This paper describes the rationale and the step by step process for setting up a WISE (Women in Science and Engineering) learning community at one institution. Background information on challenges for women in science and engineering and the benefits of a learning community for female students in these major areas are described. Authors discuss…

This article investigates the introduction of a systemic curriculum change, the Essential Learnings curriculum framework, in the Australian state of Tasmania. Using Gee's [(2003). Language in the science classroom: Academic social languages as the heart of school-based literacy. In: R. Yerrick, & W.-M. Roth (Eds.), "Establishing…

This study reports on the non-discursive aspects of the disciplinary enculturation experiences of five international doctoral students from East Asia in three Second Language studies graduate programmes in the United States. Based largely on interview data, this study examined how students participate in their graduate discourse communities and…

Scientists' science differs remarkably from school science. In order to be taught to students, science is recontextualized from scientific research communities to science classrooms. This paper examines scientific discourse in scientific research communities, and discusses its transformation from an internally-persuasive and authoritative…

During the author's first decade in school administration, coupled with his work with the National Association of Elementary School Principals' National Principal Mentoring Certification Program, he has collected a few nuggets worth sharing to rookie principals. In this article, he discusses what he calls his 7UP (Seven Unyielding Principles): (1)…

As professional learning communities (PLCs) are proliferating as a form of teacher professional development, it is important to understand what "PLC work" is and how it impacts teacher learning. This article reports on secondary science and mathematics teachers' participation in PLCs and engagement in collaborative inquiry. The PLC provided a…

This article seeks to inspire humanities and social science faculty to explore ways of utilizing existing scholarly online communities to engage students in the process of academic inquiry. The author discusses her own experience using a discipline-specific listserv, shares successful assignments, examples of student postings and a grading rubric.…

In the United States, considerable financial and human resources have been devoted to breaking some large high schools into smaller learning communities (SLCs). This article reviews research that compares SLCs to comprehensive high schools on a variety of measures. Extant research neither supports nor refutes the promise of SLCs to improve…

In November 2008 the Sloan Consortium published "Staying the Course: Online Education in the United States." This study produced survey statistics relating to enrollments in online courses. The study confirmed what most administrators and faculty members already suspected: the growth of online higher education continues to be astounding;…

We introduce the sociomathematical norm of "speaking with meaning" and describe its emergence in a professional learning community (PLC) of secondary mathematics and science teachers. We use "speaking with meaning" to reference specific attributes of individual communication that have been revealed to improve the quality of discourse among…

Leadership for learning (LfL) is conceived as a network rather than as a centre within the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education. This paper explores what is understood by the term network, both within LfL and in the wider educational and research communities, and how these understandings are reflected in a number of projects carried out…

This article discusses the relations between participatory action research and feminist research, through an examination of the metaphor of "voice" and its possible replacement with the idea of "knowledge." The article describes in detail a participatory action research project undertaken in Israel, which was aimed at forging…

This article describes a vision of student use of dynamically connected representations as they investigate mathematical ideas. Although this article is intended to generate discussion about the potential of dynamically connected representations, we situate the discussion within actual descriptions of its use with students in a newly designed…

This article contributes to discourse-oriented, information-seeking research by showing how discourses, from a neopragmatist perspective, can be explored as tools that people employ when they actively engage in information practices in varied social contexts. A study of nurses and the nursing profession in Sweden is used as an empirical example of…

The experience in developing a student-led academic journal, the Lincoln Planning Review, to provide experiential learning that links undergraduates in a small professional planning programme directly to research publication is described. A combination of circumstances, including an impending review of the programme by the external professional…