Is there a viable pedagogical method to prepare people, as they engage together in their practice, for the assumption of collective leadership? In this article the author makes the case that such a method is already available via action learning but for its adoption as a collective leadership development approach. The author's agenda is twofold:…

This account of practice discusses the author's experience in facilitating a small group of managers in health care over lunchtime utilizing an action learning approach. This was part of a larger leadership development initiative which took place in the organization and the intention was to create a more intimate, informal and safe setting whereby…

Teachers often complain about the professional development opportunities. And it is not uncommon for absenteeism to increase among teachers and staff during in-service days. The biggest problem that professional development has encountered is that it is usually developed as an isolated requirement, with no real connection to daily teaching and…

There are unique moments in curriculum development when an opportunity for a fresh start or a major turn in design fleetingly presents itself. These moments opened up in different locations across McMaster University at different times and eventually led to several quite different initiatives in inquiry-guided learning (IGL). Well-travelled…

For their ambitious project, called America at War, high school juniors at Da Vinci Charter Academy in the Davis (California) Joint Unified School District didn't just study history. They became historians. Their project offers compelling evidence of what students can accomplish through project-based learning (PBL), an instructional approach that…

It is no accident that the staff at Fieldale-Collinsville Middle School adopted a central tenet of "Breaking Ranks in the Middle"--to banish anonymity by creating a personalized learning environment for all of its students. The school was created six years ago when the four middle schools in Henry County, VA, were consolidated into two…

Perhaps a decade ago, accreditation agencies might have been satisfied with a list of student learning outcomes and some evidence that students achieved them. More and more, accreditors request evidence of "improvement". It is not enough to merely demonstrate that what one is doing works reasonably well; one must also show that he or she…

In the late 1990s, the physics department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) had a problem. The department was responsible for teaching the two required physics courses that are part of the General Institute Requirements (GIRs), MIT's core curriculum--Physics I (mechanics, or in MIT parlance, 8.01) and Physics II (electricity and…

This article describes Espace (Electronic System for Peer Assessment and Coaching Efficiency), a student peer-feedback tool that enhances the educational quality of assignments without overburdening faculty or adding administrative costs. Developed and tested by four universities in the Netherlands, Espace focuses on qualitative feedback and…

This innovative session consists of a panel discussion on different approaches to researching and understanding action-learning programs, based on collaborative empirical work. Panel members compare their use of a critical-pragmatist approach and an actor-network approach. These different but complementary approaches are compared regarding their…