These retrospective case studies used a qualitative approach to examine how three mid-west high schools implemented RTI programs in order to raise the achievement of students with disabilities. The study examined two high schools that met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for their measurable subgroup of students with disabilities. A third high…

The implementation of professional learning communities (PLCs) in schools has been shown to increase the academic performance of students and develop a beneficial and productive culture of true teacher collaboration. Despite these demonstrated benefits, resistance to PLC implementation has been documented in various forms throughout the…

Many U.S. universities are concerned with student retention. The current study surveyed 237 first time college students at a Midwestern university to determine the extent to which social-cognitive factors, such as high school GPA, ACT scores, first semester college GPA, college self-efficacy and perceptions of mentorship support influence…

Research has been conducted to identify and analyze how schools are determining that the activities of their Professional Learning Community (PLC) are directly tied to student achievement as there is currently a gap in the existing literature with regards to this topic. For the purpose of this study, a "successful" PLC was defined as one…

We present a literature review of the emerging research area online mathematics teacher education (OMTE). The review focuses on identifying (1) the main issues investigated in the area, (2) the main theoretical approaches employed, (3) the kind of empirical evidence that the researchers produce and present in order to support their findings and…

The purpose of this study was to engage practitioners in collaborative inquiry in order to examine the concept of flipped learning. At the core of this concept is the notion of flipping or reversing traditional instructional practice with traditional homework. Nine teachers across three grade spans, K-5, 6-8, and 9-12 and three non-instructional…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to seek to investigate Etienne Wenger's theory of social learning in a community of practice by modeling two simultaneous aspects of teachers' collaborative learning: their engagement in close-knit internal groupings and engagement with colleagues that work externally to the core group. These two learning…

When proposing group activities to students with a view to fostering collaborative learning in a hybrid learning space, we often ourselves about the relative amounts of information and knowledge which flow in the interaction, both among the group members and from the external information and knowledge sources. Also about which stages of the…

In the process of transitioning from one institution or workplace to another, people often encounter new interactional norms and values. For those moving countries as well as workplaces, the transition may involve different cultural and societal norms and values; but even a move between organisations or workplace teams within a country may present…

This article builds on our ongoing work in conceptualising an "evaluative stance" framework to assist in understanding how leaders in the field of early childhood education and care (ECEC) make decisions about the selection of professional development options for themselves and their staff. It introduces the notion that evaluative…

Cooperative learning (CL), in spite of extensive research and documented benefits, is not widely used in England. A review of the literature shows that it requires a staged and sustained approach to implementation, which has led to a gap between its potential and actual use. The case study cited here provides one example of bridging that gap…

This article presents the findings of a cross-disciplinary project between BA (Hons) Interior Design, Creative Multimedia and Film and Media Studies at a large Metropolitan University in the North of England. The collaboration was part of Unit X, a faculty-wide credit-bearing initiative to enable better collaboration across art and design courses.…

This study investigates whether engaging college students (n = 42) in a knowledge building environment would help them work as a community to construct their collective knowledge of history of science and, accordingly, develop a more informed scientific view. The study adopted mixed-method analyses and data mainly came from surveys and student…

In the first part of the discussion forum on extensive reading (ER) in "Reading in a Foreign Language" ("RFL") (April 2015 issue), many scholars in the field shared views regarding the core features to be considered when implementing ER, frequently referring to Day and Bamford's (1998, 2002) top 10 principles for teaching ER.…

The question of how class size impacts on student learning has been debated for some time, not least because it has substantial financial implications for educational policy. The strength of this debate notwithstanding, results from numerous international studies have been inconclusive. The study from which this paper stems sought to conceptualise…