Behaviourist and cognitive theories of learning view learning as a process of individual internalisation. Social theorists view learning as a process that is socially constructed and developed in social contexts. Wenger suggests that professional practice is a social process that is constructed in communities. Mentoring in Initial Teacher…

Academic mentoring is increasingly being used by many universities as a tool to enhance the quality of research-led teaching, promote cross-faculty collaboration and encourage a mentoring culture and community. This article reports on a pilot project established to investigate the benefits of building flexibility into a structured academic…

Professional development is critical in supporting teachers' use of technological tools in classrooms. This review of empirical research synthesizes the effective elements of professional development programs that support science teachers in learning about technology integration. Studies are examined that explore how professional development…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to offer an overview of the United Nations University's Regional Centres of Expertise on Education for Sustainable Development (RCE) initiative--the global process created to support the implementation of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD, 2005-2014)--and discuss the…

This study explored the content-based literacy instruction of English language learners (ELLs) across multiple classroom settings in U.S. elementary schools. The following research questions guided the study: (a) How are ELLs taught English in two types of instructional settings: regular content-area literacy instruction in the all-English…

The Adolescent Literacy Collaboratory is one model for sharing literacy leadership responsibility at the secondary school level. With the help of computer technology (PCs), it brings teachers and literacy leaders from multiple departments and multiple schools together to learn from and with one another in overlapping professional learning…

Biology in Context ("bik") is a project that aims to improve biology teaching in lower secondary schools in Germany. Based on a theoretical framework derived from the National Educational Standards, four competence areas should be fostered in biology education: subject knowledge; inquiry acquisition; subject-related communication; and…

In order to assess how completely a Small Learning Community (SLC) and/or Career Academy is implemented in any given site, and to connect the degree of implementation with the amount of improvement in student performance, two kinds of information are needed. The first is information on the quality of implementation, which can be collected by…

The causal relationships among the three presences in the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework are explored and tested in this paper. The CoI framework has been used extensively in the research and practice of online and blended learning contexts. With the development of a survey instrument based on the CoI framework, it is possible to test the…

Teachers are searching for new venues through which they may meet stringent professional development requirements. Under competitive funding from NASA's (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Office of Education and the NASA Explorer Schools Project, U.S. Satellite Laboratory, Inc. created a series of live, online, interactive…

In this paper, I describe a professional development approach and a conceptual framework used to create critically thoughtful and media-rich science learning resources. Greater clarity about the nature of critical thinking and how to support teachers in learning to implement it are needed if we are to respond to broader calls for critical thinking…

Classroom-based writing mentors facilitate learning and knowledge transfer for both students and instructors in their classes. They accomplish this by doing "with" rather than by only teaching "to", making the means of learning more visible and, therefore, the writing goals more accessible; this provides a powerful means of…

A recent deluge of national studies and reports warns the United States that our future hangs in the balance because our educational system is failing our society. These studies cite projections that American competitiveness is at risk because we have failed to address a growing demographic inevitability--that the segment of the population that is…

Research suggests effective classroom ICT integration occurs through needs-based, collaborative professional development (Chandra-Handa, 2001; Cuttance, 2001; Figg, 2000; Gibson, Oberg, & Pelz, 1999; Gross, 2000; Haughey, 2002). A community of practice (CoP) (Wenger, 1998; Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002) can be an effective mode of such…

Transition from school or college to university is a time of great anxiety for many first-year undergraduates: some studies illustrate the emphasis which students place on finding new friends and securing a consistent social life; the importance of which resonates more with peers than with parents or lecturers. This has to be accomplished…