This article introduces an Australian adaptation of an approach to supporting school leadership and improvement pioneered by educationalists David Townsend and Pam Adams, from Alberta, Canada. Referred to as the North Coast Initiative for School Improvement, the adaptation involved school leaders, academics, and government officials who combined…

Background: Research demonstrating the positive outcomes of service learning among university students is robust and some describe the impact as transformative. Purpose: To help me better understand how I can support transformative learning in my classroom, this study explored how an intergenerational critical service learning project fostered…

As environmental and sustainability issues are becoming embedded in the school curriculum, there is a need to understand how environmental identity develops within the complex social structure of the classroom. Reflection is a potentially valuable classroom process to consider as it intersects student learning, identity work, and agency. This…

In this article, we examine whether an inquiry-based, hands-on physics lab can be delivered effectively as a distance lab. In science and engineering, hands-on distance labs are rare and open-ended project labs in physics have not been reported in the literature. Our introductory physics lab at a large Canadian research university features…

Humans are born with the natural ability to gain skills through play. Children learn about social norms, roles and responsibilities, and language through curiosity-driven, playful interactions and activities. Learning through play harnesses the power of children's imagination and inspires active engagement with the material. The Center for…

The Collaborative Teacher Inquiry Project was a professional development initiative that sought to improve the teaching and learning of Grade 9 Applied mathematics by encouraging teachers to work collaboratively. The project brought together Grade 9 Applied mathematics teachers from 11 schools across four neighboring public school boards in the…

Inclusive educational practices vary across Canada, and perhaps most especially in secondary schools. Researchers use the term authentic inclusion to describe exemplary inclusive educational institutions. Using an appreciative inquiry framework, two such high schools were identified and profiled within the Canadian province of Saskatchewan.…

Teacher inquiry, in which teachers study their own professional practice, is currently a popular form of experiential learning that is considered a powerful tool to bring about effective change in teaching and learning. Little empirical evidence, however, exists to explain precisely if and how this pedagogical methodology moves teachers toward…

We describe how our teaching and learning centre developed a model, founded on Boyer's notion of scholarship, to explore the nature of the teaching-research nexus. At the core of this model is the Inquiry Network, a faculty learning community whose members moved from exploring the links between their own teaching and research to creating…

Few studies take up the question of how to teach pre-service or current teachers to practice integrated, interdisciplinary, and inquiry-based methodologies. In this literature review, scholarly research is explored to examine approaches to teacher education based in progressivism. Place- and community-based education is considered as an important…

Increasingly, governments are seeking ways to integrate early childhood education and care services as a social policy strategy to maximize child and family outcomes. This study examines the role of a school-based parenting and family literacy program to a system of services in one community in Ontario, Canada. Using an appreciative inquiry…

Everyone under the age of 20 who has grown up in North America has lived in the common market created by NAFTA--the North American Free Trade Agreement. In a zone linking the United States, Canada, and Mexico, most goods and investments flow freely across borders to users, consumers, and investors. In 1994, NAFTA created the largest relatively…

Researchers examine the outcomes of professional collaborative inquiry in mathematics on teacher efficacy in a three-year study of teacher professional learning in Canada. The study applies a mixed methods approach involving over 200 teachers and 1000 students as well as case study sites in English and French. The collaborative inquiry-based…

Inquiry-guided learning (IGL) has widespread appeal in higher education as a suite of teaching strategies that promotes learning through students' increasingly independent investigation of questions, problems, and issues using the methods of inquiry of the disciplines. Framed as especially appropriate for research universities, IGL has been…

Students around the globe have unique first-year experiences but struggle with many of the same challenges. This monograph focuses on their journeys and provides insights for educators interested in learning about how institutions across the globe provide supports to students dealing with first-year transition issues. Based on the successful…