This research study was specifically designed to examine the relationship of a learning communities program, as a standard treatment effect, on the academic performance and retention of college freshmen during the Fall 2008 through Fall 2011 academic semesters, and specifically for a university comprised of higher levels of underrepresented…

Although educators continue to provide all students access to their grade-level curriculum, students with disabilities are not performing academically in accordance with state standards. The purpose of this sequential transformative mixed methods study was to investigate academic and/or behavioral differences between an inclusion classroom and a…

As college and workplace success becomes increasingly dependent on reading, parents and educators have become more interested in how to engage students in reading. Teachers at a rural Georgia high school have reported that students are reluctant to engage in academic reading. Guided by previous research on the factors that promote or discourage…

Students have an uncanny ability to outpace faculty ability to master technology. Blogging, texting, flash video and other methods of electronic communication have supplanted more mundane methods of communication. In this paper, it is proposed that instituting a perpetual blog that encompasses a course taught by multiple faculty members will…

In mid-2010 NCVER undertook a review of its building researcher capacity initiative in order to inform its direction into the future. The review found that the initiative had achieved a high profile among vocational education and training (VET) practitioners. The scholarship programs had heightened awareness about the role research can play in…

As suggested by the Kerala Higher Education Council, the Department of Education of the University of Kerala organized a half-day workshop for reconceptualization of the teacher education curriculum of the University of Kerala as a preliminary step in the original plan of the Council for introducing an unified BEd curriculum in the state of…

The purpose of this study was to examine the professional learning community dimensions of a focus on learning, shared vision, collaborative culture, supportive structures and their impact on student achievement. Additionally, this study explored training in professional learning community principles as a moderating variable and the practice of…

This study set out to explore how academics construct and negotiate their identities within the world of the academe. Identity construction involves different forms of community participation and identification. Utilising the research methodology of narrative inquiry, this article explores how academics came to see themselves across those…

University outcomes are increasingly focused on generic skills, as well as ensuring students meet specific professional competencies and knowledge. Many academics have little educational background and training in planning curriculum including learning activities and assessment tasks aligned to explicit criteria in relation to outcomes such as…

Public schools must be the catalyst for achieving equity in education. Real equity is not simply achieving equality or about ensuring that everyone gets the same resources and receives the same instruction. Equity is about ensuring that all students get what they need to be successful. Fairness is not providing the same resources, instruction, and…

This article deliberates the possibilities for Regional Centres of Expertise (RCEs) to become "experiments" in social learning. The purpose of the article is to advance the broader research agenda of RCEs through reflection on the empirical research agenda of one RCE, Makana RCE in South Africa. As such it opens questions on how we might…

Using Lave and Wenger's framework of legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice, this case study explores the experiences of three novice teachers engaged with more experienced teachers in a teacher study group during their first year of teaching. The study illustrates how, over time, the novices moved from more peripheral to…

The philosophies behind teachers education programs and the classrooms where their students have their field experiences may be very different, especially in elementary classrooms since passage of NCLB. For students at Berea College, an institution with a unique history and mission, the disconnect can interfere with the prospective teacher's…

The chapters in this volume set a rich context for understanding the challenges that environmental evaluators face in their everyday work. In particular, the authors highlight the need for responsive, contextual, flexible, adaptive, multidisciplinary, and mixed-methods evaluation approaches. In this chapter, I reinforce their call and further…

Through this study we explored a community of practice framework applied to faculty professional development at a mid-size state university in order to examine the issues unique to discipline-specific professional development in higher education. Through content-focused professional development activities conducted by the authors, several key…