In each issue of "The Learning Professional," Joellen Killion explores a recent research study to help practitioners understand the impact of particular professional learning practices on student outcomes. In this issue, Killion explores the study presented in "The Effect of Teacher Coaching on Instruction and Achievement: A…

Online college courses are a rapidly expanding feature of higher education, yet little research identifies their effects. Using an instrumental variables approach and data from DeVry University, this study finds that, on average, online course-taking reduces student learning by one-third to one-quarter of a standard deviation compared to…

The purpose of this study was to explore the perspectives of students regarding what was effective about the way in which the online lectures were structured in an upper level online organizational communication course. Student evaluations from 27 students were used, with questions focused upon the structure of lectures in the online course as…

Within the scientific literature there has been no examination of teacher preparation regarding classroom and behavior management skills comparing educators who obtained traditional teacher certification through a university-based education program and those who obtained alternative certification. Consequently, the goal of this study was to assess…

Colleges and universities have seen considerable enrollment growth in online courses during the past decade. However, online modalities are not optimal for all subject areas or students. There is growing interest in hybrid, blended, and flipped instruction as a way to incorporate the best of different delivery methods. This study investigates and…

Research has called into question the suitability of fully-online instruction for certain teacher preparation courses. Methodology coursework, in particular, has been singled out in research as ill-suited to online instruction. Recent research, for example, involving second language (L2) teacher candidates has demonstrated that aspiring teachers…

Co-teaching has become a popular concept in the field of education, especially as related to special education. Students with exceptionalities in co-taught classes have been found to improve in academics, behavior, social skills, and self-esteem as compared to those taught solely in a special education classroom. There are five main forms of…

Teachers spend most of their time in school in classrooms, and their instruction and teaching practices may be affected by classroom context such as class size. We examine whether teacher effects interact with classroom context such as class size. Specifically, we seek to determine whether teacher effects are more pronounced in small classes than…

This study examined the extent to which mothers' trust toward the classroom teacher of their child in first grade is related to observed teaching practices in Finland and Estonia. Sixty-six teachers (32 in Finland, 34 in Estonia) were observed using the Early Childhood Classroom Observation Measure (ECCOM; Stipek & Byler, 2004). Mothers in…

This study investigates the impact of written group feedback, versus audio feedback, based upon four student satisfaction measures in the online classroom environment. Undergraduate students in the control group were provided both individual written feedback and group written feedback, while undergraduate students in the experimental treatment…

We investigated some of the key features of effective active learning by comparing the outcomes of three different methods of implementing active-learning exercises in a majors introductory biology course. Students completed activities in one of three treatments: discussion, writing, and discussion + writing. Treatments were rotated weekly between…

This study aimed to determine if pre-internship teacher education students' participation in service-learning activities in K-12 classrooms would significantly affect their teachers' sense of efficacy (TSE). A secondary focus sought to determine if one type of service-learning activity (e.g., whole-class instruction) would affect teacher efficacy…

Few online high schools report requiring online education for their teachers, and few programs exist to prepare teachers to teach online (Smith, Clark, & Blomeyer, 2005). Professional development for online teachers continues to be a concern, and evaluative research that examines the effectiveness of various types of professional development is…

Using data from the 2003-04 Schools and Staffing Survey, the authors studied how various aspects of teacher preparation affect the retention of new teachers--specifically mathematics and science teachers. They found that the preparation of new mathematics and science teachers differs from that of other new teachers in various respects, but factors…

This study investigated the effect that varying degrees of faculty self-promotion had on 322 student evaluations. As high student evaluations are correlated with greater student learning, it is imperative that we assess how faculty's presentation style is perceived by students so as to enhance instruction and therefore student learning. Students…