This article presents implementation details and findings of a National Science Foundation Scholarship in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Program (S-STEM) consisting of many high-impact practices to recruit and retain students in the physical sciences and mathematics programs, particularly first-generation and underrepresented…

Descriptive Review, as developed by Patricia Carini and colleagues at the Prospect Center, is a process of deep observation and documentation that has proven to be an invaluable tool for teachers interested in gaining a more holistic view of their students and their work. In this article, a teacher educator and three classroom teachers share their…

This article presents a theoretical model of lesson study's impact on instruction, through intervening impact on teachers' knowledge, beliefs and dispositions, teachers' learning community, and curriculum. It also describes four different types of lesson study in Japan, pointing out their synergies in producing a system where local teachers…

Lesson study (LS) has been practiced in China as an effective way to advance teachers' professional development for decades. This study explores how LS improves teaching that promotes students' understanding. A LS group including didacticians (practice-based teaching research specialist and University-based mathematics educators) and mathematics…

The building of professional learning communities has been widely recognized as an effective strategy for schools wanting to improve student performance and enhance teachers' professional capacity. This study explored the relationship between leadership practices and professional learning communities, with a particular focus on the mediating role…

To address the professional development needs of learning community instructors at Kingsborough Community College, faculty coordinators and program directors developed a workbook for instructional teams. This workbook walks instructors through the collaborative process of creating and sustaining successful links and focuses on what we believe is…

This paper argues the need for coherent, holistic frameworks offering insightful understandings as well as viable, connected and synergistic solutions to schools in addressing pressing problems arising from the acknowledged gaps between research, practice and professional development. There is a need to conceptualise a comprehensive conceptual…

This article summarizes findings from surveys and interviews with five teachers at an elementary school in the Salt Lake City School District that is participating in the federally funded School Improvement Grant program to raise the achievement of all students. The qualitative data analysis focuses on two major themes: (1) the current attitudes,…

Access to information and communication technology (ICT) is becoming an increasingly important factor for education and training in the South Pacific region. While many studies have examined the attitudes and understanding of educators towards using ICT in their profession and for their professional development, studies that specifically deal with…

This study was conducted to explore teacher candidates' reactions and perceptions regarding their participation in inquiry circles and to discover how the experience influenced their comprehension of an informational text. The 98 teacher candidates involved in this study were enrolled in a children's literature course at a four-year university.…

Using a novel theoretical framework that incorporates teacher identity, a school as community of practice, and English as a global language from a linguistic-imperialism perspective, this qualitative interview study with foreign-language teachers in Scotland, France, and Germany (N = 13) explores connections between foreign-language-learning…

This article explores the range of ways two teacher educators and preservice teachers engaged with and learned from writers and their families in town and village schools during a faculty-led study abroad experience in Belize, Central America. During this experience, the authors drew on three guiding principles: engaging in side-by-side writing…

In the literature, communities of practice (CoPs) are recognised as having potential to promote teachers' professional development. However, the study of the dynamics of CoPs with teachers and researchers, and their impact on teachers' professional development, is still scarce. Contributing to fill this gap, this paper presents a single case study…

Research on the improvement of learning shifted from a focus on the learner as individual to the concept of sociocultural learning in communities of learning, communities of practice or learning cultures during the 1990s. A similar shift in the focus of the development of a single construct of individual musical creativity to socially situated…

This paper draws on the views of lecturers working in and delivering college-based higher education (CBHE) in the UK. There have been numerous works on the culture of higher education in further education (HE in FE). However, as noted by some literati, the culture of further education (FE) is not easy to define, and does not readily lend itself to…