In a search for ways to capture foundation phase children's competence in mathematics, a small research team was put together at a South African university four years ago. At first, working only in a single school where the objective was to model 80 learners' growth in competence over four years, the team transformed into a very different entity.…

Millions of adults volunteer as research participants annually at research institutions across the nation. This research explored the attitudes, beliefs, and norms of rurally situated, adult research participants at a large research university. This systematic exploration of research participant experiences gathered information to inform the…

With the spread of adaptive technologies that customize the user experience in response to individual users, it is not surprising that such experiences are increasingly found in educational settings or in tools to facilitate learning. The National Academy of Education commissioned a background paper and held two meetings of scholars, policy…

A review of the research on teacher professional development identified an emerging consensus on important contextual and implementation characteristics that can promote or inhibit teachers' use of new knowledge and skills in their classroom practice. Findings suggest that professional development is best viewed as one component in an overall…

Principals play a central role in how well a school performs. They are responsible for establishing school goals and developing strategies for meeting them. They lead their schools' instructional programs, recruit and retain teachers, maintain the school climate, and allocate resources. How well they execute these and other leadership functions is…

This article describes the emergence and influence of evidence-based practice and data-based decision making in educational systems. Increasingly, educators and consumers want to know that resources allocated to educational efforts yield strong effects for all learners. This trend is reflected by the widespread influence of evidence-based practice…

This article reviews studies which apply a social network perspective to examine transfer of training. The theory behind social networks focuses on the interpersonal mechanisms and social structures that exist among interacting units such as people within an organization. A premise of this perspective is that individual's behaviors and outcomes…

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of research conducted on Catholic schools and Catholic education during the period 2005 to 2010. The authors proffer both summary and critique, identifying emerging patterns and trends. Recommendations for future research are also included. The breadth and depth of recent research on Catholic education…

For over four decades, the concept of teacher leadership has been debated nationally and internationally with a view of establishing its role in student learning and achievements in schools. Over this period, a sizeable amount of literature has been written with regards to teacher and school administration leadership. However, studies remain…

The study discussed here was based on a collective case approach involving a specialist UK higher education institution. Six individual interviews were carried out with a cross-sectional sample of the institution's staff members. Additional information was gained through observations and examination of relevant documents. These data were…

Pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 37, the American Educational Research Association (AERA) et al. submit this brief as "amici curiae" in support of Respondents. "Amici curiae" comprise several of the nation's leading research associations: the American Educational Research Association, the American Association for the Advancement…

One major thrust of Physics Education Research (PER) is the identification of student ideas about specific physics concepts, both correct ideas and those that differ from the expert consensus. Typically the research process of eliciting the spectrum of student ideas involves the administration of specially designed questions to students. One major…

The general thesis of this paper is that the motives of the currently dominant global educational governance are rooted in a specific cultural milieu in the time of the Cold War, more precisely in the late 1950s, heading to a harmonious world. The more specific thesis is that a series of failures in the achievement of this harmonized globe led to…

Robinson, Levin, Thomas, Pituch, and Vaughn (2007) examined 74 articles reporting nonintervention studies (i.e., studies with no researcher-manipulated variables) that appeared in 5 educational journals in 1994. Of these articles, 22 contained prescriptive statements (e.g., if teachers or students did X, then student outcome Y would result). In…

Action research concerns action, and transforming people's practices (as well as their understandings of their practices and the conditions under which they practise). Sometimes we may feel that action research works best when it contributes to our understandings. In this paper, by contrast, I want to explore the "happening-ness" of action and…