The aim of this paper is to investigate the organization of research in high-performing research groups in an age of increasing competition and pressure from outside and within higher-education institutions. To explore how researchers navigate such pressures and demands, the practice and perceptions of four high-performing research groups in…

This mixed-method study developed a conceptual model for understanding the characteristics of professional learning communities (PLCs) in Chinese context. Exploratory qualitative interviews were first conducted to examine the characteristics of PLCs in several schools in Shanghai, China, through which an initial conceptual model was resulted.…

The general purpose of this article is threefold. Firstly, it is to further the notion of coaching as orchestration through developing insight into precisely how and what coaches orchestrate. Secondly, it is to firmly position coaching as a relational practice, whilst thirdly it is to better define coaching's complex nature and how it can be…

Conventional teacher education programmes do not equip practitioners adequately to navigate ethically complex situations that arise in teaching. One initiative responding to this deficit is "Philosophy for Teachers" ("P4T"), a 24-hour residential approach to community philosophy. Piloted originally in England, a further…

This case provides opportunities for school leaders, including coaches, to examine ways to lead learning and build teacher capacity. Told from the perspective of a newly hired elementary instructional coach in a suburban district experiencing rapid growth, the intent of this case study is to explore how leaders and coaches can work together to…

The authors argue that the professional learning practices of teachers in precarious employment may have a significant impact upon their understandings of specific policy reforms. The analysis considers a teacher's understandings of learning about a new policy in light of the various 'epistemological resources' he brought to bear to his learning…

The study explored the relationships among instructional leadership, professional learning community components, and teacher self-efficacy in the context of mainland China. Study subjects were 1082 elementary school teachers participating in a questionnaire survey. The results showed that instructional leadership had significant effects on the…

The question of how best to teach mathematics has been up for debate for decades. Traditionalists push for a back-to-basics type education, while reformers seek to teach students for understanding. At the same time, many teachers are dealing with their own feelings of anxiety about math. While it often appears that this debate must end in an…

People often confuse personalization with individualization. They assume that the more distinct and separate learning is for each individual, the more personalized it will be. This type of thinking leads to a belief that teachers should learn only what they want to and when and where it's convenient. This article explains that author Paul France…

Purpose: This paper aims to understand how members of an organization with different backgrounds form an inter-professional knowing (IPK) from a collective authorship practice (CAP). Design/methodology/approach: This is a qualitative research drawn on an ethnomethodological approach on the committee responsible for the public policies of the…

Internationalisation in higher education is now a worldwide phenomenon but there is little attention paid to internationalisation at doctoral level, although this phenomenon has grown exponentially in recent years. This study focuses on a university in China to examine how international doctoral students and their supervisors perceive supervision…

The need for better linkages between evidence and policymaking has been well established in the literature, with a heightened focus on the relationship between researchers, research utilisation and policy development. However, fostering such linkages using a policy network approach has seldom been discussed. This article revisits a key framework…

Current research indicates that instructors find support for their teaching via membership in small social networks. The present study was conducted to further our understanding of these networks by looking specifically at the perceptions network members hold of each other in terms of similarity of beliefs and the value of their interactions.…

This paper draws on data collected as part of the larger study of professional learning (PL) in Canada. The article specifically explores the work of teachers' organizations (also known as teacher unions) in leading and supporting high-quality learning experiences for their members. Adopting a progressive view of teacher organizations, the paper…

This case study explored virtual mentoring as an instructional tool for an online professional development course for health information faculty. Embedded mentoring was a unique characteristic of the course. Mentors were assigned a participant whom they provided instructional delivery and mentoring support in absence of a course instructor. This…