This article seeks to extend current understandings of educational action research, particularly how teachers' actions, talk and ongoing relatings can serve as a vehicle for transforming their learning, including under current global conditions of more performative accountability. The research is grounded in Noffke's (2009) understandings of the…

This article describes an example of inter-professional action research conducted by teachers and university-based researchers/teacher educators in a vocational college in the Netherlands. The research was aimed at the professional learning of the teachers on their pedagogical approach to a new curriculum initiative. Despite a difficult context in…

The purpose of this study is to describe Finnish and Estonian preschool teachers' thoughts on the problems they encounter in their pedagogical work in the preschool context. The study involved interviews with 80 preschool teachers (40 in each country). The theoretical framework of the study is based on quality as a pedagogical phenomenon, whereby…

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative case study was to identify and describe the strategies that California public high school principals utilized to develop a growth mindset in classroom teachers. Methodology: This qualitative case study used interviews from 12 high school principals to gain an understanding for how they supported a growth…

The purpose of this study was to explore secondary English teachers' perceptions of the benefits and challenges of professional learning communities (PLCs), with particular focus on what they considered to be characteristics of effective PLCs. Through a qualitative study in grounded theory using individual interviews among a subgroup of ten…

This article reports on a qualitative study exploring teaching self-efficacy (defined as a belief in capability to execute teaching-related tasks) in a higher education context. It is based on the views of 12 early career academics (ECAs) employed at Charles Sturt University who were interviewed to learn more about how their teaching self-efficacy…

Alternative instructional and curricular models are regarded as more comprehensive and suitable approaches to providing quality physical education (Kulinna 2008; Lund and Tannehill 2010; McKenzie and Kahan 2008; Metzler 2011; Quay and Peters 2008). The purpose of this study was to describe the impact of the Early Steps Physical Education…

Background: There are approximately 52,000 teacher-coaches coaching 750,000 high school student-athletes in Canada. Despite this large population, Canadian high school teacher-coaches remain relatively unstudied. High school coaches in Canada are often asked to coach sports with which they are unfamiliar, and because they are not required to…

Professional learning communities (PLCs) have gained attention as an effective practice for supporting teachers and developing students since their inception in the early 1990s yet there is still work to be done in developing a blueprint for effective implementation in a pervasive culture of isolation and resistance, especially in secondary…

Background: Physical education has long been caught in a time of "innovation without change". Yet, despite a wealth of pedagogical innovations and policies, which encourage a reconsideration of the "traditional pedagogy", teachers rarely move beyond the honeymoon period of implementation. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is…

This qualitative study of three Head Start Centers analyzed surveys, interviews, and focus group data to determine how education coordinators, teachers, and teacher assistants believed professional development activities could support teamwork at their centers. The researchers sorted data related to teamwork into four categories: knowledge and…

This study sought to answer the question: "To what extent do prior beliefs about and experiences of teaching and learning influence the instructional practices of new independent school teachers," who are generally not required to have any formal pedagogical training or hold teacher certification prior to beginning full-time employment.…

This report describes a problem based learning project focusing on the cultural elements of a high performing school district. Current literature on school district culture provides numerous cultural elements that are present in high performing school districts. With the current climate in education placing pressure on school districts to perform…

There is growing empirical evidence that instructional coaching can help teachers transfer their learning from professional trainings (e.g., new strategies) to classroom practice and that coaching promotes greater collaboration and reflection among teachers. At the same time, however, research on the effectiveness of particular coaching models and…

A recent study conducted by the National Staff Development Council (NSDC) has found that teachers who participate in high quality professional learning communities (PLC) are provided with on-going professional development that elicit focus on learning, a collaborative culture, collective inquiry, action orientation, commitment to continuous…