Those from marginalized populations, many of whom are first-generation college students (FGCS), often face barriers to accessing secondary education (Pitre & Pitre, 2009). Additionally, when students from such groups do successfully enroll in post-secondary educational opportunities, their graduation rates remain low (DeAngelo, Franke,…

Teacher quality is a perennially fertile field for education reformers. Among teacher quality policies, two of the more highly touted and widely adopted are state-mandated systems of teacher evaluation and formalized models of teacher collaborative teams, often known generally as professional learning communities (PLCs). Indeed, despite a…

The purpose of this study was to explore what role collaborative professional learning may have on teachers' collective efficacy when confronted with pedagogical change. Academic standards introduced between 2010 and 2014 included new content-specific communicative practices including discipline-specific language, discursive methods, and ways of…

Educational organizations worldwide face challenges in selecting professional development models that meet the diverse and evolving needs of educators and students. Professional Learning Communities offer a means by which to address these needs. The problem addressed by this qualitative case study was the lack of a successful framework…

Improving STEM education is pivotal to our country's economic future and security. Unfortunately, most young students have limited access to standards-based science education. Science instruction is notoriously difficult to implement in the early grades. This dissertation explored the root causes for the lack of effective science instruction in…

The purpose of this study was to explore how Responsive Classroom's Morning Meetings led by trained teachers (N = 9) improved students' (N = 85) sense of belonging in their classrooms in a public K-5 elementary school in New York State. This eight-week mixed methods study, conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, used improvement science in two…

Continuous improvement is about learning from mistakes and experiences to improve in the future. However, students' perceptions of how continuous improvement practices affect their social and emotional skills have not been considered. The literature that exists neglects to include the perception of elementary students' social and emotional skills…

The purpose of this two-phased, mixed-method action research study was to investigate the impact of a professional learning community's collective teacher efficacy and their practice of collective inquiry in closing the achievement gap of eighth-grade social studies English language learners. The research questions guiding this research: 1. How…

Build collective teacher efficacy and students' mathematical thinking using the Mathematics in a PLC at Work™ lesson-design process. This second edition of the popular "Mathematics Instruction and Tasks" book guides preK-12 teacher teams in ensuring improved mathematics achievement. Gain new and enhanced understanding of…

This study aims to explore how gamification elements influence the development of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) in an online project-based programming course conducted on Facebook. We formed student groups by using a quasi-experimental design from students studying in the computer science department. While both courses were project-based, the…

This article reports on how mathematics teachers connect face-to-face and virtual professional learning communities by expanding the notion of lurker and broker within both environments. Through an analysis of 18 interviews with K-12 mathematics teachers, categories of participation are presented to describe the nuances between the ways…

Purpose: Drawing on the concept of community of practice, the purpose of this study was to explore Brazilian physical education teachers' experiences of nurturing a community of practice online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: This was an action research project, and the participants were 13 high school physical education teachers (one of…

The goal of the study was to examine the factors that drove early childhood teachers to accept a leadership role in professional learning communities (PLCs), their perceptions of the role's characteristics and the implications of taking on an additional role beyond the teaching of kindergarten-age children. This qualitative study included 30…

This article examines collaboration between teachers in the 'more teachers than classes' (PMQC) French scheme implemented from 2013 in primary schools receiving a high number of pupils with learning difficulties. Based on concepts of teacher professional learning, teachers' shared-work and the learning community, the research aims to highlight the…

Using data from a 2-year empirical project in an urban school within the United States, this article describes how educators of preschool, transitional-kindergarten and kindergarten (PreK-TK-K) altered perceptions and practices as a result of participating in a purposefully crafted professional learning community using collaborative enquiry.…