Professional organizations exist to provide specialized networking and development opportunities to a specific profession, group of individuals or field of study. These organizations are generally broad in scope and may have a wide range of interests among its members. To support specialized research and communication, smaller subgroups within the…

The learning that ensued from the mentorship relationship on a mentorship program for doctoral students at a Swedish university was studied in three cases (two in social science and one in technology). The aim was: (a) to explore how doctoral students, their formal mentors and their supervisors describe their own learning, and how they perceive…

The purpose of the current quantitative correlational study was to investigate the relationship the qualifications of special education teachers and their preferred writing instruction method either formulaic or process writing. The study investigated the relationship between professional development in writing instruction, years of experience,…

This qualitative case study examined how middle school science teachers conducted collaborative inquiry and reflection about students' conceptual understanding, and how individual teachers in the middle school science group acted and made reflections in response to their collaborative inquiry. It also examined external influences that affected the…

This national study explores and examines the experiences of principals who are actively engaged in virtual learning communities. The purpose of the study was to explore and understand the impact this virtual participation has on their professional learning and the learning of the organization. The study employed a qualitative research design to…

Year after year, children of Color, speakers of languages other than English, and children of poverty are served less well in public schools then their White, middle-class peers. The lives of children from White, middle-class homes are regularly normalized as they are described by teachers, administrators, policy makers, and educational programs…

The purpose of this study was to determine the difference in teacher efficacy for classroom management, instructional strategies, and student engagement between teachers who trained in a full-time, yearlong, medical-model professional development school (PDS) and their experience as a first year teacher in comparison to teachers who participated…

This report summarizes findings from one component of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education's (CPRE) evaluation of the General Electric Foundation's (GEF) "Developing Futures"™ in Education program in Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS). The purpose was to closely analyze district capacity to support system-wide instructional…

This report summarizes findings from one component of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education's (CPRE) evaluation of the General Electric Foundation's (GEF) "Developing Futures"™ in Education program in Stamford Public Schools (SPS). The purpose was to closely analyze district capacity to support system-wide instructional…

Principals serve as both instructional and administrative leaders in their schools. Their roles and responsibilities vary from managing school compliance issues to facilitating and assisting teachers with their instructional duties. In order to support principals in public schools, district leaders and others are working to build the kinds of…

Researchers have endorsed teacher collaboration within a professional learning community (PLC) that is focused on student learning. Despite these research-based endorsements, several Algebra 1 teachers in a southeastern high school implemented components of a PLC with little or no results in student achievement. The purpose of this study was to…

Although the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001 created new instructional intervention practices, reading and writing scores across K-12 and postsecondary levels continue to reflect stagnant achievement outcomes. The research questions in this study concerned the effect of a northern Michigan middle school language arts…

One especially relevant key theme in Sociology of Education is to what extent parents' cultural level has significant implications in students' educational achievement and, as a consequence, in the social mobility inherently linked to level of education and professional training. In order to investigate this aspect on current Spanish society, our…

The purpose of this study was to determine if increasing faculty professionalism is a viable strategy for raising the quality of instruction at a Chinese university. In this study, increasing faculty professionalism refers to increases in regards to six areas of faculty work: academic freedom, work balance, governance, reward systems, salary, and…

As the need for new leaders has increased, so has the need for new and more effective forms of leadership development (Hamel, 2007; Lojeski, 2010; Gratton, 2011). Action learning has been popularized as one of these new forms of leadership development (Peters & Smith, 1998; Byrnes, 2005; ASTD, 2008; Trehan & Pedler, 2011). However,…