Faculty development is often under-emphasized in community colleges (or 2-year colleges; 2YCs). This research reports on data collected from a National Science Foundation (NSF) project involving 2YC geoscience faculty as "change agents." We studied 22 geoscience faculty involved in a NSF funded longitudinal project that focused on three…

This paper focuses on a current practice piece on professional development for university lecturers, transformative learning, dialogism and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education. Its main goals are to identify the key characteristics that allow STEM educators to experiment with the usage of non-formal education…

This paper reports on a multi-institutional project using reflection and collaboration to enable one-to-one music teachers to improve their professional skills and foster deep learning in music students. The benefits of reflection and collaboration in student learning and teacher development are reported on in depth within higher education. Less…

This study applied the stages of transformative learning to faculty perceptions and application of best practices to online learning. Research questions included: Can transformative learning theory constructs be used to identify potential barriers in faculty development and delivery of online instruction?; How does the stage of transformative…

This article presents a discussion of how criticality is constructed and implemented for English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher development in Nepal. The authors draw on Freire's (1970) notion of conscientization to discuss how Nepali EFL teachers develop critical awareness in incorporating local sociopolitical issues in their lessons.…

University experts typically serve as knowledge sources for teacher learning. Experts in China are no exception. Nevertheless, minimal attention has been focused on knowledge flow between experts and teachers, and its contribution to teacher knowledge development. Drawing on the perspective of knowledge process across boundaries, this qualitative…

This study explores how two language teachers constructed and reconstructed their professional identities through their action research (AR) facilitated by university researchers in China. Informed by the theory of 'community of practice', the findings of the study show that AR exerted a transformative impact on the teachers' identity development.…

As pedagogy experts, teacher educators should lead the charge for improved teaching and learning, but are under-utilized pedagogy resources in liberal arts universities. In this paper, the collaborators, one a teacher education assistant professor and the other an associate professor of art history, identify critical friendship group approaches…

Policy and research have been advocating the importance of teachers in achieving equity and teachers are called to act as agents of social justice. This issue remains central to the development of a post-apartheid South Africa, where a need for reconciliation and healing still dominates the society. Such a landscape requires adequate support…

The past 20 years or so have seen increasing concern that our schooling system, set up for a different age, is not able to prepare today's learners for the fast-changing world they will live and work in. Strong arguments for radical change--not gradual improvement--have been made, from a number of quarters. There is some consensus about the broad…

This article describes the results of a three-day professional development workshop for newer teachers (with less than six years of experience) and more experienced teachers trained in design of skills-based, year-long themes with rich interdisciplinary connections at Charles River School (Massachusetts). For the three days, the school was buzzing…

This paper elaborates on a number of key criticisms of Mezirow's transformative learning theory as well as providing arguments that validate it. Our paper exemplifies how Mezirow's theory can help adult educators and prospective school teachers understand that social structures and belief systems can influence student learning, that learners make…

Transforming Writing was a two-year action research project, sponsored by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, which developed a model for the teaching and learning of writing that embedded formative assessment. This report evaluates to what extent the model of writing developed by the teachers during the research period impacted on children's writing…

Continuing professional development (CPD) of teachers is a neglected area of teacher development in South Africa. The introduction of a new national curriculum in the post-apartheid era presents enormous challenges for teachers. CPD initiatives in South Africa thus far have been fragmented, diluted and have had little direct influence on teachers'…

Rhetoric about "all children" abounds in public education, yet many aspects of schooling continues to marginalize large numbers of students. Despite good intentions, the assumptions, attitudes, and conditions that can preclude students' success are often invisible to educational policymakers and practitioners. These students are not…