the discussion. We then demonstrate that these tools are reasonably accurate at locating the desired content and can, in fact, provide a unique window to into the dynamics of group discussions.

Social constructivism emphasises the role of meaningful interactions as a vehicle for learning. Meaningful interactions engage learners cognitively and socially with others to construct knowledge. Such interactions, however, require an environment specially designed to facilitate and guide learners' cognitive and social processes towards the construction of knowledge. Forums in massive open online courses (MOOCs) could potentially provide such an environment. However, research on how MOOC forums are designed to facilitate and guide cognitive and social processes is scarce. This study adopts a qualitative lens to examine the specifications, pedagogical instructions, and guidance provided in the forums of 4 edX MOOCs to help learners engage in meaningful interactions. We sought to uncover how MOOC forums are designed to support the social construction of knowledge. We found that MOOC forums mainly seek to facilitate cognitive processes while giving scant support or guidance to social processes. Such a learning design might favour the individual over the social construction of knowledge. To a certain extent, our findings help explain the questionable effectiveness of MOOC forums as social learning environments.

In this study, we examine the design process for a visual learning analytics (VLA) approach in addition to its effect on developing students' epistemic understanding of discourse and relationships to promote knowledge-building inquiry. Over a 3-month period, an experimental class of secondary school students took a visual arts course using a knowledge-building design augmented by VLA, while a comparison class took the same course within a regular knowledge-building environment. The VLA approach implemented in the experimental class emphasized collective reflections using assessment tools to visualize the students' online and classroom discussions. The analysis of the students' questionnaire responses and Knowledge Forum discourse showed that the VLA approach helped the students develop a deeper epistemic understanding of discourse for productive inquiry and greater domain knowledge. In addition, the students' epistemic understanding was associated with their performance in productive Knowledge Forum inquiry. Qualitative analysis of the classroom and group discussions, interview responses and learning artefacts showed that the VLA design helped them understand the nature of discourse deeply by encouraging them to notice community orientations, increase their awareness of productive discourse moves and advance idea development. The implications of the VLA design in improving epistemic understanding of discourse are discussed. We contribute to the literature by examining the epistemic dimensions of discourse and implementing VLA as an epistemic tool for knowledge building.

This systematic review examined research on moderators in asynchronous online discussions (AODs) through a review of 52 sources published over the past four decades. Areas of interest included conceptual frameworks cited in research, publication trends, instructional contexts, research methods and characteristics, and descriptions of the role of the moderator with implications for practice. Results indicate: (1) nearly half of the publications did not cite a conceptual framework focused on moderation; (2) the field is diverse with a wide variety of themes for research designs, outcomes, foci, and questions; (3) half of reviewed publications involved case studies or similarly limited study designs; (4) the majority of publications collected data on students in higher education, but there was a lack of consistency in the reporting of demographic information; (5) research foci tended toward investigating peer moderators or the role of the instructor; (6) research questions tended to focus on strategies of moderators or student performance and discussion quality; (7) most definitions or expectations of a moderator included discussion and social management duties. We conclude by discussing the implications of some of the findings and future research options.

Group supervision, a common method in graduate psychology training, shifted abruptly to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to increase understanding of psychology graduate students' perception of online group supervision during COVID-19 by focusing on the group process and the students' professional identity formation. Data were collected through an online survey comparing an online COVID-19 group sample with a preCOVID-19 in-person sample. Our findings showed no difference between online group supervision during COVID-19 and in-person group supervision prior to COVID-19 in students' reports of group processes and the prevalence of professional identity statuses. However, group processes differed according to students' professional identity statuses while accounting for the supervision format. We discuss the results of our study and offer several theoretical and practical implications regarding online supervision.

Language learning programs had been affected by declining school budgets and state support well before COVID-19, but the pandemic exacerbated the already declining learning outcomes of students. Duolingo, a free language-learning app, provides a platform for users to learn language skills using activities and exercises for over 38 languages. Duolingo users are not limited to language-related topics and can often venture into topics that explore these socio-emotional spaces. This study examined how Duolingo discussion board users have been affected by factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study used a netnography methodology within a qualitative study design to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic might be associated with perceptions about foreign language learning on Duolingo. The sample size of the current study was 20 discussion boards out of a total of 3,464 across a sample of 38 language courses available on the Duolingo platform. Examining Duolingo's asynchronous discussion boards, findings presented three themes among users, including community, generosity, and gratitude, as well as information-seeking about COVID-19-related vocabulary and phrases. The pandemic has affected language learners' emotional conditions, which motivates further research to examine ways in which learners can share their experiences, vent about their difficulties, and build community connections in a safe, virtual setting.

