The learning journey toward sustainability requires the generation of action-oriented knowledge to understand the progress and potential adaptation of strategies to facilitate collective transformation. One integral area where advancing these strategies is essential is higher education. While efforts in the field have identified relevant learning…

In this commentary, I interpret Xinying Yin and Gayle Ann Buck's collaborative action research from a social-cultural perspective. Classroom implementation of formative assessment is viewed as interaction between this assessment method and the local learning culture. I first identify Yin and Buck's definition of the formative assessment, and then…

Little research has examined the capacity of ECE [early childhood education] leaders to build capacity for job-embedded professional development in local ECE centers. This study reports findings from a three-year evaluation of a job-embedded early childhood education professional development initiative in a major mid-western city. Results indicate…

Instructional coaching can help teachers adopt new practices. In this webinar, participants explored how instructional coaching can encourage teachers to adopt new practices and whether coaching has lasting effects. This webinar featured Jim Knight, Ph.D., a Research Associate at the University of Kansas, who has been studying and writing about…

Teaching portfolios have become increasingly important to university teachers. Portfolio requirements for the appointment or promotion of academic staff recognize that the assessment of teaching practice requires more depth and detail than a candidate's academic CV generally affords. The focus of this study is the electronic teaching portfolios,…

This literature review examines formative assessment education practices currently being utilized in Africa, as well as recent research regarding professional development on such assessments. Two main conclusions about formative assessment use and training, as well as a set of recommendations about teacher training on formative assessment, can be…

The present study was designed to examine the PLC elements identified by the leadership team at Angel Primary School. The three features of the school's implemented innovation were common formative assessment, the school's collaboration plan and differentiated instruction. The data collection instruments allowed participants (n = 18) to indicate…

Professional Development Schools (PDS) were intended to be a comprehensive approach to total-school reform targeted toward the effects of poverty and educational disadvantage. This paper examines the processes and contexts found in PDSs and tests how they might be logically and empirically linked to measurable improvements in achievement. The…

Explore this first look at lessons learned through Learning Forward's ongoing initiative to develop a comprehensive system of professional learning that spans the distance from the statehouse to the classroom. This policy brief underscores the importance of a coordinated state professional learning strategy, the adoption of professional learning…

The New Jersey Department of Education supports all districts with a tool kit of valuable resources for planning and creating collaborative learning structures that focus on getting results for all students. This tool kit was the basis for the creation of Learning Forward's "Becoming a Learning School" (2009). The tool kit helps…

In this study we examine the interplay between curriculum-embedded formative assessment--a well-known teaching practice--and general features of classroom process quality (i.e., cognitive activation, supportive climate, classroom management) and their combined effect on elementary school students' understanding of the scientific concepts of…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report the formative evaluation results from the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development Healthy School Communities (HSC) pilot project. Design/methodology/approach: This study utilized 11 HSC pilot sites in the USA (eight sites) and Canada (three sites). The evaluation question was…

Active Learning in Maths and Science (ALMS) was a six-month face-to-face professional development program for middle school maths and science teachers carried out between June and November, 2010 in two Indian states. ALMS's theory of action is grounded in the belief that collaborative learning serves as a "gateway" to learner-centered…

This article reports a study on the responses of a group of 49 Western Australian middle school teachers to a year-long professional learning experience, entitled the "Making the Links" Project. This project was established to help teachers of various learning areas adapt their practices to significant changes in the educational context.…

The purpose of this qualitative single case study was to describe current instructional policies and practices in a one-day treatment center in North Carolina for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). The following research questions guided the study: (1) What are the curriculum policies, practices, and philosophies of day…