The Saint Mary's University first-year student success program was developed by its strategic enrollment management (SEM) group to enhance support for first-year students. As an integrated program that implements student success modules into the first-year core curriculum, this initiative has proven to be effective in enhancing student engagement…

Some researchers in mathematics education have studied the decisions professors make during classroom context activities. These decisions are explained by several factors: 1) how professors conceive the structure of mathematics; 2) what they know about the mathematical content; and, 3) what they consider the best didactic strategies to improve…

The purpose of this study was to explore how Responsive Classroom's Morning Meetings led by trained teachers (N = 9) improved students' (N = 85) sense of belonging in their classrooms in a public K-5 elementary school in New York State. This eight-week mixed methods study, conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, used improvement science in two…

Instructional Leadership is one of the most researched and discussed leadership practices, but most school leaders don't know where to begin or how to balance this role with all of their other responsibilities. Peter DeWitt's "Instructional Leadership" provides practical tools for delivering lasting improvement through small, manageable…

This article focuses on techniques used in professional development to strengthen the community of faculty in FYE courses, while aiming at improving the classroom experience for today's learners, specifically those related to providing content, building community, and strengthening understanding. To provide a solid foundation, creating a course…

Knowledge is a valuable resource that fosters innovation and growth in organizations. There are two forms of knowledge: explicit knowledge or documented information and tacit knowledge or undocumented information which resides in individuals' minds. There is heightened interest in knowledge management and specifically the transfer of tacit…

This article is based on a study focusing on how structured learning communities can promote reflective awareness and professional development, through collaborative analysis of professional experience. As participant-observer, the researcher used recorded observations as well as individual participants' reflective writing as data. Of importance…

A literacy coach describes the various components of her work and how they combine to help teachers provide more effective literacy instruction. Walk-throughs, literacy team meetings, formal coaching, professional learning communities, and regular meetings with the principal enable her to understand what teachers need and then assist teachers in…

The purpose of this study was to explore the role that a collaborative teaching approach, referred to as a community of practice (CoP), had on a team of four second grade teachers' implementation of a science-based interdisciplinary curriculum. Data was collected in the form of extensive observation notes gathered over 10-weeks of twice weekly…

Purpose: The aim of this study is to explore whether and to what degree community development of teacher teams takes place and how community development comes about, that is, what community-building efforts teacher teams undertake. Design/methodology/approach: Using a multi method approach, quantitative and qualitative data were gathered from…

Health science students like students in many disciplines exhibit difficulty with transferring content from one course to another. For example, the problem explored in this study occurred when overlapping concepts were presented in introductory biology and chemistry courses, but students could not transfer the concepts to the other disciplinary…

This report identifies the concrete practices that set exemplary principals apart from their peers, exploring how they assemble the strongest-possible staff and foster a culture where teachers--and their students--are supported to success. The researchers conducted an in-depth analysis of data sets from two studies conducted by New Leaders from…

Teaching is often characterized as an isolated activity, yet opportunities for teachers to work and learn together in schools are increasing. Underlying this shift is the view that as teachers work on new practices and teaching challenges together, they will express varied perspectives, reveal different teaching styles and experiences, and…