This paper outlines a peer-assisted teaching scheme (PATS) which was piloted in the Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University, Australia to address the low student satisfaction with the quality of information and communication technology units. Positive results from the pilot scheme led to a trial of the scheme in other disciplines.…

Principals play a key role in the improvement of student learning. School leaders have been shown to have a noticeable impact on the learning outcomes of students, even though this impact is often complicated and indirect (Hallinger, Bickman & Davis 1996). Principals that focus on improving the teaching and learning in classrooms are known as…

This study of a suburban school district in south central Pennsylvania employed a mixed method design to explore teachers' perceptions of their professional learning community (PLC) and the impact of such on teaching effectiveness and student learning. Perceptual data was collected through the Learning Community Culture Indicator (LCCI) teacher…

There is a growing belief that students can provide valuable feedback on a teacher's performance in the classroom. Student perception surveys are increasingly seen as a low-cost and reliable tool for gathering data and feedback on the quality of teaching in individual classrooms. However, incorporating student surveys into formal, high-stakes…

Students' reading skills are closely linked to academic success; however, several students fall behind, especially during the summer months when no academic expectations are present. The summer months are also a time when the achievement gap increases between students from lower income and middle to upper income households. Researchers…

This report examines the ongoing effort to revamp teacher evaluations. After collecting and synthesizing data from 17 states and the District of Columbia, it provides five major lessons for policymakers. New evaluation systems are just one part of sweeping changes in American schools. Because the number and extent of these changes are daunting,…

New York is poised to take an important step to improve student achievement by expanding learning time for students attending high-poverty, low-performing schools. Recent district- and state-level investments in expanded learning time--a promising strategy to close achievement and opportunity gaps--will give students more time to learn core…

At a recent national forum at the Ford Foundation in New York, 140 education and youth development professionals discussed how to better support adolescent learning. Drawing on the discussion and the latest research in neuroscience, psychology and cognitive learning science, TASC presents an action agenda that can be tailored to circumstances in…

This study investigated how to improve the teaching of problem solving in a large Melbourne secondary school. Coaching was used to support and equip five teachers, some with limited experiences in teaching problem solving, with knowledge and strategies to build up students' problem solving and reasoning skills. The results showed increased…

The paper presents the results of a study based on a training program for in-service mathematics teachers, targeting to improve their skills of problem posing and qualitative appreciation of problems. During this training program, we found an improvement in participating teachers' availability to discuss and analyse math problems, but also…

This chapter concerns a year-long, United States federally-funded evaluation of Educate Online, an online, at home, 1:1 tutoring program aimed at improving reading performance for middle school students who are below grade level. Participating students receive after-school instruction from teachers in real-time over Voice over Internet Protocol…

In the context of accountability and high-stakes testing, professors of educational administration in Texas and across the nation are under tremendous pressure to develop innovative principal preparation programs that produce effective school leaders, especially as research methodologies emerge to disaggregate the effects of such programs. One…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore strategies to develop communities of practice (CoP) to improve teaching in a school context. Design/methodology/approach: A cross-sectional questionnaire is developed to collect data from participants in a project that aims to cultivate a CoP to improve their small class teaching skills. A total of…

Purpose: In school improvement studies, randomized experiments are rare. A special problem is the assignment to the experimental and control groups, taking into account the different starting conditions at the schools in terms of school improvement competencies. The purpose of this paper is to take the example of an intervention study conducted in…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to test a multilevel, cross-classified model that seeks to illuminate the dynamic nature of relationships among leadership, teaching quality, and student learning in school improvement. The study's primary goal is to shed light on the paths through which leadership influences student learning. At the school…