The author assesses what effects the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Teacher Education Collaborative (STEMTEC) Faculty Fellows learning community program had over the course of an academic year on fellows' familiarity with and use of active-learning methods and course design. Based on surveys, interviews, focus groups, observations, and…

For the thirty-seventh year, the Research and Theory Division and the Division of Instructional Design of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) sponsored the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Jacksonville, Florida. This year's Proceedings…

This exploratory study examines the impact of a professional development program where a K-16 networked learning community approach was implemented to provide training and support for technology integration in science education. The study presents findings from a three-year project with five cohort groups that included 17 student teachers, 17…

These proceedings contain the papers of the International Conference on Educational Technologies 2013 (ICEduTech 2013), which has been organised by the International Association for Development of the Information Society and co-organised by the Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur,…

The Genome Consortium for Active Teaching (GCAT) facilitates the use of modern genomics methods in undergraduate education. Initially focused on microarray technology, but with an eye toward diversification, GCAT is a community working to improve the education of tomorrow's life science professionals. GCAT participants have access to affordable…

Built on the foundation of four years of research and implementation of mobile learning projects (m-learning), this paper provides an overview of the potential of the integration of mobile Web 2.0 tools (based around smartphones) to facilitate social constructivist pedagogies and engage students in tertiary education. Pedagogical affordances of…

Many distinguished leaders and innovators in higher education who are calling for curricular reform in order to increase student engagement and retention cite learning communities as a powerful model for change. In this article, the term "learning communities" refers to "the purposeful restructuring of the curriculum by linking or clustering…

In this article, the author examines the role the literacy coach at her school has played in supporting the kindergarten through second grade teachers. Using a theoretical framework for classroom communities (Pintaone-Hernandez, 2002), she reflects on how the literacy coach has helped teachers maintain a professional learning community in the wake…

This theoretical paper utilizes cybernetic-­based approaches (Bopry, 1999; Wiener, 1954) and communications theory (Habermas, 1984, 1990; Krippendorff, 1994) to advance knowledge of constructivist learning. I argue that past educational research literature on constructivist learning is partly responsible for limiting how educational designers…

Lave and Wenger have proposed that learning is situated and occurs by means of legitimate peripheral participation within a community of practice, in contrast with conventional schools which are based upon the assumption that knowledge can be decontextualized. I argue that their perspective is inappropriate for science teaching, because a newcomer…

The evidence on learning communities suggests that student intellectual and psychosocial development is improved by participation. Faculty members become rejuvenated as learners once again through rediscovering the boundaries and intersection of their discipline with others. Active learning, collaborative learning, strategies to improve critical…

This paper comments on strengths and weaknesses of the papers on communities of practice in this special issue of "Technology, Pedagogy and Education." First it discusses the character of communities of practice and the question of whether schools are environments that are conducive to the development of teacher communities of practice. It then…

Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) are responsible for instructing approximately 25% of introductory statistics courses in the United States (Blair, Kirkman, & Maxwell, 2013). Most research on GTA professional development focuses on structured activities (e.g., courses, workshops) that have been developed to improve GTAs' pedagogy and content…

The purpose of this study was to examine how leaders foster school renewal by facilitating and participating in the types of teacher professional learning and development that improve student academic and non-academic outcomes. The methodology involved a backward mapping strategy that takes as its starting point, not theories of leadership, but…

One Master's Program, Initiatives in Educational Transformation, has integrated a computer management system (WebCT) into a learner-centered (Weimer, 2002) community of K-12 practicing teachers. Online discussions were an extension of instructional practices that supported dialogue, reflection, and self-assessment for the purpose of continuous…