This study explored rural middle-school students' participation in an online summer reading course. The research question explored the patterns and practices of the student's participation in an online reading course and the instructional moves made by the teacher. Data were gathered from a small group (n = 4) of rural middle school students…

The purpose of this study was to investigate three constructs that affect online faculty: initial preparation, collegiality, and continued professional development. An increasing number of colleges and universities are responding to the demand for greater learning flexibility and, consequently, offering online and hybrid courses at an increasing…

Numerous districts are implementing Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) as a part of reform efforts to improve student achievement to meet external accountability mandates. Few districts, however, have considered the essential supports and components that teachers working in PLCs require for these teams to result in instructional improvement.…

Almost ubiquitous in discourses about the development of teachers, reflective practice describes the process that occurs when persons are apprenticed to any meaningful activity. But reflective practice is a descriptive term for that process: it does not imply that the process is itself open to dissection and instruction. We contend that mistaken…

If learning is a journey between worlds, school governing bodies have a crucial role to play in mediating them. By establishing a public space for the voice of different communities to be expressed and deliberated governing bodies enable schools to understand and engage the cultural sources that motivate young people to learn. This article draws…

A generation of principals has heard the mantra that they should be instructional leaders, but rarely have they been encouraged to be learning leaders. While an instructional leader pays attention to the planning, implementation, and evaluation of instruction, a learning leader focuses on what is learned and how it is learned. These roles are not…

English teachers face the shifting landscapes of education, the rapidly expanding repertoire of information and communication technologies, and the diverse nature, interests, and abilities of their students with increasing confidence, skill and creativity. The management of such shifting landscapes, in order to facilitate effective learning,…

This article provides a citation analysis of Lave and Wenger's work on "communities of practice" and "situated learning" over the period 1991-2001. The data relate to educational research in the UK, although comparisons are made with the USA. The findings indicate that although the text was incorporated and heavily used within…

The study reported here concerns 4 years of collaboration between secondary school teachers and academic researchers, constituting an emerging community of inquiry into mathematics teaching. In the article, the process of forming of this community is discussed, focusing on the reflective activity developed by its members as well as the tensions…

Nearly 30 years ago, Ron Edmonds identified the instructional leadership of principals as one of the characteristics of effective schools. The connections between what principals do as instructional leaders and the successes of their schools continue to be well recognized. Principals who comprehend the significance of these linkages, however,…

Institutions of higher education (HE), public and private, are moving through a crisis period of tapped-out states, funding cuts, tuition increases and layoffs. It makes good sense to rise to meet these new realities with new ways of doing things, and the places that succeed will be the ones that do. A holistic approach is necessary whereby…

This article discusses the relationship between persistence in adult literacy and numeracy programs, changes in the participants' attitudes to engaging in learning and pedagogic practices using data from eight Scottish literacy education organizations. It argues that literacy learning can act as a resource that enables vulnerable adults to change…

While reflection continues to be promoted as a central feature of teachers' continuous professional development (CPD) activities in Scotland and elsewhere, a wider debate across professions and national boundaries has opened as to how reflection might be re-conceptualised to restore its social and critical dimensions. This paper seeks to…

This paper addresses the composite question of whether it is better in vocational education to allow students to design their own models and guide them while doing so, or to provide them with ready-made models. To answer this question we set up a design experiment in which students were asked to work on real-life assignments, guided by teachers in…

In the past decade, the Israeli Ministry of Social Affairs has been engaged in an ongoing effort to change the capacity of social service organizations and social workers across the country to use and create knowledge in order to achieve the best outcomes for the people they serve. Although there is an ever-growing mandate in Israel to demonstrate…