Educators around the world participate in virtual communities, social media sites, and online networks in order to gain support and ideas for improving their practice. Many researchers have explored how and why teachers participate in these online spaces; however, there is limited research on how participation might impact teaching and learning.…

This study examined a variety of sources of influence for traditionally underrepresented students at a primarily White institution of higher education. The sources of influence ranged from 2-way communications in high school to 2-way communications in the community, and from 1-way communication influences in the school such as AP courses, to 1-way…

Writing at the doctoral level presents many challenges for second language writers. This paper reports on a longitudinal study investigating English as a second language (ESL) doctoral students' writing problems and the strategies they developed to meet these challenges. Eight students were interviewed four times over a two-year period during…

Teacher use of social networking sites such as Facebook has presented some ethical dilemmas for policy makers. In this article, we argue that schools are justified in taking action against teachers when evidence emerges from social networking sites that teachers are (a) doing something that is illegal, (b) doing something that reflects badly on…

This study explores the role of knowledge access and peer influence as mechanisms by which networks may shape teacher self-efficacy. The basic premise is twofold: (a) that peer interaction provides opportunities to access teaching relevant knowledge and thus may reduce uncertainty and (b) that self-efficacy beliefs may be shaped by the efficacy…

The effects of social capital on school improvement make it important to understand how teachers forge, maintain, or forfeit collegial relationships. Two common explanations focused on formal organizational features and individual characteristics do not address how social capital accrues from informal dynamics of teachers' interactions in…

In recent years, the literature has highlighted the importance of relational aspects on student attainment in higher education. Much of this previous work agrees with the idea that students' connectedness has beneficial effects on their performance. However, this literature has generally overlooked the influence that the discipline of study may…

This article analyses a tactical intervention aimed at improving the academic performance of students that brought about more than the intended positive changes in the target schools through contiguous effect. The intervention was primarily focused on student performance in examinations and was externally driven but led to many improvements in the…

The Modeling Instruction (MI) approach to introductory physics manifests significant increases in student conceptual understanding and attitudes toward physics. In light of these findings, we investigated changes in student self-efficacy while considering the construct's contribution to the career-decision making process. Students in the Fall 2014…

Problem Statement: Exchange programs offer communication channels created through student and instructor exchanges; a flow of information takes place through these channels. The Farabi Exchange Program (FEP) is a student and instructor exchange program between institutions of higher education. Through the use of social network analysis and…

What models of governance are effective in complex education systems? In all systems an increasing number of stakeholders are involved in designing, delivering, and monitoring education. Like our societies, education systems are increasingly diverse regarding students, teachers, and communities, as well as the values and identities we expect…

The past 20 years has seen a rise in the number of induction programs for beginning teachers, including those with mentoring. However, the way in which teacher education has been problematized is still calling into question the need for beginning teacher support. This dissertation study is situated in the belief that beginning teacher induction…

Social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp, YouTube, and Instagram have become the refuge of teachers and students during the last years. However, there are many educational platforms set by the Algerian Ministry of Higher Education like Moodle and which bring the same services to the learners but in an academic setting. These platforms,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine predictors of social network services use among college students at two Turkish universities, with particular emphasis on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and Instagram. Design/methodology/approach: A written questionnaire was administered to 822 college students from various faculties. The data…

Social media has become adolescents' primary platform for communicating with one another. As a school faculty we wanted to explore our students' ability to contribute new information while being sensitive not to co-opt their out of school literacies for school-based purposes. This article shares how teachers in one urban school…