Eighteen special education teachers explored one prominent example of three-dimensional virtual worlds, namely Second Life. This study aimed to (a) determine their perception of the effectiveness of a systematic 7-Step Virtual Worlds Teacher Training workshop in terms of enabling them to make informed decisions about the usability of virtual…

The impetus for this study is grounded in a strategic decision by management to measure readiness for university education as part of an early alert and referral system. The motivation for this project is also rooted in literature that points out that the South African higher education system faces challenges with students entering the system…

The purpose of this study is to determine the levels of high school mathematics teachers in achieving mathematics instruction via computer algebra systems and the reflections of these practices in the classroom. Three high school mathematics teachers employed at different types of school participated in the study. In the beginning of this…

Challenge the Gap (CtG) is a school collaboration programme designed by Challenge Partners that aims to break the link between disadvantage and attainment. The main components of CtG are: (1) after-school workshops drawing on published research and evidenced practice; (2) focused in-school interventions with a selected cohort of disadvantaged…

This study was the first year of a two-year project which applied a program theory-driven approach to evaluating the impact of teachers' professional development interventions on students' learning by using a mix of methods, qualitative inquiry, and quasi-experimental design. The current study was to show the results of using the method of…

The Tribal Marine Science Workshop has run annually since 2010. The workshop takes place at the Kasitsna Bay Laboratory, owned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and operated by NOAA and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, near Seldovia, Alaska. It is hosted by the Seldovia Village Tribe, sponsored by the Bureau of…

In this article we share the impact of a training program (Positive Space I and Positive Space II) on pre-service teachers' understandings of and abilities to create safe spaces for Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgendered and Queering/Questioning (LGBTQ) youth and allies in our teacher-education program and in schools. Research has demonstrated…

This paper shares the outcomes derived from research conducted with the participants of an interdisciplinary workshop entitled "The Drama in School Leadership" that employs applied drama processes and analysis in order to understand educational ethics. Participants explore high-stakes scenarios in school leadership by taking on roles in…

The paper presents a Sino-Finnish teaching initiative, including the design and experiences of a series of pedagogical workshops implemented at the Aalto-Tongji Design Factory (DF), Shanghai, China, and the experimentation plans collected from the 54 attending professors and teachers. The workshops aimed to encourage trying out interdisciplinary…

Many studies have highlighted the capacity of community arts programs to re-engage those young people considered at-risk of disconnection from future education and/or employment. "Evolution" is an artist-guided visual arts program established for young people challenged by mental health and social issues that aims to foster re-engagement…

Despite a general consensus on the educational effectiveness of inquiry-based instruction, the enacted type of inquiry in science classrooms remains debatable in many countries including Saudi Arabia. This study compared guided-inquiry based teachers' professional development to teacher-directed approach in supporting Saudi students to understand…

Study group meetings (SGMs) are voluntary-attendance peer-led team-learning workshops that supplement introductory biology lectures at a selective liberal arts college. While supporting all students' engagement with lecture material, specific aims are to improve the success of underrepresented minority (URM) students and those with weaker…

This paper examines our use of knowledge-creation activity as a way of developing evidence-informed practice among a learning community of 36 early years practitioners in one London borough. It also seeks to illustrate how we approached the idea of measuring evidence use and our engagement with, and adapted use of, two separate measurement scales:…

We evaluated the effects of a summer reading intervention with a sample of low-income Black and Hispanic students who were struggling readers. In the summer before their 2nd- or 3rd-grade school year, 14 rising 2nd graders and 18 rising 3rd graders received 15 hr of a scripted, explicit phonics-based program in dyads from credentialed elementary…

The "train-the-trainer" model successfully created volunteer educators in insect identification. Intensive training programs prepared 71 individuals during 2 1/2-day (20 hour) training sessions. Trainees included university Extension faculty (13), agricultural professionals (13), and certified Master Gardeners (45). The sessions were…