Academics are increasingly being urged to blog in order to expand their audiences, create networks and to learn to write in more reader friendly style. This paper holds this advocacy up to empirical scrutiny. A content analysis of 100 academic blogs suggests that academics most commonly write about academic work conditions and policy contexts,…

This article reflects on the purposes and functions of examination criteria for Masters' research degrees with creative practice components. With a particular focus on dance projects that incorporate both a performed and a written expression of the research, we consider how a rubric for creative practice research degrees might address formative…

This paper, following Somekh and Zeichner, offers a "remodelling [of] action research theories and practices in local contexts". It is an attempt, with Kemmis, to address the question "what is to be done?" and to consider the "place of action research" in the light of what Schön has referred to as "the crisis of…

Many educational models emphasize that best instructional practices are effective when working collaboratively with stakeholders. Professional learning communities focus on learning, collaborative endeavors, and shared accountability. The purpose of this article is to introduce an effectual framework for developing school counselor instructional…

Web 2.0-based workplace learning is defined in this article as informal learning that takes place in the workplace through connections and collaborations mediated by Web 2.0 technology. Web 2.0-based workplace learning has the potential to enhance organisational learning and development. However, little systematic research has been published that…

Although the Faculty Learning Community is not a new structure or initiative in the higher education arena, adapting this model for faculty development focused on grant proposal writing is relatively new. This article describes how the concept developed by Milt Cox of Miami University has been successfully modified and implemented twice on the…

This case study focuses on 11 individual teachers who participate in three distinct professional learning communities (PLCs) within one school. A PLC is "a group of people who take an active, reflective, collaborative, learning-orientated, and growth promoting approach toward the mysteries, problems, and perplexities of teaching and…

Kristen Weatherby is a senior policy analyst at OECD in the education directorate. She runs the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) and is author or co-author of publications and blog posts on TALIS and teachers. She started her career as a classroom teacher in the United States before working in education in the private sector in…

Instructional simulation had major difficulties in the past for offering limited possibilities in practice and learning. This article proposes a link between instructional simulation and Web 2.0 technologies. More exactly, I present the design of the Virtual Olympic Games Framework (VOGF), as a significant demonstration of how interactivity in…

This article advocates for increased attention on the college admission letter to strengthen conditionally admitted students' academic self-efficacy as they begin the college experience. Although first communications are often considered perfunctory, the language of admission materials has strong potential to help at-risk students begin college…

Implementation of Professional Learning Communities (PLC), as described by DuFour (2006), has depended upon a balance between teacher buy-in and administrative fiat. The tension between the "bottom-up" character of the former and the "top-down" character of the latter presents a leadership challenge: meeting students' learning…

Professional learning communities (PLCs) have been used as a format for encouraging formal collaboration among teachers. The topic of the completed study is the perceptions of special education teachers regarding how special education PLCs meet formal collaboration needs, particularly in terms of isolation. The problem is that special education…

This chapter presents a case study of an online ethnography which examines the Romanian Community of Ireland forum. Apart from highlighting the main challenges and advantages of engaging with an ethnographic methodology online, this chapter also showcases the key findings emerging in relation to the meanings which members of this community…

This publication highlights Rhode Island's Collaborative Learning for Outcomes (CLO), a new progress monitoring process that leads to two-way communication between the State and its 50 participating and two involved local educational agencies.

Early Years Professionals are graduate leaders working with children below 5 years of age, their families and practitioners in early years settings in the private, voluntary and independent sectors and children's centres in England. Their leadership of practice role is central to raising the quality of early years provision and practice. In this…