The purpose of this project was to explore the experiences of students when facilitating class discussions through Cooperative Discussion Groups. In addition, students particularly compared their experiences within this class with their experiences in Whole Class Discussion in previous classes. Students participated in structured cooperative discussion groups and submitted three written answers to reflection prompts provided as an extra credit opportunity. Based on the written answers, select participants were then purposively sampled for semi-structured interviews. Upon data analysis, five themes arose that described what students took away from this teaching method. Among these themes include how student groups facilitated collaboration among peers, deepened understanding of course materials, and allowed students to reflect on not only their own past experiences but those of their classmates as well. The researchers encourage instructors to consider using this teaching method as they approach curricula that either includes the development of individual philosophies or class sessions where it would be valuable for students to listen to their classmates' experiences

Previous studies have confirmed the benefits of small group sizes in asynchronous online discussions. However, there is no consistency in which small group size is the optimal option for maximizing students' discussion performance. Moreover, few researchers attempted to apply the smallest group size (i.e., one-on-one) to online discussions and examined its effects. This study focuses on comparing two small group size choices regarding students' discussion performances. 21 graduate students formed pairs in the first half of the semester, and in the second half, they formed groups of three to five. Paired-sample t tests were conducted to detect the performance differences between the two group sizes. The results showed that students significantly performed better in contributing interactions, providing information, engaging in social conversations, demonstrating cognitive engagement, and constructing knowledge. This study provided a new perspective of designing discussion activities in online forums.

Higher education students with dyslexia are generally under enormous emotional pressure. The fear of getting exposed as "stupid" leads many of them to isolate themselves and avoid social contact with their peers. In consequence, a lot of dyslexic college students suffer from feelings of loneliness or even depression and anxiety. One promising way to palliate the anguish is participation in self-help groups. They can create a sense of belonging and of not being the only one out there with severe reading and writing problems. Moreover, they can help disseminate practical information on how to best cope with one's challenges. In this paper, we describe the opportunities that digital self-support groups (mostly by means of video conferencing) can offer. We argue that for these groups to be successful, they need a facilitator, must limit their attendance to a specific set of not more than five members, should have some etiquette and routines, should not limit the number of sessions that one is allowed to attend, and should be connected with nonprofit associations or other suitable organizations to elicit synergy effects.

The study investigated the effects of a combination of Peer Discussion and Isomorphic Problems (PD-IPs) on high school students' graph understanding and conceptual learning. The study was conducted on kinematics and Newton's Laws of Motion with 67 high school students from two groups. The experimental group (EG) consisted of 34 students, while the control group (CG) combined with 33 students. The students in EG were taught using the PD-IPs approach, while those in CG were taught using the traditional method. The research data were collected using the Force Motion Achievement Test (FMAT), which was composed by selecting multiple-choice questions from some standardized tests (Force Concept Inventory, Mechanic Baseline Test, Test of Understanding Graphs in Kinematics). The FMAT includes 25 multiple-choice questions. 11 were related to graph understanding, and the rest were related to conceptual learning. The research showed that the PD-IPs approach had a more positive effect on students' understanding of graphs and conceptual learning than the traditional teaching method. The findings indicate that implementing the PD-IPs approach requires minimal effort while demonstrating the potential to evaluate and improve high school student's academic performance in physics education.

This qualitative study aims to improve accessibility and equity in digital spaces by identifying the prevalent mismatch between online course design, student culture, and its connection to instructional design for teacher preparation programs. Utilizing feminist theory, we explore the intersection between community, identity, and learning within relational-focused small group online discussions for students enrolled in two online teacher preparation courses. Data for this study includes observations of teacher candidates, artifacts of their meetings, and reflective responses. The results indicate that relational-focused small group online discussions provide opportunities to expand accessibility and equity through community and deep learning while impacting future teachers' identities.

