This article draws on the results of a larger qualitative, self-contained focus group study that identified effective behaviours for school principals to collaborate successfully. Participants, representing various stakeholder groups, including principals themselves, were asked to respond to the research question, "what are the ways in which…

School administrators are often involved in change processes that include gathering input from various stakeholders in their organizations to help in decision making. They usually include other administrators, teachers, board members, and sometimes individuals from the business sector. One group that is often excluded, and is perhaps one of their…

This article describes a learning community for early-career faculty in the sciences aimed at course redesign and active-learning. Through findings from surveys, interviews, and observations, program outcomes regarding faculty teaching skills and confidence, understanding of how students learn, and use of assessment are explored. Finally, the…

This paper examines the epistemic barriers to sustainable agriculture, which are those aspects of food production that are not readily revealed by direct perception: such as decreases in rates of soil and nutrient loss, increases in levels of beneficial soil micro-organisms, and reductions in the amount of chemicals leaching into the water table.…

Colleges and universities are adopting learning communities to increase student learning and build cohesion. As learning communities grow in popularity, institutions need to invest in faculty development (Oates, 2001) and understand faculty experiences (Mullen, 2001). The University of Hartford created a program that prepared faculty for…

When a family finds out their child has a disability, they enter the world of special education which has its own terminology, rules, settings and personnel. In addition to grappling with the meaning of their child's special needs, families are also thrown into the role of principle advocate for their child. The research study reported here…

On June 14, 2002 this journal [Pedagogika] held a roundtable, based in the Nizhnii Tagil State Pedagogical Institute, to discuss the problem of "The Schoolbook in the System of Sources of Knowledge and Means of Training Schoolteachers." The roundtable was conducted by Prof. V.P. Borisenkov, doctor of pedagogical sciences and…

This article guides readers through the decisions and considerations involved in conducting focus-group research investigations into students' learning experiences. One previously published focus-group study is used as an illustrative example, along with other examples from the field of pedagogic research in geography higher education. An approach…

A successful undergraduate research experience depends on a good mentor/ teacher. Surveys, interviews, and focus group discussions reveal that students and their mentors agree that research learning is very different from classroom learning. They do however disagree about some of the dynamics and priorities of the mentoring relationship. (Contains…

In Wales, bilingual education in Welsh and English has an increasingly high profile and Wales shares international leadership of bilingual education policies and practices alongside other countries where bilingual education flourishes. Ever since the first designated Welsh-medium primary school was opened in 1939, Welsh-medium and bilingual…

Beginning with the 2000 and 2001 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessments, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has made technical documentation available on the worldwide web at http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/tdw/. The web-based documentation is designed to be less dense and more accessible than prior…

This action research study explored if changes in the reading curriculum, specifically implementation of critical literacy approaches that acknowledge bicultural students, increase student learning as perceived by teachers and students in a Catholic elementary school, where students have been chronically performing at the lowest level in the…

This study analyzed the instructional practices of more versus less effective U.S. History teachers identified by a multiple regression model. Using surveys, observations, and focus-group interviews, the study found that the most effective teachers had a more complete package of rigor, relevance, and relationship strategies than less effective…

Learning communities, designed primarily to increase student persistence and academic achievement, are a common first-year initiative on university campuses. Assessments of learning communities frequently examine indicators that are easily quantifiable such as student persistence and academic achievement, but also examine factors thought to affect…

This study examined a host of variables the literature or focus groups showed to influence student motivation to achieve academically. Secondary school teachers in Doha, Qatar were asked to identify the five most and five least motivated students in their classrooms. They also were asked to estimate the degree of involvement the parents had in the…