Classrooms today are much more diverse than they once were. Teachers must be prepared to acknowledge various academic differences within their classrooms. Embracing those differences and teaching for equity is essential for moving our society forward. Co-teaching can assist schools in meeting the needs of all students in inclusive classrooms. This…

Leadership matters greatly. A wide body of research has shown that schools with effective leaders mobilize efforts to narrow achievement gaps. As instructional leaders, principals lead professional learning communities in the charge to improve teaching and learning outcomes for all students. Ultimately, school leaders have a complex role and carry…

This research study was a netnographic exploration of teachers' attitudes and perspectives regarding running records, a ubiquitous literacy assessment in many elementary classrooms. As education reform centers testing and excessive forms of accountability, the running record, designed as a qualitative teaching tool, has instead entered the ranks…

This chapter explores the contexts and systems through which leadership educators organize, engage with one another, and the outputs they produce, as well as contemplate the complex pathways of membership within our field through the lens of communities of practice.

Scholarly publications are a key component of academics' development in their roles as teachers and researchers. Writing groups seem to be effective to accompany this process as participants share their texts to improve them through peer feedback. To help academic developers in the understanding and implementation of faculty writing groups, a…

Drawing on interim findings from an ethnography of a cycle mechanics' workshop, this article demonstrates how the work of the mechanics rests on not only specific and contextualised craft expertise but also on distributed networks of both people and things, within which highly specialist instances of expertise or competence manifest alongside more…

Teachers in contemporary schools carry a host of work-related responsibilities. As such, the act of teaching (delivering content) is only one aspect of being a teacher. Interactions with colleagues, administrators, and students combine to form a complex socialization process as teachers, especially novice teachers in their induction years, learn…

Purpose: This study aimed at exploring mathematics teachers' reactions, learning, school leaders' support, and the use of the lesson study for transformative assessment (LSforTA) program ideas in practice. Design/methodology/approach: The LSforTA program was new and therefore, a local and grounded approach was needed to examine teachers' knowledge…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore middle and secondary mathematics preservice teachers' (PST) perceptions of the benefits, challenges and impacts of implementing lesson study. Design/methodology/approach: This paper presents a single case study in the university context. Embedded units of analysis included a group of middle and a…

Clinical knowledge, group facilitation skills, and cognitive congruence are considered important factors for the successful tutoring of Problem Based Learning sessions. In addition, the theory of Community of Practice has become an important tool to approach social learning and knowledge integration in medical education and organizational studies.…

This article presents findings from a study examining teacher talk in the early and late phases of a 4-year project in a Norwegian elementary school where Lesson Study was used as a method for professional development. The study focuses on inclusive and adapted education and aims to explore the changing beliefs about student needs and the…

This paper examines the influence of professional learning communities (PLCs) on informal teacher leadership in Hong Kong schools to overcome issues reported in the literature on the challenges to teacher leadership posed by Chinese hierarchical school contexts. We test the relations among PLC, informal teacher leadership, teacher focus on…

Purpose: The authors investigate the use and potential of a theoretical combination of Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) and the Theory of Didactic Situation (TDS) to support Lesson Study (LS) in upper secondary mathematics. Design/methodology/approach: Case study performed by university researchers, based on theoretical analysis and case…

Within its 20 years of development, the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework has become the most widely used theoretical framework in e-learning. It is considered in much of the distance education literature to be a robust collaborative-constructivist process model that uses three essential elements to interpret educational experience: cognitive…

High-ability and gifted students are well-served by a focus on the development of community. The Academic Year Governor's Schools of Virginia were created with a formalized emphasis on the network of relationships built among the students, faculty, and the larger community. The power of these communities of learners was evident in a study of the…