This study describes how a group of early childhood educators from a diverse range of classroom cultures and pedagogies came together to form a network of support and collaboration, what Gorodetsky and Barak (Teach Teach Educ 24(7):1907-1918, 2008) define as an 'edge community of practice.' This year-long study involved a group of nine educators,…

Xenophobic discourse surrounding migration, resulting in marginalisation of the other, is on the rise. This article tracks the formation of a professional community of teacher inquirers who wanted to challenge the prevalent negative discourse by generating narratives of change. Using narrative inquiry methods to capture 'stories of experience'…

This article outlines the process of how the author purposefully designed an integrative assignment to meet the real-world needs of a nursing cohort, First-Year Seminar anchored learning community. The author provides evidence from her own teaching practices to explore the elements that contributed to the construction of this assignment. For…

In 2016, the Office of Correctional Education in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation embarked on a process of implementing professional learning communities (PLCs) in all 35 California state prisons. The American Institutes for Research provided professional development and consulting on the PLC process. Through working to…

Interest in school-based strategies to support student social and emotional learning (SEL) is strong. Although SEL policies and programs designed to support the development of student competencies have advanced significantly, less work has been done to develop methods of assessing student social and emotional competence. This article briefly…

Statement of Purpose and Method of Study: Grade inflation has been recognized as a major concern for a particular rural school in the South. Research has shown that the problem of grade inflation existed on the high school and college levels, but the problem had not received much attention at the elementary level. As a result, the implementation…

Chinese-style teaching research is rooted in a well-established culture of observation and introspection, in a tradition which has experienced two thousand years of permutations, leading up to the introduction of new perspectives from modern teaching. The essential characteristics of Chinese-style teaching research are founded in classroom…

Online learning discussion formats provide an opportunity for learners to share their experiences, negotiate meaning, and take ownership of the subject matter. Chat rooms also provide learners with anyplace and real-time ways to participate in academic discussions. Shared understanding occurs when individual experience mediated through group…

This article explores the nature of effective mentoring practices in training Early Years Teachers in a University. A small-scale enquiry was undertaken where mentees and their mentors were asked about their experiences of meeting the standards to gain Early Years Teacher Status (EYTS). The results indicate that the use of grading to identify…

Very often, university students deliberately form self-organized study groups, e.g. to study collaboratively for an upcoming exam. Yet, very little is known about what regulation problems such self-organized study groups encounter during their learning process and how they try to cope with these problems. Therefore, this study investigates how…

This paper details a new dimension to an existing internship program developed in response to the effects of COVID-19 in a creative industries faculty at a large Australian university. Recent changes to workplace activities, as a result of the pandemic, have offered an opportunity to test a mode of internships in which students work and engage…

Background/Context: Teachers face many different problems in teaching. Traditionally, research examines the complexity of teaching students and content by focusing on a teacher's physical space and influencing factors therein. While established conceptions of curricular enactment suggest that instructional materials shape both the intended and…

Makerspaces are locations where people with common interests can work on projects, share ideas, tools and expertise to make or create. There is an abundance of "how to" guides and research studies on physical makerspaces, little research focuses on describing the "virtual" making processes and the experiences therein. This…

A writing program based on brief regular writing sessions can greatly improve research productivity. Ten years' experience with a program at the University of Wollongong provides insights into the benefits and challenges in supporting a new writing habit.

This study examined the ways in which early childhood pre-service student teachers (PSTs) used an online community for discussions related to teaching. Using the lenses of communities of practice, our goal was to understand what happens when the PSTs begin to share new learnings about teaching through ongoing practice in online communities. We…