This case study describes the rationale, development, and functioning of the Elders Learning Community, a nonprofit home and community service program that served older adults in Richmond, California. The program applied a blend of self-directed learning, learner-centered and significant learning approaches, and features of a member-driven…

This qualitative study examined the narrative of community college educators during their journey to embrace a playful teaching practice. Data collection included the narratives produced within a Community of Practice, focus groups with both students and educators, and document analysis. Data analysis revealed six themes. The first theme, origins…

Innovative classroom-tested approaches to cross-cultural communication--diversity, equity, and inclusion--and personal and professional development are featured. Readers can explore 10 teaching creations debuted at the 2023 "My Favorite Assignment" sessions at the Association for Business Communication Annual International Conference…

This article explores the meeting of two approaches towards philosophy and education: the philosophy for children (P4C) approach advocated by Lipman and others, and Schmid's (2000a) philosophical concept of" Lebenskunst" (the art of living). