The increasing availability of concept inventories and other assessment tools in the molecular life sciences provides instructors with myriad avenues to probe student understanding. For example, although molecular visualization is central to the study of biochemistry, a growing body of evidence suggests that students have substantial limitations…

This paper outlines an initiative, namely a leadership symposium, which developed from a chance meeting of like-minded academics, who were trying to achieve similar outcomes with their student groups; namely, to include the scholarly activity of disseminating graduates' action-oriented projects. One group of graduates comprised a mix of…

During their teaching practicum future teachers become acquainted with the rights, duties and obligations of their profession in their trajectory of building a teaching identity. In this process, they go through a number of critical incidents, where we observe that student teachers struggle to integrate the meaning of these incidents with their…

This mixed-method study examines Arizona principals' capacity-building skills and practices in Tier III schools aimed at developing potential for sustained improvements in student outcomes. Data sources included surveys (62 individuals) and semistructured interviews (29 individuals) of principals and staff (e.g. teachers, instructional coaches,…

Many academic development initiatives build on community-based approaches, such as communities of practice or learning communities. While these initiatives are largely successful for the individual academics involved, low participation rates prevent wide-reaching impact on learning about teaching. The research discussed in this article aims at…

Networked learning environments that embed the essence of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework utilise pedagogies that encourage dialogic practices. This can be of significance for classroom teaching across all curriculum areas. In science education, networked environments are thought to support student investigations of scientific problems,…

The paper focuses on the Tuning Russia project. It aims at providing an overview of the impact of the Tuning methodology and outcomes concerning University teaching, learning, and assessment activities. It identifies: the most relevant results and "lesson learnt" during the project; tools/concepts/experiences that involved teachers found…

This article describes an arts-based research project for which my purpose was to investigate how older women develop their skills as visual artists through the medium of drawing in a small group setting. The social construction of artist identities among the group and my teaching of drawing formed the basis of my study in this informal,…

Teachers working in schools where the majority of the population is underserved students often feel a sense of helplessness. The purpose of the study is to uncover the lived experience of a small group of English Language Arts teachers working in such an environment. Specifically, the purpose is to determine if working within an effective…

As shared in the authors' article published in the spring 2013 issue of "The Advocate Journal," schools of education are concerned about the best way to provide teacher candidates with clinical-based (also referred to as "field" in the literature) experiences that meet accreditation outcomes. In the "Report of the Blue…

This paper introduces a blended learning context that creates a community of practice. This community of practice presents a combination of face-to-face facilitated learning, e-learning, and self-study. A set of in-class and online linguistic activities was used in the implementation of this experiment to investigate the efficacy of performing…

Teacher leadership has been variously defined but generally understood as expanding teachers' visions beyond their own classrooms. Bilingual education teachers, working with emergent bilingual students in often marginalized situations and contexts, must develop a critical consciousness to embrace leadership identities. This requires engaging in…

The academic support system that is available online for distance students can prove quite beneficial to them before and especially during their course/programme of study. Potter posited that the goal of a programme's academic learner support services for distance learners must be to meet their needs by linking them with fellow students, faculty…

Within Australia, globalization, contentious connections with Asia, and an increasing concern with sustainable development and intercultural education have created a new educational framework and curricula. The Australian Curriculum is the tangible, multidimensional, and pedagogic catalyst to deliver capable, creative, culturally aware,…

Collaborative learning theory points to knowledge construction as an outcome of peer interaction, justifying widespread implementation of collaborative activities (like small group discussion) that scaffold toward individual writing projects. This article offers a qualitative investigation into the process of collaborating with peers and the…