The purpose of this article is to describe a new variation of communities of practice: communities of transformation. We define communities of transformation as communities that create and foster innovative spaces that envision a new future. This article is based on research examining four undergraduate STEM faculty communities of practice…

Achieving the ongoing professional development of teachers is of international concern. Professional development communities (PDCs), also known as professional learning communities, developed as a means of attaining this goal. In 2015, Israel began to implement a teacher development program called Hashkafa that consists of school-based PDCs whose…

How can teachers move from working in isolation within ineffective systems to building thriving, collaborative teaching environments in which they are supported and inspired to work with their colleagues in communities focused on mutual professional growth? In the authors' work as early learning instructional coaches, they have witnessed the ways…

This research draws on the concepts of practice architecture, middle leader and scholarship and uses narrative analysis drawn from a 'community of practice' of HE in FE practitioners. Whilst being an existing 'community of practice', the university concerned changed the collaborative framework of support and this provided a platform for the…

This article comes out of our shared experiences of undertaking post graduate research whilst working in the further education (FE) sector. In 2014, we established a research network within our college, with the initial aim of providing opportunities for those undertaking research to meet and discuss their work. We provide insight into our…

Virtual communities of Practice (VCoP) offer a flexible option for professional development that may be employed by geographically dispersed communities. Due to unique and dynamic operational demands and a reduced training budget, the United States Coast Guard's (USCG) afloat community has limited opportunity for formal professional development,…

In 2012 Senate File 2284 approved competency-based education (CBE). In 2013 House File 215 provided $100,000 to be used as grants to districts/schools participating in a collaborative effort toward CBE pathways for their students and a framework toward statewide implementation. The Iowa CBE Collaborative will engage in collaborative inquiry to…

Healthcare education guides students in obtaining skills to promote health in others. In working towards this goal, graduate students in healthcare programs potentially suffer from increased stress while undergoing the rigor of a medically based academic program. The purpose of this study was to determine if the addition of a learning community…

The Community of Inquiry framework has been used in numerous studies, with over 1800 citations to date (Google Scholar, January 2018). These studies mostly involve the study of a single discipline and rarely examine disciplinary differences as a potential factor in student outcomes. To address the research gap this study examined the differences…

Visual art teachers, from beginning to veteran, often report experiencing feelings of professional isolation and a desire for content-specific support and collaborative professional learning experiences. Mentoring and Induction Programs (IPs) offered by schools and districts continue to fall short of meeting the needs of beginning visual art…

Makerspaces are a nascent, yet growing phenomenon that has not yet been the subject of extensive academic research. The question of why female participation in makerspaces is significantly lower than that of their male counterparts remains largely unaddressed. This study uses a phenomenological approach to examine the experiences of women as…

This mixed-methods study examined what reform efforts are happening in high schools where students are demonstrating high academic growth, investigating the practices and behaviors principals are implementing within these schools, and determining if, and how, the six dimensions of PLCs (Hord, 1997; Hord & Tobia, 2012) are being implemented in…

This study investigates to what extent the characteristics of effective face-to-face professional development hold in a MOOC designed for statistics development of secondary teachers and the nature of teachers' and others' interactions with materials and with each other in this online professional development. Social theory of learning and…

Thinking about and inventing concepts is the hallmark of the philosophical endeavor. Concepts like fairness, beauty, friendship and knowledge are some of those with a long philosophical lineage that start with questions like 'What is …?', 'Why?', 'How is it different from …?' and 'Does it then follow that…?' These questions are crucial, as they…

This dissertation examined the impact of the CREST-MECIS community of practice on K-12 STEM teachers and undergraduate and graduate students, addressing the urgent need for innovative approaches in science education to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The study was grounded in response to three primary problem statements: 1) the…