This article acknowledges the value of using "communities of practice" as a perspective to illuminate learning and teaching in higher education but argues that preceding work has given insufficient attention to: the particular kinds of trajectories, commitments and intentions displayed by the participants in undergraduate courses; the…

This narrative study of four BC principals was an initial investigation of distributed leadership using their provincial leadership standards as an organizing framework. The researchers invited participants to describe their understanding and practice of distributed leadership in terms of the Standards. Findings revealed three themes, or sets of…

Invited to write a piece to mark SEDA's 20th birthday as SEDA co-chair, I have been excited and humbled by the task. In preparation I have read past editions of this journal and of the SEDA magazine, once called The New Academic and now called Educational Developments. I have reflected on my SEDA experiences and I have talked to people associated…

In this article we describe a holistic, ecological framework that takes into account the surface structures and pedagogical approaches in the studio and how these elements are connected to the construction of design knowledge: epistemology. In our development of this framework, we came to understand how disciplinary underpinnings and academic…

Through the metaphor, "learning to teach in the 'eye of the storm'", a beginning teacher's experiences of teaching in one of America's diverse urban campuses become known. Three themes of global significance emerge: (1) the similarities and differences between professional learning communities and knowledge communities; (2) the morphing of "the…

In this paper, we draw on Wenger's (1998) conception of communities of practice to observe the emergence of a community of practice among middle grades mathematics teachers who participated in a two-year blended-format (online synchronous, online asynchronous, and face to face) professional development program designed to increase middle-grades…

The purpose of this study was to explore and characterize the types of socialization experiences that result from engineering teaching assistantships. Using situated learning and communities of practice as the theoretical framework, this study highlights the experiences of 28 engineering doctoral students who worked as engineering teaching…

The study of transformative learning within collaborative teams was conducted to gain new applicable knowledge used to influence overall school improvement and implementation of professional learning communities. To obtain this new knowledge, the Professional Learning Community Collaborative Team Survey (CTS) was developed and psychometrically…

Teacher collaboration is essential for the improvement of student achievement and teacher performance. Classrooms comprise a variety of learners with individual learning needs that must be met for effective learning to take place. In the past, teachers have taught in isolation without the assistance of collaboration. A professional learning…

This research aims to develop collaborative language learning systems based on social and cognitive presence for learning settings out of class, and evaluate their effects on learning attitude and performance. The main purpose of this system is focusing on the building of a learning community, therefore the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework…

One has heard about personal learning networks (PLNs), but what are they and how are they different than professional learning communities (PLCs)? Find out how PLNs can help a teacher pursue his/her own professional interests and be a better teacher. This article answers questions related to PLNs such as: (1) What are personal learning networks?;…

This article provides an argument for closer multilateral alliances between the emergent and loosely-bound international community of educational researchers who are working in areas related to Digitally Supported Communicative Language Teaching and learning (herein DSCLT). By taking advantage of the communications revolution that is currently…

This article uses an autoethnographic methodology to describe the experience of a novice practitioner-researcher engaging in the NCVER community of practice (CoP). The author's experience of the journey from vocational education and training (VET) practitioner to practitioner-researcher is recorded. The findings show that the numerous aspirations…

Initial studies of learning in massive open online courses (MOOCs) primarily focused on participation patterns and participant experiences. More recently, research has addressed learning theories and offered case studies of different pedagogical designs for MOOCs. Based on a meta-analysis and synthesis of the research literature, this study…

While many institutions provide centralized technology support for faculty, there is a lack of centralized professional development opportunities that focus on simultaneously developing instructors' technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) in higher education. Additionally, there are few professional development opportunities for…