This article outlines five critical issues for teacher educators and literacy specialists in New York State. Intended to raise issues and share recent policy decisions, the article provides background and conversations about current policy. Readers are encouraged to make decisions about how to participate in the current conversations across the…

Prior work has spent much effort on what is the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and little effort on who actually practices the SoTL. I begin to fill the research gap by examining two of the most salient characteristics that structure faculty dynamics and everyday lives--gender and years of experience--and four activities generally…

There has long been a call for schools to prepare students for the twenty-first century where skills and dispositions differ significantly from much of what has historically characterized formal education. The knowledge based economy calls for policy and pedagogical efforts that would transform schools. Schools are to foster communities of…

This paper presents staff perceptions of higher education science and engineering learning communities derived from a cross-case analysis of four case studies across the New Zealand university and polytechnic sectors. First we report staff expectations and experiences in terms of infrastructure and resources, and their own careers. Staff…

This article outlines an early childhood leadership model that senior Anangu and Yapa (Aboriginal) women, living semi-traditional lifestyles in the remote desert regions of central Australia, have identified as a positive and important way forward for their children, families, governments and related professionals. The initiative--Warrki…

This paper outlines the approach of one higher education institution in England to the research dialogue involved in designing an M.A. Education programme that focuses on partnership collaborations in postgraduate professional development with school-based staff groups as a catalyst to sustainable school improvement. The paper draws on the model…

New social-sharing applications are transforming the Internet from a "read-only" (Web 1.0) environment to a "read-write" ecology that many are calling Web 2.0. These tools (e.g., weblogs and wikis) enable Internet users to publish information online almost as easily as they can read online, and they have tremendous potential for learning. This…

The progress and effects of a collaborative study group as a method of job-embedded professional development were studied. Eight high school teachers representing a variety of disciplines and the author (a literacy specialist) met monthly as a collaborative group for one school year to investigate materials and methods for literacy strategy…

Novice professionals entering the fields of early childhood education and early childhood special education face many challenges and often feel disconnected from the support system that nurtured them during their teacher education programs (Brindle, Fleege, & Graves, 2000). The Early Childhood Professional Mentoring Group (ECPMG) was established…

As the limitations of one-off and disconnected professional learning programs for teachers are recognised, there is widespread interest in building learning communities and professional learning teams within schools. When considering how to build local learning communities, school and university partnerships are seen as offering rich possibilities…

The value of, and need for, parent-professional partnerships is an unchallenged mantra within policy relating to "special educational needs". In spite of this, partnerships continue to be experienced as problematic by both parents and professionals. This paper brings together the different perspectives of two disability researchers: one…

Laboratory Earth, a series of three NASA-Sponsored, on-line graduate courses for K-8 teachers, was designed to meet a variety of learning styles and appeal to teachers' motivation to learn the content and improve their teaching. This is especially important to teachers as they seek to demonstrate "highly qualified" status to meet No…

Registered Nurses (RNs), when educated in an Associate Degree (AD) program, learn in a face-to-face environment. Today's preferred standard of education for RNs is to achieve a minimum of a Bachelor's degree. For convenience while they continue working, numerous AD-prepared nurses seek online education to complete their Bachelor of Science in…

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation and public pressure to prepare students for the twenty-first century has put increasing demands on schools to improve student performance. This action research study examined the efforts of an elementary school principal and her third and fourth grade teachers to improve students' performance in math. The…

Interprofessionalism, an emerging model and philosophy of multi-disciplinary and multi-agency working, has in increasingly become an important means of cultivating joint endeavors across varied and diverse disciplinary and institutional settings. This book is therefore, an important source for understanding how interprofessionalism can be promoted…