Professional learning communities (PLCs) are an increasingly popular strategy for improving schools. While PLCs routinely implement universal academic screening, they seldom screen for emotional and behavioral problems. This is unfortunate, as the early signs of emotional and behavioral disorders can be identified and interventions developed. The…

"MyScience" is a primary science education initiative in which being in a community of practice is integral to the learning process. This paper describes the ongoing journey to date of eight primary teachers from three primary schools who actively participated in "MyScience" over an extended period. Their views of interactions…

In this study, we investigated the impact of teaming school-based instructional coaches with science or mathematics middle school teachers to build a community of practice around inquiry instruction. This professional development model began with a 2-week summer institute and continued with four follow-up sessions during the academic school year…

Learning progressions, or sequences of how ideas and practices develop within domains, are increasingly a focus of science education research. Recently, researchers have called for these progressions to be used as interpretive frameworks for teachers' instructional planning and assessment practices. In this study, we explore data from two…

We describe how our teaching and learning centre developed a model, founded on Boyer's notion of scholarship, to explore the nature of the teaching-research nexus. At the core of this model is the Inquiry Network, a faculty learning community whose members moved from exploring the links between their own teaching and research to creating…

It is arguable whether Singapore's mainstream schools are moving towards "inclusion" by providing support for students with mild to moderate disabilities through the provision of a newly created para-professional called the Allied Educators (Learning and Behavioural) [AED(LBS)]. Since 2005, the government has provided an incremental…

The separation of student and instructor is the core characteristic of distance education (Simonson et al., 2012, p. 28), contributing to one of the biggest challenges to distance education-attrition (Dueber & Misanchuk, 2001, p. 2). By the very nature of distance education, students are different locations from one another and their…

If we truly wish to promote science or STEM education, then it would seem that the joining of resources and expertise from the communities of formal schooling and informal science education institutions or ISEIs (museums, aquariums, and the like) would be an important early step. Yet creating such connections between teacher and museum remain a…

Read/write social technologies enable rich pedagogies that centre on sharing and constructing content but have two notable weaknesses. Firstly, beyond the safe, nurturing environment of closed groups, students participating in more or less public network- or set-oriented communities may be insecure in their knowledge and skills, leading to…

In the Community of Inquiry (CoI) model, cognitive presence indicators can be used to evaluate the quality of inquiry in a discussion forum. Engagement in critical thinking and deep knowledge can occur through reflective processes. When learners move through the four phases of cognitive presence (triggering, exploration, integration, resolution),…

A cohort-based online professional doctorate program that consisted of both online coursework and research activities was designed using Garrison et al's community of inquiry (CoI) framework. The evaluation of the program proved a challenge because all existing CoI assessment methods in the past have dealt with online courses, not with online…

There are two types of school leadership initiatives. One takes existing leaders and gives them increasing leadership responsibilities. The other engages in an organic process that grows leaders from a crop of teachers who, at first may not appear to be leaders at all. This article presents a story about the second type of initiative and how it…

This paper describes the values orientation of a residential learning community dedicated to exploring the issues of faith and community through service learning. The Schwartz model of values, as measured by the 10-item scale used in the World Values Survey (WVS), was used to compare members of this residential learning community with peers in a…

States and technical assistance centers have asked the Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes (CEELO) for guidance on establishing and maintaining a peer learning community (PLC). This document is designed to delineate the steps to establish and sustain a Peer Learning Community (PLC). It begins with a definition of a PLC and then presents…

The purpose of this single-site case study was to describe the learning experience of 29 freshman students bounded by participating in the Leadership Living Learning Community at Gulf Coast University (pseudonym) for the 2011-2012 school term. This study sought to explore students' experiences and attitudes and administrator perceptions about the…