This study examines Chinese primary science teachers' professional learning experience in a web-based community of practice established and run by practitioners, with support from teacher researchers. Over time, it has grown into a preferred knowledge-sharing base for primary science teachers of the region and gradually gained national…

As a source of social capital, teachers' professional networks have been linked in the research literature with professional learning. Social media platforms have increased teachers' professional networking opportunities, suggesting more space for informal learning. Capturing the experiences of 41 school teachers in Kazakhstan using thematic…

This study explored the extent to which distance learning tutors found sharing practice through participating in a tutor-led online programme of online events helped them to develop as practitioners and hence support students more effectively. The regular online sessions, delivered by tutors for tutors, was a staff development initiative…

Educational organizations worldwide face challenges in selecting professional development models that meet the diverse and evolving needs of educators and students. Professional Learning Communities offer a means by which to address these needs. The problem addressed by this qualitative case study was the lack of a successful framework…

This article is a case study of the knowledge that is exchanged by teachers when they are engaged in professional communities that extend beyond the workplace, including internationally. The participants in this study were all teachers from England and Macedonia. The data collection method was via interview. This data was thematically coded and…

Communities of Practice (CoPs) have been identified as successful models of innovation in higher education institutional change efforts, particularly geared toward faculty. Accordingly, this multi-method qualitative study examined how participation in one equity-minded CoP contributed to participants' understanding and mobilization of equity in…

Objective/Research Question: This paper reports on data collected in a multi-year National Science Foundation grant project involving a professional development (PD) model built to support community college faculty as change agents (CAs). The research question was: How do disciplinary communities of practice (CoP) emerge among community college…

Virtual communities of Practice (VCoP) offer a flexible option for professional development that may be employed by geographically dispersed communities. Due to unique and dynamic operational demands and a reduced training budget, the United States Coast Guard's (USCG) afloat community has limited opportunity for formal professional development,…

Growth in online and traditional course offerings has resulted in a subsequent increase in higher education's reliance on adjunct faculty. Supporting effective teaching for remote and traditional adjunct faculty presents several unique challenges (e.g., engagement, time, motivation, inclusion). To address these challenges, we wanted to establish a…

Professional development for academics has seen a trend towards social engagement through communities and groups, as reflected by a number of increasingly popular concepts: communities of practice, faculty learning communities, and learning and teaching networks. Despite the potential benefits of such engagement, there is a paucity of research on…

Signature pedagogies [Shulman, L. 2005. "Signature pedagogies in the professions." "Daedalus" 134 (3): 52--59.] are a focus of teacher educators seeking to improve teaching and teacher education. The purpose of this paper is to present a preliminary common language of signature pedagogies for teacher professional development…

The purpose of this study was to examine the pedagogy of facilitation within physical education professional development (PD). Specific research questions were: 1) What were the self-identified pedagogical strategies employed by facilitators in PD?, and 2) From the perspective of the participants, what strategies contributed to their growth as…

Through learning communities, schools can change to strengthen educator practice and improve student learning outcomes. So can districts. For 20 years, the authors have helped states, districts, and schools in the United States and Canada implement Whole-Faculty Study Groups, a design for learning communities. During the 2010-11 school year, they…

Latino students, as children of historically underachieving populations, often have their academic success in jeopardy. For many schools, after-school programs complement the regular school day, with more than half of the 49,700 U.S. elementary schools having one or more on-site programs. Such programs vary in intent, purposes, and resources and…

These proceedings contain the papers and posters of the International Conferences on Internet Technologies & Society (ITS 2016), Educational Technologies (ICEduTech 2016) and Sustainability, Technology and Education (STE 2016), which have been organised by the International Association for Development of the Information Society and…