Rivers2Lake helps teachers learn to provide watershed educational experiences for students through a summer institute followed by mentoring. Teacher focus groups were conducted to investigate the impact of mentoring, as well as toward understanding what was influential in bringing about those impacts. Mentoring impacted teachers in affective ways…

This paper is part of a study in England that concluded in the latter half of 2009. The study looks at academic identity through the lens of those lecturers delivering higher education business programmes in further education colleges, and their subsequent perceptions and definitions of an academic. The study identified that academic identity is a…

In part one of this paper, Stoszkowski and Collins showed that shared online blogs were a useful tool to structure and support the informal learning of a cohort of final year undergraduate sports coaching students. The aim of the present study was to offer insight into student coaches' perceptions of their use and experiences of structured group…

This article explores first-year students' motivation for attending peer-facilitated learning (PFL) sessions at a University of Technology, and how they benefit from it. Studies have shown better academic performance for students attending PFL sessions; however, little attention has been dedicated to questioning what else outside of subject…

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the shared, lived experience of elementary teachers' participation in Edmodo as a community of practice. The theoretical framework guiding this research included Lave and Wenger's (1991) community of practice theory and Bandura's social learning theory (1977, 1984) which explained how…

Diverse perspectives are required to address the technological problems facing our world. Although women perform as well as their male counterparts in math and science prior to entering college, the numbers of women students entering and completing engineering programmes are far below their representation in the workforce. This paper reports on a…

In order to be effective, professional development efforts are most promising if they are context specific and focus on supporting collaboration. Increasingly, schools initiate professional development with small groups of teachers, with the intention that the effects of the initiatives will spill over to other school personnel. This study follows…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider an expanded vision of professional development for embedding education for sustainability (EfS) in a higher education institution. Through an exploration of a community of practice at the University of Tasmania, this paper examines how collaborative peer learning can sustain and promote continued…

The purpose of this qualitative Action Research Study was to describe eight elementary English Language Arts (ELA) teachers' perceptions of a Professional Learning Community (PLC). The teacher-participants' opinions about the PLC were used to improve the existing PLC to promote a more reflective and collaborative environment where ELA teachers…

Teacher turnover is a critical issue for the public education community because it influences student performance, school climate, and employee morale. In a large urban school district in the northeastern United States, the turnover rate has been high; teacher morale is low, and teacher participation in the school community is lacking. The purpose…

The purpose of this article is to investigate preservice teachers' (PSTs') perceptions about the features that facilitated their learning and engagement in asynchronous online discussions. Participants included 12 PSTs enrolled in an online classroom management course at a public university in New England. Using constructivist grounded theory…

As instructional leadership involves attempts to understand and improve complex systems, this study explored principals' perceptions regarding possible contributions of systems thinking to instructional leadership. Based on a qualitative analysis, systems thinking was perceived by middle and high school principals to contribute to the following…

This study used qualitative case study methods to investigate how a particular community of practice located in a Midwest university influenced the M.Ed./PDS graduates' perceptions of working with diverse students. We use the term multicultural education to refer to the orientations and practices of the M.Ed. program and how the graduates thought…

This paper presents a study grounded in the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework using qualitative content analysis and focus group interviews in an effort to identify aspects of learning presence in a blended learning course. Research has suggested that the CoI framework may need additional emphasis based on the roles of strategic learners in…

The present research provides insights into the different forms of adaptation strategies employed by international graduate students to overcome the challenges faced in the academic writing practices and gain access to their disciplinary communities of practice at Master's level. Qualitative data was collected through semi-structured in-depth…