Purpose: In the USA, as elsewhere, there is an ongoing need to improve quality in higher education. Quality improvement models from business have not been widely embraced, and many other approaches to accountability seem to induce minimal compliance. This paper aims to contend that learning communities represent a viable alternative in the quest…

This paper aims to discuss the challenges in the process of building a learning community in Vietnamese primary schools. Five lessons emerge from the cases. First, changing teachers' beliefs is time-consuming. Second, because of the reluctance of teachers to change, large-scale delivery of the educational project should be critically revisited…

This article reports a self-study conducted during my four-year tenure as head of the elementary school department within a college of education. During that period, I explored my developing understanding of the role of relationships in the processes of my professional and personal growth. I describe the three cycles of action that comprise the…

This article attempts to explore the concept of the professional learning community from the critical discourse perspective. Instead of viewing collective learning as being controlled by higher levels within the school hierarchy as a means to increase power, critical discourse seeks to uncover how power, knowledge, and truth are continuously being…

Teacher professional learning communities provide environments in which teachers engage in regular research and collaboration. They have been found effective as a means for connecting professional learning to the day-to-day realities faced by teachers in the classroom. In this article, the authors draw on survey data collected in primary schools…

Notions of distributed leadership and professional learning communities are bedfellows in the drive to school improvement. However, these ideas of sharing leadership and mutual learning as a community are not introduced and developed in a neutral context. Power relationships, priorities and purposes are constructed in certain ways within the…

Judith Rance-Roney calls on teachers to form intentional learning communities within their classrooms. The Culture Share Club, initially conceived to provide scaffolding for ELL students to acquire English and pass the statewide test in English, legitimized student knowledge by benefitting all students as they prepared materials for lessons and…

There has been growing interest in linking the learning of Science with the literacies of Science and representations. Recent attention has been focused on learning theories that emphasise the socio-cultural and situated aspects of learning, and in particular the notion of learning as participation in a discourse community. This paper will…

The Beginning College Survey of Student Engagement (BCSSE) was launched in 2007 as a companion survey to the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). In its first two years, close to 140,000 entering first-year students at 197 institutions across the United States and Canada have participated in BCSSE. Now in its third year, BCSSE continues…

This paper critically examines some assumptions involved in determining the nature of the relationships and work that constitute a school as a community dedicated to learning and knowledge. Rather than arguing from first principles, the paper assumes that respect for other people as ends is preferable to seeing individuals in terms of their…

Teachers who work together to blend academic and career/technical (CT) instruction have found a key to motivating students to complete high school and prepare for college, advanced training and careers. This newsletter highlights key strategies schools are using to join academic and technical studies to advance student motivation and achievement.…

In this study we examined curriculum integration in new ways by exploring the link between classroom context, the implementation of community-based, integrated science projects, and the subsequent student learning. The literature is inconsistent regarding the benefits of an integrated approach to curriculum. The research design was a multiple case…

Ritual has played an integral role in human development and socialization throughout history. This paper seeks to highlight that role so that the importance of perpetuating ritual becomes obvious and necessary. The purpose of this paper is to re-iterate the significance of ritual in human development, education, and social improvement; discuss the…

This research project examined how to develop and sustain online, asynchronous learning communities in continuous intake, distance education environments for learners in grades 7 through 10. The study is an action research project that is based upon in-depth, qualitative data. Interviews were conducted with distance education teachers,…

Inspiring students to become teachers and community leaders is a goal of Douglas Taylor School's leadership team. A feeling of continuity and connection are important to the school, which opened in the 19th century. Housed in a beautiful old school building in Chicago's South Side, Douglas Taylor School contains grades preK-8. To maintain the…