To encourage greater adoption of a pedagogical innovation (service-learning), semester long faculty learning communities were established at eight institutions. These learning community experiences produced gains in participants' (N = 152) self-assessed expertise with service-learning, ability to collaborate with community partners, and…

Educational blogs are currently gaining in popularity in schools and higher education institutions, and they are widely promoted as collaborative tools supporting students' active learning. However, literature review on educational blogging revealed a lack of a complete and consistent framework for studying and assessing students' engagement and…

A professional learning community (PLC) facilitates collaborative learning among colleagues at all levels in their common working environment. PLCs are particularly useful in schools, with teachers and principals meeting regularly to solve problems relating to teaching and learning. Being a means of improving student achievement, PLCs have…

For a variety of reasons, professionals are taking greater control over their own professional development and demonstrating a commitment to lifelong learning. Online resources and social media outlets have provided new ways for professionals to connect and form learning communities to build core knowledge and set standards of practice. The…

The capacity for schools to improve student learning represents an important area of scholarship for policymakers, schools, and scholars. In understanding how to support student learning, the notion of school leadership has emerged as a key area of research interest. Understanding the influence of this literature in schools is important. As such,…

Online music communities offer a new context and culture for musical participation globally. This article, employing a socio-cultural theoretical lens, examines how the Online Academy of Irish Music (OAIM) functions as a teaching and learning online community for Irish traditional music. Findings from qualitative case study research present…

Universities across the country are steadily increasing their use of online courses. Society's demand for lifelong learning will encourage the advancement of distance learning. Research tells us that today the average person changes careers every ten years. In addition, the U.S. Department of Labor estimates that about 10% of workers change jobs…

The social and collaborative aspects of work settings are becoming increasingly important. For example, recent research has placed emphasis on the social nature of learning. In addition, many authors have suggested that 21st century skills that will be required in future work and professional environments will involve collaborative skills, making…

In this case study, we researched one cohort from the Center for Animation, a higher education teaching environment that has successfully fostered group creativity and learning outcomes through problem-based learning. Through live and videotaped observations of the interactions of this community over 18 months, in addition to focused interviews…

Teacher education based on "reflective practice" consists of observing, analysing and reflecting on teacher performance in order to improve professional practice. This article presents the results of an evaluation of a programme on mathematics teaching carried out using reflective practice. It was targeted at 284 teachers in various…

This study explored whether or not, and how, an on-site and research-teacher community of practice model for professional development addressed the challenges to classroom practices in a Head Start program. Data sources included interviews with teachers, videos of planning and teaching sessions, and the researchers' fieldwork log and reflective…

The purposes of this study were twofold: to examine the effects of a community of practice (CoP) on (1) physical educators' and their students' health-related fitness content knowledge and (2) the physical educators' health-related fitness pedagogical content knowledge construction process. Twelve experienced physical education teachers (six in…

In the last decade, the concept of Open Educational Resources (OER) has gained an undeniable momentum. However, it is an easy trap to confuse download and registration rates with actual learning and interest in the adoption and reuse of OER. If we focus solely on access, we cannot differentiate between processes of mere information foraging and…

This study reports on experiences of doctoral students in educational administration at a time when the effectiveness of programs preparing practitioners and academics in this field are being questioned. Concerns related to how students in educational administration developed knowledge about research and identity as researchers were closely…

Over the past few decades, higher education has attempted to address the issue of underrepresentation of women in STEM undergraduate degree programs. Living-learning communities represent one strategy to help address low persistence for women in undergraduate STEM majors. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of undergraduate…