The question posed in this analysis is: What is the relationship between text-centered dialogue and reading comprehension? This article examines one student's behaviors while reading challenging texts. This qualitative case study explored the verbal behaviors of Robert (pseudonym), a seventh-grade student receiving reading intervention. As his text-centered dialogue increased, his comprehension increased as well. Over the course of 11 weeks, Robert (pseudonym) improved his success rate in an online reading intervention program from 3 successful attempts mid-year to 31 successful attempts by the end of May. Using a comprehension-as-sense-making theoretical frame, findings suggest that providing at-risk adolescents opportunities to engage in dialogic strategic behaviors could encourage successful problem solving when working with challenging texts, an asset-oriented approach to intervention.

This study examines a plática held by Latine teachers and pre-service teachers after watching the documentary "Precious Knowledge" in the U.S. Latino South. The study employed Chicana/Latina feminist theory as well as the use of testimonios as methodology. Results from this study show that Latine teachers were able to share their experiences with racism, discuss issues of white supremacy, and make connections from present to past events. Based on this study, it is recommended that teachers need opportunities to share their testimonios and engage in discussions about topics that impact them as Latine teachers in the U.S. Latino South.

The growth in online education has prompted a focus on ensuring students are engaged, persistent, and successful in their studies. A recognized challenge with online learning is developing a community of learners, where students feel connected to their peers and instructor and experience a sense of belonging. In this article, we highlight using the platform Flip to engage students in video-based discussions. We describe our use of Flip in two online asynchronous courses and provide recommendations for instructors seeking to embed this tool in the learning experiences they develop for their students. In addition, we present our students' perspectives on belonging within the course and their use of Flip, collected using an anonymous survey. Last, we examine the advantages and challenges of using this tool and discuss the implications for promoting connection and belonging in online courses.

As a recipient of an ALA Libraries Transforming Communities: Focus on Small and Rural Communities grant, the author's school was fortunate to receive funds to purchase books for a special program. With a librarian partner the author ran "Book Bites" during lunchtime. The aim of this program was to provide a platform for students to engage in meaningful conversations about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their lives and relationships, as well as to explore themes of compassionate empathy. By focusing on themes of compassionate empathy, the program was able to create a sense of belonging and solidarity, helping to heal some of the wounds inflicted by the pandemic.

This study examines the impact of incorporating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) certification programs into higher education marketing curricula on students' acceptance, competency in DEI topics, and perceived employment success. Against a societal backdrop marked by divisiveness and silencing of minority voices, known as the Spiral of Silence, this research aims to determine whether DEI certifications in marketing curricula can influence students' perceptions and attitudes toward DEI discussions in the classroom, as facilitated by their instructors. It assesses the role of instructors' perceived credibility in DEI discussions and how DEI certification affects students' willingness to engage in DEI discourse both within the classroom and in broader community contexts, including social media. The findings indicate a significant increase in students' willingness to participate in DEI classroom discussions, suggesting that certifications can enhance classroom dynamics and acceptance of DEI messages. Further, it empowers them to engage in meaningful DEI discussions on social media post-certification. This research underscores the potential of integrating DEI certifications into marketing curricula to improve student engagement with DEI issues, contributing to a more inclusive and equitable societal discourse while creating responsible marketing professionals and engaged citizens.

Purpose: Synchronous virtual classes are becoming more common as universities expand access. However, instructors can feel hesitant as they move to a new style of teaching, especially if they are not sure their chosen pedagogy will work with virtual instruction. The purpose of this dialogic analysis is to examine the experiences of a dialogic teacher in a synchronous virtual English methods course. Design/methodology/approach: The 75-min methods class met on Zoom twice a week. Class sessions were recorded. Dialogic analysis was used to analyze moments of whole-class discussion to explain what kinds of discussions happened and determine to what extent the class functioned as a dialogic class. Findings: Overall, there was more student voice than teacher voice, and students spent over a third of the class in small group discussions. Even though the teacher still took over, and controlled discussions, the overall class maintained dialogic teaching principles. Despite this, the professor felt displaced for three reasons. In addition, some ideas for increasing the dialogic nature of the class are mentioned. Originality/value: Synchronous virtual teaching will continue to grow, but as instructors move to that format, they can examine whether their pedagogies match the format. This paper explored one professor's pedagogy of dialogic teaching and its compatibility with synchronous virtual teaching. This method of self-analysis could work with any pedagogy and could help instructors be successful in a new format.

