This case study examines online discussions using Activity Theory to understand the contributions of individuals to the process of socially constructing knowledge within groups. The Community of Inquiry model integrates social, cognitive, and teaching presence within online discussions. While it is recognized that each participant can contribute…

Special educators who work with students with significant behavior support needs require professional development opportunities that provide practice-based professional development and create the social support inherent in communities of practice. We outline a practice-based professional development model with follow-up sessions using the U.S.…

This article reports on the second stage of a 7-year community-based research project involving service-learning students in technical and professional communication courses and nonprofit organizations in Baltimore City. The article explains how students and community members overcame failure to collaborate on literacy and employment workshops. To…

Alongside rising poverty, student homelessness and school mobility are increasingly impacting U.S. suburbs -- yet, there is little research on how leadership is evolving. Informed by distributed leadership and drawing from over 50 artifacts and 42 interviews with school and community leaders, this study explores how poverty, homelessness, and…

College science courses pose complex challenges to students. Textbooks are dense and laden with textbook features that may be confusing to students unfamiliar with science texts. Courses are especially challenging because they presuppose a certain degree of disciplinary literacy, or understanding of the knowledge and practices possessed by those…

Purpose: Individuals have an innate desire to matter to others. Perceived mattering, the cognitive process of self-evaluating one's significance to other people, plays an integral role in self-perception, especially among marginalized populations. This descriptive study investigated research administrators' perceived mattering and factors that…

This article reports on a study of a teacher professional development (TPD) course that combined digital courseware with a face-to-face professional learning community. The aim of the course, implemented in a developing country, was to improve teacher knowledge and practice in early childhood literacy and numeracy. Using interview and…

Using data collected through a survey on professional development in adult education (AE), Elevation Educational Consulting Group (EECG) and Research Allies for Lifelong Learning provide the field of AE with an analysis focused on two aspects of the survey. The data were collected from separate surveys, for administrators and instructors, with a…

In this study, the impact of learner-learner interactions on sense of community in an online doctoral degree program is explored through a quasi-experimental mixed methods approach. Survey data and analysis from 46 enrolled students in an online EdD program at a private religiously affiliated Midwestern research university, along with qualitative…

The purpose of this study was to qualitatively explore how students experienced the MOOC-based flipped learning and how should different scaffolding be emphasized in different stages in such educational contexts through the lens of the revised community of inquiry (CoI) framework. In total, 22 first-year undergraduate students were invited for…

The existing research on community college faculty attrition has focused on such internal institutional factors as faculty work life and morale. Few studies have examined factors outside of an institution's control that may influence faculty attrition and no studies to date have examined such factors in a sample of rural-serving community college…

Universities have renewed interest in blended learning in preparation for post-COVID education. However, unsatisfactory social interactions hinder the quality of blended learning, despite its potential for flexible and personalized learning. In this situation, a sense of community would provide essential academic and social benefits. To develop a…

Community schools are a national initiative gaining traction due to the recent identification of the community school model as an evidence-based approach to education that satisfies requirements set forth by the Every Student Succeeds Act. The community school model centers around four pillars: integrated student support, extended and enriched…

Situating residential colleges on a common map can provide important information about the community and its residents. Residential colleges (RCs), a subset of living-learning communities, are like the houses in Hogwarts from the Harry Potter book series, where students live together, share meals in a common space, and learn with and among each…

This article examines faculty motivation to integrate community engagement (CE) into teaching and research, in relation to faculty identity, rank and status, experience, and faith. Building upon previous research that focused on intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, our study also examined the role of an institutional definition of CE with clear…