The engagement of people with learning disabilities in social communication is crucial to the development of relationships with others, a sense of social inclusion and self-worth. Intensive Interaction is an approach that can help carers develop their skills to engage people with severe and profound learning disabilities in personally relevant…

Research shows that half of all teachers working in urban school settings leave the profession within five years, and many who choose to leave are the ones who are most effective (Coggins & Diffenbaugh, 2013.) Manual Rounds, a structured peer observation process based on the established practice of instructional rounds, was implemented at…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the viability of implementing a protocol-guided model designed to provide structure and focus for teacher collaboration from Shanghai in today's US public schools. The authors examine whether the new model, Teacher Peer Excellence Group (TPEG), fosters the desired key features of productive…

West Virginia's Regional Education Service Agency 2 (RESA 2) serves six districts in the southwestern part of the state--Cabell, Lincoln, Logan, Mason, Mingo, Wayne--which together have 95 schools. RESA 2 was one of two RESAs to pilot implementation of the Learning School approach, beginning in the summer of 2014. RESA 2's first cohort included…

West Virginia's Regional Education Service Agency 6 (RESA 6) serves five districts in the northern panhandle of the state--Brooke, Hancock, Marshall, Ohio, and Wetzel--which together are home to 51 schools. RESA 6 joined the pilot implementation of the Learning School approach in the summer of 2015, as part of the second cohort. RESA 6's group…

When expectations for scholarly productivity increase at comprehensive universities, faculty writing groups can provide the tools, motivation, and support necessary to achieve both administrative and faculty goals. Narratives from members of a faculty writing group experiencing a shift in institutional expectations for scholarship reveal tangible…

Although considerable evidence confirms that a director with good leadership and administrative skills is vital for developing and sustaining a high quality child care program, many directors assume the role with little management experience or training. This paper reports on a training program in Canada that combined a formal curriculum to…

The area of teachers' continuing professional development (CPD) is of growing interest internationally. However, while an increasing range of literature focuses on particular aspects of CPD, there is a paucity of literature addressing the spectrum of CPD models in a comparative manner. This article therefore considers a wide range of international…

The use of mentoring within teacher education has become more common in recent years, however, there still seems to be a lack of research about formal group mentorship models as a pedagogical process. In my study, I presented knowledge about how a formal group mentorship model used during a teacher education program at a Swedish university has…

Informal learning takes place in the workplace through connection and collaboration mediated by Web 2.0 applications. However, little research has yet been published that explores informal learning and how to integrate it with workplace training. We aim to address this research gap by developing a conceptual Web 2.0-based workplace learning and…

Culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students comprise the most rapidly expanding, and among the most educationally marginalized, group in the United States. CLD students' opportunities to learn are often diminished through service delivery models that are deficit-oriented, viewing linguistic diversity as a challenge to overcome, not a…

Among the many challenges of professional (faculty, administration, and staff) development is the implementation of shared governance. We propose a model involving professional learning communities that we are experimenting with in our College of Education. This new model provides faculty with decision-making power, a sense of cooperation and…

The lesson study model of professional development that originated in Japan is becoming increasingly popular in the United States. At its core, lesson study is a means of bringing teachers together to carry out the process of planning a lesson, implementing and observing it, and then examining it during a debriefing session. The debriefing…

This paper outlines an academic development process based around a two- or three-day workshop programme called a Course Design Intensive (CDI). The CDI process aims to foster collaboration and peer support in curriculum development and bring about pedagogic innovation and positive experiences for both tutors and learners. Bringing participants…

Connecting with other education professionals is important in supporting teacher learning. Teachers in remote locations in Australia experience a professional isolation due to geographic isolation that makes it difficult to engage in sustained collaborations with other teachers. In a national project ICT was used to assist these teachers by…