Creating an online learning environment that engages learners beyond the given course period is challenging. Open, participant-driven discussion forums, where participants are provided with greater agency on what to learn, how to learn, and whom to learn with, have a unique potential to help learners engage in learning experiences based on their interests and needs. Based on sequential and qualitative analysis of speech acts found in the participant-initiated discussion threads hosted as part of a massive open online course, this paper explored the impact of participant actions as facilitative moves to gain a better understanding of the types of actions in the discussion that stimulated deeper engagement with the ideas of interest. The analysis identified several facilitative moves that nurture or hinder deeper conversation in an open online discussion forum that has design implications. The paper also highlights the potential of analysing conversation sequences of posts as a promising method to study discussion forum data.

The absence of instructional support during peer feedback prevents students from engaging with peer feedback. This study adopted regulated dialogic feedback as the instructional foundation and investigated its impact on students' engagement using an experimental research design. Students in the experimental group (n = 26) performed the feedback practice with a regulated dialogic feedback approach through three phases, each involving a different regulation type: 1. negotiation and coordination of feedback activities involving shared regulation of learning (SSRL); 2. feedback provision and discussion to support its uptake involving co-regulation of learning (CoRL); and 3. translation of feedback into task progress involving self-regulation of learning (SRL). Students in the control group (n = 25) performed the feedback practice without the regulated dialogic feedback approach in an online discussion forum. The study lasted for 10 weeks for both groups. The research data included students' responses to peer feedback engagement surveys, students' learning behaviors, and the transcripts of interviews with students. The survey results show that the regulated dialogic feedback led to a higher cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement with the feedback practice. Based on the feedbackrelated learning behaviors, this study found that the SSRL, SRL, and CoRL processes can potentially promote cognitive, emotional, and behavioral engagement. Extreme case analysis demonstrated how the support for SSRL, SRL, and CoRL promoted engagement in all three areas (cognitive, behavioral, and emotional). Pedagogical implications were provided for creating engaging dialogic feedback practices.

The move to digital, and now hybrid, education has defamiliarised teaching practices and unsettled experiences of what it means to be and to engage at university. In this article, I examine what new questions evolving teaching and learning practices provoke with regards rethinking notions of the body, and concepts of presence and absence. Interweaving theories of performativity, of strangeness, and of agency as a cutting together/apart, I explore a specific example of online course design, a Small Private Online Course. I consider the dispersed and fragmented subjects and bodies that evade enclosure within the course, and the ontological implications for thinking about how subjects, bodies and materialities are cut, performed and made strange: what it means to 'be online'. I suggest that such a rethinking is necessary if we are to meaningfully conceptualise engagement, and to move beyond limited, but durable, assumptions that pervade contemporary discussions around digital learning.

Restorative practices can serve as a proactive approach to address behavior in a way that not only repairs harm and restores relationships, but also creates stronger communities. Using a circle-style conversation to elicit our perceptions of the potential of these practices to support and advance liberatory principles, we sought to uncover the experiences of four diverse scholar-practitioners who have worked to integrate restorative practices into their work in college and university residential environments. The personal narratives revealed that a more liberatory implementation of restorative practices can be accomplished when it is executed in accordance with its core principles and used to build and maintain community, rather than simply responding to harm. Because this approach centers historically marginalized and student voices, it can be used as a framework to actively seek to dismantle larger systems of oppression. [Discussion questions prepared by Richard Manu.]

Little research has been conducted to investigate relationships between students' community of inquiry (CoI) perceptions and their attitudes towards reading circles (ARC). To bridge the gap this quantitative research reports a cohort of Chinese students' perceptions of CoI and its prediction for their attitudes towards reading circles (RC) in English as a Foreign Language learning. The researchers administered and collected 202 valid questionnaires. They analyzed the correlations between CoI and ARC dimensions, did regression analyses and came up with insightful findings. It's found that, concerning CoI, students have more positive perceptions of teaching and cognitive presences than of social presence. Meanwhile teaching presence, cognitive presence, social presence of CoI and usefulness, affect, and behavior of ARC are closely correlated. CoI teaching presence and cognitive presence are significant predictors for usefulness and behavior of ARC, while the combination of the three CoI presences predicts affect of ARC. Investigating the relationships between a longstanding CoI framework and a fledging ARC scale provides great implications for Chinese blended EFL teaching, especially in reading courses.