Short-term or "one shot" professional development experiences are sometimes deemed less effective because they lack mechanisms for deep and ongoing engagement. Using the music conference as an example, I outline a simple framework on how music teachers might nevertheless use short-term professional development experiences as an impetus…

Teachers working in under-resourced contexts struggle to provide psychosocial support to learners. In this article, we focus on 10 teacher participants' reflections of how a transformative action research process enhanced their collective capacity for initiating sustainable learner support. A linked participatory action learning and action…

Leaders in the healthcare sector, frequently find themselves attempting to improve service provision by adopting evidence based-best practices, as requested by policy. Notwithstanding, change implementation is often not straight forward. As an insider-turned-researcher I initiated a Maltese National Healthcare Service-wide doctoral inquiry into…

Developing K-12 science teachers' understandings of nature of science (NOS) and scientific inquiry (SI) continues to be a major goal of science education reform. There is consensus among science teacher educators that developing students' NOS and SI understandings is vital to the development of a scientifically literate citizenry. However, two…

This paper describes a method of analysing teacher growth in the context of science education. It focuses on the identification of pathways in the development of secondary school teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) by the use of the interconnected model of teachers' professional growth (IMTPG).The teachers (n = 12) participated in a…

The objectives of this research were: 1) to investigate the elements and indicators of collaborative leadership of primary school administrators, 2) to explore the existing situation and required situation of collaborative leadership of primary school administrators, 3) to develop a program to enhance collaborative leadership of primary school…

To prepare teacher candidates to become social justice advocates, teacher educators have to critically reflect on their curriculum and teaching strategies to examine whether they are "acting on their beliefs" about diversity and social justice. In this article the author examines teacher candidates' perceptions of how their experiences…

In 2010, California's then-governor Schwarzenegger signed Senate Bill 1440, called the "Student Transfer Achievement Reform Act" (Padilla, 2010), into law. This bill mandated that the state's 112 community colleges (CCCs) develop a new type of associate degree, an "associate degree for transfer," that specifically prepares a…

This article presents an interview with Sir John Daniel outgoing President and CEO of the Commonwealth of Learning. Sir John Daniel's term as President and Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) ended on May 31, 2012. Readers of "Distance Education" will know of Sir John's work at the Tele-universite (Directeur des…

The Arkansas Leadership Academy (ALA) was established in 1991 and is a nationally recognized statewide partnership that includes 15 universities, 9 professional associations, the Arkansas Departments of Education, Higher Education, Career Education, and several other government and business agencies. In 2011, there were 49 partners involved…

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of students and faculty involved in a living-learning first-year experience program at a small, liberal arts institution about developing skills for life-long learning including critical thinking, written communication, and reflection and engagement across disciplines. The researcher…

In 2009-10, New Leaders for New Schools partnered with the Perspectives Charter School Network in Chicago to pilot an innovative leadership development program for principals. The program is part of the Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC) initiative, which was created by New Leaders in 2006 to identify, reward, and share effective…

Networks aiming for fundamental changes bring together a variety of actors who are part and parcel of a problematic context. These system innovation projects need to be accompanied by a monitoring and evaluation approach that supports and maintains reflexivity to be able to deal with uncertainties and conflicts while challenging current practices…

The purpose of this study was to increase motivation in 7th grade students. Four teacher researchers examined the change in motivational levels as a result of choice strategies. They gathered data from four different classes, 101 students in all, to track levels of motivation. They monitored their levels of observable behavioral patterns with a…

In recent years, a growing political emphasis has been placed upon the development of transformative assessment-driven reform in schools. There is global consensus on the value of assessment activities that are carefully designed to be consistent with desired learning outcomes, and which coherently connect learning theory, the curriculum,…