The purpose of this paper is to begin to excavate the unstated theoretical underpinnings of teacher evaluation systems as they exist in policy and practice and to explicitly consider how these evaluation systems might intersect theoretically with social learning theory. Research suggests that organizational leaders believe growth-based evaluation…

This chapter describes the conceptualization and interactions of the Portfolio Group, a knowledge community of teachers and teacher educators with over a twenty-year history of collaboration. Formed in 1998, its story formed the model for the concept of the Faculty Academy. An overview of the Portfolio Group's members and collaborative activities…

Purpose: This paper aims to focus on academic library managers' learning practices in the context of cooperative work supported by computational artefacts. Academic library managers' everyday work is mainly cooperative. Their cooperation is supported predominantly by computational artefacts. Learning how to use the computational artefacts…

Inspired by common read projects, wherein first-year students read a shared text as a means of acclimating to the university community, our writing program adopted a project introducing students to bell hooks' 'Teaching With Love' through an empathy-based pedagogy. The researchers, with faculty participants, used a heuristic method of indwelling…

We report findings from qualitatively analyzing audio recordings and teacher-generated products from a two-day in-person collaborative design (co-design) workshop where nine experienced high school CS teachers revised parts of an existing introductory high school program toward justice. In response to our research question of how teachers…

In this paper, we propose a model for cultivating trust through academic development programming involving Universal Design for Learning (UDL). A scaffolded design called 5R (Relevance, Reposition, Relationships, Reciprocity, and Reallocate) of academic development is described as it relates to the role of starting conversations and the eventual…

Although most teachers recognize the importance of taking investigative, open-ended approaches to students' learning experiences, implementing them in high school classes can be challenging for teachers. In this work, we analyzed data from multiple sources from a teaching Community of Practice (CoP) to investigate (a) barriers to taking an…

In the contemporary era, the concept of learning transcends the traditional classroom boundaries. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has revolutionized education, offering diverse avenues for lifelong learning. ICT plays a pivotal role in facilitating lifelong learning, empowering individuals to continuously acquire knowledge and…

The purpose of this paper is to summarize research about the experience of newer instructional leaders in Jewish day schools in order to identify best practice in supporting them. Data is drawn from the results of a narrative study that explored the socialization of ten Jewish day school principals in the first three years of their first position…

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) communities of practice (CoP) have emerged as collaborative learning environments that unite people with a shared interest. However, forming and maintaining a successful SoTL CoP can be challenging, requiring careful planning and execution. As academics, we face various challenges in our teaching and…

The shortage of qualified Early Childhood Teachers is one of the most complex challenges facing the Australian early learning sector. The Early Childhood Elevate Mentoring Program (ECEM) was conceptualised, developed and implemented with ECTs to enable them to support Diploma trained educators as they studied an accelerated Bachelor of Early Years…

Peer observation of teaching (PoT) is a recognized evaluation tool. However, faculty concerns persist regarding bias, beneficial feedback, and lack of peer observer training. While faculty desire to provide quality and equitable reviews, many higher education faculty peers have little expertise in conducting observations and evaluations. This…

Learning communities can be useful to counter some of the challenges encountered by first-semester students as they transition to college. This 2-year process evaluation examines the launch of a campus-wide learning community initiative for developmental reading students at a community college in the USA. Students, instructors, and administrators…

In this article, we present the evaluation of a kindergarten teachers' professional development programme, 'Upgrading the quality of the pre-school environment' conducted by the participating teacher--thee programme is aimed at the improvement of the quality of Early Childhood Education and Care. The evaluation, which followed a mixed-method…

Background: Online game communities are inhabited by millions of players daily with relevant learning opportunities and dynamics. However, little efforts have been done for exploring their potential. Objectives: The goal of this study is to explore if and how social learning processes are occurring in online game communities. Methods: n = 480…