This essay is a call for rethinking our approach to research in digital learning. It plots a path founded in social trends and advances in education. A brief review of these trends and advances is followed by discussion of what flattened research might look like at scale. Scaling research in digital learning is crucial to advancing understanding…

Although an increasing number of studies have examined students' participation in undergraduate research (UR), little is known about faculty perceptions of mentoring in this context. The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate four aspects of mentoring UR, including how faculty define high-quality UR mentoring and operationalize it in…

This is the first of a three-part series which will share information about how a mid-size, comprehensive university developed a learning community program, including a residential curriculum. Through intentional collaboration and partnerships, the team, comprised of faculty and staff throughout the university, developed a "multi-year plan…

We address several challenges faced by those who wish to increase the number of faculty participating in upper-division learning communities that feature a student research experience. Using illustrations from our own learning community, we describe three strategies for success that focus on providing low cost incentives and other means to promote…

The paper is based on interviews with a sample of 200 teachers from the Limpopo province about their life histories, particularly those aspects related to their choice of teaching as their first career path, and their expectations, experiences and perceptions in this regard. It argues that current approaches to teacher education in South Africa…

This article explores professional learning through online discussion events as sites of communities of learning. The rise of distributed work places and networked labour coincides with a privileging of individualised professional learning. Alongside this focus on the individual has been a growth in informal online learning communities and…

We live in "a world of clashing interests" [Zinn, H. (1991). "Declarations of independence: Cross-examining American ideology." Toronto: Harper Collins, p. xx]. In a grapple for survival, universities choose to spend less money and time on teaching and learning, less time on robust evaluation of student learning and…

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to monitor pre-service teacher candidates' progression and implementation of the learning community philosophy along with classroom management strategies. The study took place during their final semester of clinical practice. Data were collected from self-reports, surveys, university supervisor…

The story presented here developed from a study group where we found space to explore and analyze ourselves and each other. In recounting our development from a Community of Interest to a Community of Practice (CoP), we first introduce a guiding theoretical framework building on a foundation of two concepts: "CoP" and…

This paper considers the impact of research and development work around parenting by adults with a learning difficulty undertaken at the Norah Fry Research Centre (NFRC) since 2005. It discusses how our understanding of the support needs of parents with learning difficulties grew through an initial mapping study which led to the concept of…

This study considers social learning practices within and outside the overt curriculum. A thematic approach was used to analyse data from six focus group interviews with 11 graduate entry medical students from a UK university over a year of study. The results indicate that: (1) during their first year of study students form a community of learning…

This article examines how new forms of learning and expertise are made to become consequential in changing communities of practice. We build on notions of scale making to understand how particular relations between practices, technologies, and people become meaningful across spatial and temporal trajectories of social action. A key assumption of…

In this study, I explore "blogging", the use of a regularly updated website or web page, authored and curated by an individual or small group, written in a conversational style, as a form of public pedagogy. I analyse blogs as pre-figurative spaces where people go to learn with/in a public sphere, through collaboration with interested…

We argue that social network analysis is a useful methodology to study and to extend scholarly knowledge on learning through legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice. We first review work on legitimate peripheral participation and show that research on this topic currently focuses on the adoption of practices. Then we…

This study is part of a larger research design project that aims to cultivate an online community of mathematics educators. The purpose of this smaller study is to suggest interventions that will further support community cultivation efforts. Social network analytical methods are used to study project participants' interactions in virtual spaces.…