The importance of collective teacher efficacy (CTE) has been increasingly emphasised, but few studies have focused on how it can be enhanced. Since CTE is assumed to be related to factors that differ between schools, the belief-shaping sources of CTE could be related to principals' beliefs of their efficacy. Moreover, a school climate that…

This study is based on the hypothesis that group cohesion and efficacy have significant effects on the academic performance of individuals in online (virtual) education environments no less than in-person education environments. To that end, this study explores the effectiveness of group activities in a virtual classroom environment using VC…

Movements have been the driving force of social change through most of human history. Yet despite the important impacts that movements had in the past that led to a more just present, most Americans generally hold low opinions of movements. The authors see this as a major failing of history education. The authors argue for a need to center the…

Social policies that criminalize students can create a school environment that pushes immigrant students out of school and into immigration enforcement agencies' crosshairs. The school-to-prison pipeline is a well-documented phenomenon rooted in institutional racism and affects marginalized immigrant groups uniquely. The study aims to dissect the…

The following study was framed around a simple question: when a group of people is engaged in video conferencing, "what sort of things can they do to improve their group dynamics?" This is an important question for current and future educational practice because web-based video conferencing has increasingly become an important tool for…

This dissertation investigates the following research question within an informal games-based learning environment: "How do students construct scientific ideas within a games-based learning environment?" In this study, middle school youth role-played as scientists recruited by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) to stop the Raven Virus…

In this paper I will explain what I see as some of the core attributes of "Communities of Innovation," or communities fostering collaborative creativity, and what we have learned from the research literature about each attribute. There is a critical need to design learning environments that foster creative thinking in students,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe a symbolic-interpretative research on the leadership culture and its subcultures in one unified comprehensive school in Finland. Design/methodology/approach: The research is a phenomenological, qualitative case study. Its methodology is based on triangulation. Findings: The leadership culture of…

This study researched 120 college students and professors to test the mediation of group efficacy between perceived autonomy support and self-determinism. The study provided surveys to students in eight different classes. Studying multiple classes offered an opportunity to understand the model more effectively and in a broader scope. The classes…

This paper provides a media analysis of three interrelated sets of newspaper articles dealing with youth, schooling and violence. Understanding the media as a dominant and powerful cultural text that creates the realities it describes, the paper takes a critical view of the 'standpoint' of recent media representations of the Cronulla (Sydney,…

This paper uses an ecological perspective to explore the risk factors associated with bullying behaviors among a representative sample of adolescents aged 11-14 (n = 9816, mean = 12.88, s = 0.9814). Data derived from the "Health Behavior in School Children: WHO Cross-National Survey" were used to model the relationship between bullying and media…

As secondary educators seek strategies to support reluctant and disengaged learners, a greater understanding of the learning sciences (how people learn) becomes more important. This article examines the emerging knowledge base on the learning sciences and investigates how what has been discoveries about how and why people learn have practical…

Social loafing research has spanned several decades and fields of study. Research has provided support for both the existence of social loafing and its antecedents within the laboratory, classroom, and work place. Studies regarding the perceptions of social loafing and its effects in the online learning environment, however, are largely…

This article explores student perceptions of social task development in an online group project and poses recommendations for implementation of group projects. Qualitative methods were used to analyze student perceptions of social task development in online group project. Respect, "being nice," follow the rules/follow the leader, communication,…

The Motivation of Teachers to Assume the Role of Cooperating Teacher This study explored a phenomenological understanding of the motivation and influences that cause experienced teachers to assume pedagogical training of student teachers through the role of cooperating teacher. The research question guiding the study was what motivates teachers to…