Optimizing small group discourse in classrooms: Effective practices and theoretical constraints

Christine Howe

International Journal of Educational Research Vol. 63, No. 1 (2014) pp. 107–115

Acknowledging that small group activities are prominent features of science classrooms, this article addresses two questions about the discourse that occurs while such activities are in progress. The first is whether small group discourse actually...

Language: English

Advances in research on classroom dialogue: Commentary on the articles

Christine Howe

Learning and Instruction Vol. 48, No. 1 (April 2017) pp. 61–65

This commentary reviews the six articles that comprise the Special Issue on ‘Advances in research on classroom dialogue: Learning outcomes and assessments’. The commentary focuses on the general methodological and conceptual messages that can be...

Language: English

Small-group collaboration and individual knowledge acquisition: The processes of growth during adolescence and early adulthood

Christine Howe; Antonia Zachariou

Learning and Instruction Vol. 60, No. 1 (April 2019) pp. 263–274

Research into small-group collaboration during middle to late childhood shows that while individual understanding can be promoted through exchanging differing opinions, the joint analyses that groups construct while collaborating play a tangential...

Language: English

The Development of Children's Understanding of Speed Change: A Contributing Factor towards Commonsense Theories of Motion

Michael Hast; Christine Howe

Journal of Science Education and Technology Vol. 22, No. 3 (June 2013) pp. 337–350

Previous research indicates children reason in different ways about horizontal motion and motion in fall. At the same time, their understanding of motion down inclines appears to result from an interaction between horizontal and vertical motion...

Group work in primary school science: discussion, consensus and guidance from experts

Christine Howe; Andy Tolmie

International Journal of Educational Research Vol. 39, No. 1 (2003) pp. 51–72

Research suggests potential problems when group work is used in school science to support the integrated acquisition of conceptual understanding and testing procedures. Yet integrated acquisition is promoted by current policy, and is a popular...

Language: English

Computer support for learning in collaborative contexts: prompted hypothesis testing in physics

Christine Howe; Andy Tolmie

Computers & Education Vol. 30, No. 3 (1998) pp. 223–235

An enormous amount of work has been carried out into the ways in which computers can support collaboration in the service of learning. Less attention has been paid to computer support for learning when collaboration is non-problematic, yet this is...

Language: English

Classroom Dialogue: A Systematic Review across Four Decades of Research

Christine Howe; Manzoorul Abedin

Cambridge Journal of Education Vol. 43, No. 3 (2013) pp. 325–356

Recognizing that empirical research into classroom dialogue has been conducted for about 40?years, a review is reported of 225 studies published between 1972 and 2011. The studies were identified through systematic search of electronic databases and ...

Understanding the Beliefs Informing Children's Commonsense Theories of Motion: The Role of Everyday Object Variables in Dynamic Event Predictions

Michael Hast; Christine Howe

Research in Science & Technological Education Vol. 30, No. 1 (2012) pp. 3–15

Background: Children are not blank slates when they begin school; they bring prior conceptions about the everyday world with them. These conceptions usually do not comply with accepted scientific views and have to be changed within the process of...

Science Teaching and Argumentation: One-Sided versus Dialectical Argumentation in Chilean Middle-School Science Lessons

Antonia Larrain; Paulina Freire; Christine Howe

International Journal of Science Education Vol. 36, No. 6 (2014) pp. 1017–1036

Since the late 1990s, there has been consensus among educational researchers that argumentation should play a central role in science education. Although there has been extensive relevant research, it is not clear enough how oral argumentation...

'More Is Not Necessarily Better': Curriculum Materials Support the Impact of Classroom Argumentative Dialogue in Science Teaching on Content Knowledge

Antonia Larrain; Christine Howe; Paulina Freire

Research in Science & Technological Education Vol. 36, No. 3 (2018) pp. 282–301

Background: Dialogic teaching, specifically the use of argumentation in teaching, is seen as promoting scientific literacy and understanding. However, international evidence consistently shows that the prevailing modes of classroom talk are...

Recognition as Support for Reasoning about Horizontal Motion: A Further Resource for School Science?

Christine Howe; Joana Taylor Tavares; Amy Devine

Research in Science & Technological Education Vol. 34, No. 3 (2016) pp. 273–289

Background: Even infants can recognize whether patterns of motion are or are not natural, yet an acknowledged challenge for science education is to promote adequate reasoning about such patterns. Since research indicates linkage between the...

Hypothesis testing in science: group consensus and the acquisition of conceptual and procedural knowledge

Christine Howe; Andy Tolmie; Val Duchak-Tanner; Catherine Rattray

Learning and Instruction Vol. 10, No. 4 pp. 361–391

Hypothesis testing has been seen by science educators as a context which supports the integrated acquisition of conceptual and procedural knowledge. However, research suggests potential conflicts between the conditions conducive to conceptual growth ...

Language: English

Peer Interaction and the Learning of Critical Thinking Skills in Further Education Students

Tony Anderson; Christine Howe; Rebecca Soden; John Halliday; Jennifer Low

Instructional Science: An International Journal of the Learning Sciences Vol. 29, No. 1 (2001) pp. 1–32

Describes research that focused on the acquisition of critical thinking skills by vocational education students in Further Education colleges in the United Kingdom, and in particular on the development of the skills of reasoned argument via practice....

Group work in elementary science: Towards organisational principles for supporting pupil learning

Christine Howe; Andy Tolmie; Allen Thurston; Keith Topping; Donald Christie; Kay Livingston; Emma Jessiman; Caroline Donaldson

Learning and Instruction Vol. 17, No. 5 (October 2007) pp. 549–563

Group work has been promoted in many countries as a key component of elementary science. However, little guidance is given as to how group work should be organised, and because previous research has seldom been conducted in authentic classrooms, its ...

Language: English

Social effects of collaborative learning in primary schools

Andrew Kenneth Tolmie; Keith J. Topping; Donald Christie; Caroline Donaldson; Christine Howe; Emma Jessiman; Kay Livingston; Allen Thurston

Learning and Instruction Vol. 20, No. 3 pp. 177–191

There is conflicting evidence on whether collaborative group work leads to improved classroom relations, and if so how. A before and after design was used to measure the impact on work and play relations of a collaborative learning programme...

Language: English