In a series of focus groups, past and present distance students of the Master of Library and Information Studies (MLIS) at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, were interviewed to establish which factors they believed enabled them to persist with their program. Related issues, such as reasons for enrolling, expectations, and barriers to…

Scotland has a new system of teacher induction, introduced in 2002. Whilst recognising the many benefits for newly qualified teachers, we aim to explore some of the real experiences of teachers in the new system. This article recognises the power relationships involved and therefore aims to allow the submerged voices of probationer teachers to be…

This study explored the potential acceptability of performance pay to new teachers by investigating attitudes toward performance pay of students preparing to be teachers. Focus groups and a survey of students preparing to be teachers at a large U.S. university were conducted. Most students expressed a preference for some form of performance pay…

This article describes the results of two focus groups of immigrant parents who recently experienced child protective investigations in New York City. The purpose of this study was: (1) to hear immigrant parents describe their experiences with child welfare services, (2) to identify barriers to services these parents encountered, and (3) advocate…

It is nearly impossible for one individual or a small committee to understand the complex needs of an entire school system and its community. Only by partnering with local business and community leaders, parents, teachers and third-party experts can local boards of education and school administrators grasp the unique needs of their community. Only…

This article describes the preliminary exploratory process used to develop the research questions that will be addressed during a project to be offered in the 2005-2006 academic year. The project will bring together Maine high school and college faculty to learn from each other about shared needs, methods and priorities, in a year long series of…

The state of Indiana took a unique approach to developing a statewide plan to improve perinatal health outcomes by engaging parents in a series of focus groups, called Community Conversations in Perinatal Care (CCPC), to hear directly from consumers about their health care experiences and needs. Recognizing that disparities exist among different…

Podcasting (an automatic mechanism whereby multimedia computer files are transferred from a server to a client, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/podcast) is becoming increasingly popular in education. Although podcasts enable students and teachers to share information anywhere at anytime, the most frequent application of the technology to date has been to…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the current situations of condom using behavior and its related factors among college students in Taiwan. There were two phases in the study. In phase I, 50 students from one college in the eastern, southern, middle and northern parts of Taiwan were selected to form a focus group, and were interviewed…

Background: There is an emerging corpus of work on the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on education in sub-Saharan Africa. This mainly employs demographic models to make projections of student enrolments and teacher requirements. However, there is a paucity of research in basic schools to examine the experiences of AIDS-affected teachers and…

African teachers in general and South Africans in particular face tremendous challenges, several of which are curriculum related. These challenges manifest themselves at various levels and in various areas, that is, from national level to within the classroom. There are various role players who may make a contribution towards overcoming these…

As of the 2006-2007 school year, 19,733 students attended charter schools in the District of Columbia, representing over a quarter of the District's total public school student population and one of the largest charter school markets in the country. It is under such circumstances, some suggest, that choice will spur competition, ultimately…

The purpose of this paper is to share findings from two studies. One study investigates how Minnesota school administrators are addressing cultural diversity and English Language Learners. Data was collected through an electronic survey sent to superintendents and principals. 326 surveys from a possible 998 were completed for a return rate of…

This study reports on the teaching of life sciences (biology) to blind and visually impaired learners in South Africa at 11 special schools with specific reference to the development of science process skills in outcomes-based classrooms. Individual structured interviews were conducted with nine science educators teaching at the different special…

Action Learning is now a well established strategy for reflective inquiry in healthcare. Whilst a great deal is know about action learning there has been inadequate research on the process of learning that takes place, and the impact that this holds for individuals, groups or organisations. This article reports on the findings of 15-month action…