Despite renewed academic interest in virtue ethics and character education, institutions of higher education have largely neglected the character education of university students. This article seeks to make two contributions to the theory and practice of character education within the university, with a particular focus on postgraduate students.…

This qualitative case study responds to calls for research on the ways critical reflection develops in preservice and novice teachers. While evaluating capacity to reflect is a dominant practice in teacher education, few studies explore empirically how different factors impact teachers' reflection. Building from earlier research that…

Meaning-making and sense-making are generally assumed to be part of students' personal vocational knowledge development, since they contribute to both students' socialisation in a vocation and students' personalisation of concepts, values and beliefs regarding that vocation. However, how students in vocational education acquire meaning and make…

This paper focuses upon the case of one early career teacher, Don, a participant in a longitudinal study examining the transfer of learning about literacy practices from pre-service teacher education to the classrooms of secondary content area teachers. We followed Don from his B. Ed. program into his first two years of teaching in an Indigenous…

This study looks into the effects of school inspection in the context of Flemish education. Respondents in five primary case schools were interviewed before inspection, immediately after inspection and four months later (totalling 45 interviews with 15 respondents). Our results indicate that the inspection incites reflection amongst school staff…

Drawing on activity theory, this qualitative case study examines the emotional experiences of Maria, a preservice teacher of English as an additional language (EAL) during the practicum in an Australian secondary school setting and the factors shaping these emotions. Data included interviews with the preservice teacher before and after the…

The changing landscape in Higher Education has made it more difficult for less experienced academics to find persons willing and able to invest in, and support their professional development. Mentoring and coaching provide psychosocial assistance in the work space, which assists mentees to deal more effectively with role ambiguity, role conflict…

The literature on culture and education points to the importance of using students' cultural knowledge in the teaching and learning process. While the theory of culturally relevant education has expanded in the last several decades, the practical implementation continues to lag far behind. This disparity points to the lack of tools and other…

In this action research study, we describe how doctoral candidates conceptualize innovations for their dissertations and outline how we are using the results to improve the doctoral dissertation experience for our new cohort. Over the course of one academic year (2010/11) we documented our students' process of conceptualizing their…

This research used poststructural theories to examine a crucial issue of teacher-learning in rural border schools that are under pressure from high-stakes school accountability, fewer resources, and significant numbers of English language learners (ELLs). The methodology was based on a multiple case study of four intern teachers who participated…

This article reports the development of integrated arts curriculum in two Hong Kong secondary schools over a 9-year period. Initial findings display a range of individual responses to educational change that are both non-predictable and non-linear. Chaos theory is used to explain these varied responses in terms of bifurcations. The findings of…

The United States Air Force Academy develops commissionable officers of character through an intense 4-year program that includes academic, athletic, and military education and training. The literature was silent on whether the Academy effectively develops character or, if so, how the development takes place. This was a phenomenological case study…

Higher education institutions in Norway have implemented reform as part of the Bologna Agreement. The reform also aims to follow up students more closely and to change the way in which they learn by increasing the amount of formative assessment, including grading. This paper presents a case study of a first-year methodology course in geography, in…

This study investigated the situation of teaching and learning idioms at a university level in Vietnam, a foreign language context. It also examined the evaluation of the idiom teaching process in three language classes over a 15-week period for pre-service teachers of English. The data were collected though questionnaires, in-depth interviews and…

The purpose of this research study was to acquire greater insight into how educational leaders learn to develop strategies for their institution. Through a better understanding of the process by which such learning occurs, the researcher sought to uncover the factors that facilitate or impede these learning opportunities, particularly with regard…