The authors report outcomes of a collaborative, interdisciplinary effort through a study group developed to make connections across content areas (English and history/social studies) and grade levels (middle school, high school, and college).

It is often assumed that graduate students will develop as teacher educators simply by participating in a doctoral program. However, research has shown that doctoral students find the shift from teaching K-12 to preparing teachers to be a difficult transition. Within the context of a doctoral program community of practice established specifically…

When educators do not facilitate English language learners' (ELLs) social integration in schools, this can perpetuate ELLs' marginalized status and the plateauing of ELLs' English language development. This study highlights a program for secondary ELLs called the ELL Ambassadors program, which partnered ELLs with non-ELLs based on shared…

In schools the participation of students, parents and paraprofessionals is important because it increases ownership and improves performance. Here the focus is on students' and paraprofessionals' learning and a sense of community when leaders try to develop a professional learning community in a new school in Iceland. An action research project…

By bringing together the national German sports game community and an international scientific community in a joint conference, the 6th International Teaching Games for Understanding Conference (TGfU) Meets the 10th German Sports Games Symposium of the German Association of Sport Science (DVS), held July 25-27, 2016, at the German Sport University…

As facilitator, the author noted some trepidation in the room as the eight secondary principals from Eugene (Oregon.) School District 4J quietly discussed questions that surfaced through their hopes and fears exercise. Could the practice of visiting classrooms together help them to better lead instruction in their buildings? Would this process…

A revolution took place in staff development in the late 1980s and into the 1990s. It was not reported on the evening news. Very few knew it was happening. The author was a rebel, along with others she had not yet met, in the rebellion that resulted in learning communities, the dominant form of professional development today. In 1978, the…

This study examined the strength and the direction of the relationship between principals' leadership behaviors and the development of professional learning communities, specifically teacher study groups. In effect, I sought to uncover principal leadership behaviors that positively affect the development of professional learning communities (PLC)…

The "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 has created a system, which potentially labeled 82% of US school as "failing" in 2011. Consequences for failing schools go beyond public ostracism to the release of numerous staff and school leaders or the closing of the…

At San Joaquin Valley College, a culture of cultivating student learning through assessment was created in response to the Western Association of Schools and Colleges-Accrediting Commission of Community and Junior Colleges requirements for Fall 2012. In General Education, promoting and developing this culture has been more difficult with faculty…

This thesis reports on three empirical studies that focus on questions concerning knowledge sharing and construction in communities of practice and global knowledge exchange platforms. The first essay presents an exploratory case study on a particular academic community of practice--AISNET and its central knowledge exchange platform, the ISWorld…

This study investigated how core content high school teachers perceive the collective efficacy of faculties of their schools and whether those teachers who were involved in high school collaborative teams which met daily within the school day for instructional purposes had a greater perception of collective efficacy than those who were not. This…

How can we prepare practicing and aspiring education leaders for the complex, adaptive challenges they face? In "Helping Educators Grow," Eleanor Drago-Severson presents a new approach to leadership development. Too often, she argues, we teach leadership development the same way we teach world history: just the facts. Instead, we need to…

Librarianship places an ethical demand on practitioners to put patrons or library users' interests before self-interest, and indeed, this is the hallmark of any service profession. But what obligation do school librarians have to their peer librarians and educators? The Code of Ethics of the American Library Association offers this principle, "We…

The process of transition from high school to higher education might be viewed as a continuum of learning new codes of conduct that guide the exercise of a (re)new(ed) student craft. This article presents a qualitative analysis of the results of interviews conducted with students, focusing on the need for students to trigger a set of adaptive…