This article investigates the impact of educational contexts on automatic classification of online discussion messages according to cognitive presence, an essential construct of the community of inquiry model. In particular, the work reported in the article analyzed online discussion messages written in Brazilian Portuguese from two different…

In this action research study, we investigate the impact that social collaborative professional learning activities have on art educators' perceptions of required professional development on art assessment. The study was conducted in the context of a district-wide professional development program and evaluated through a performance-based…

School principals play a key role in the creation and nurture of school conditions conducive to Professional Learning Communities (PLCs). In China, whereas the term PLC itself is an imported concept and rarely used by school practitioners, the precept of PLCs, collaborative teacher learning activities, are firmly embedded in teachers' daily work.…

Faculty members often lack support structures in which they can support each other in crisis. The authors recently discovered that sharing ideas with a community of colleagues has made them more resilient. The Civility Community of Practice (CoP) at IUPUI transitioned to a weekly online teaching and support seminar in response to the university's…

This paper reports on a case study of a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics professional learning community (STEM PLC) that was set up to support a group of science teachers to teach STEM. Set in the context of an Islamic school in Southern Thailand, cultural sensitivity was invoked in forming the STEM PLC. The school offered a…

Years of research on teacher quality indicate that the quality and effectiveness of teachers have a significant influence on learner achievements. The quality of teachers and their teaching practice is widely debated where quality may depend on the teacher having acquired sound and relevant knowledge and skills to ensure effective teaching. The…

The swift transition to remote learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic presented substantial challenges for both students and instructors in post-secondary natural sciences education. To examine teaching practices and student engagement during the emergency remote learning in the Spring 2020 semester, we surveyed 10 instructors and 261…

This essay reflects on the role of place for humanities practices and contributes to emerging discussions on infrastructure for the humanities and socio-material conditions of scholarly knowledge production. I provide a theoretical framework for studying venues for humanities work drawing on the phenomenological approach to the concepts of place…

The success of inclusive education is dependent on the self-efficacy of classroom teachers. This research examines the different ways in which teachers shape their confidence when providing equal opportunity for all students. For teachers to successfully implement inclusive practices within the classroom, they must first believe in the right for…

Peer review is viewed as a valid quality assurance mechanism in higher education. Peer review of teaching is common practice at universities in Australia. However, peer review of assessment is a relatively new innovation in tertiary education. Peer review of assessment in a Triad structure utilised data, via interviews with academics and students,…

This study explores pre-service and in-service teachers' experiences in working as a learning community. Pre-service teachers (N = 60) and teacher educators (N = 9) from a Finnish university and in-service teachers (N = 27) from four local comprehensive schools worked together over six months. The teachers-as-learners continuous learning model was…

At a time of widespread concern over the decline of art teaching in schools, this article considers the findings of a practitioner led action research project exploring the potential of art museum and artist-led CPD (Continued Professional Development) programmes to develop primary teacher knowledge, skills and confidence teaching in art and…

The transactional distance created by asynchronous online course formats poses unique challenges to the development of a collaborative learning environment. The lack of face-to-face interaction also challenges instructors' ability to make adaptive changes to course content in response to emerging student needs. The authors describe a professor's…

This research advances communities of practice (CoPs) theory by documenting a role distinct to CoPs within student newsrooms. Using a survey (N = 127) of college student media advisers, the data support a liminal role in which advisers are simultaneously inside and outside the CoP. This study also develops and verifies scales for each of the four…

The purpose of this self-study is to examine how transformative leadership in student organizations contributes to doctoral students' professional development in higher education. Drawing from Mezirow's (1997) notion of transformative learning and Bass's (1990) theory of transformational leadership, the researchers discuss how an academic student…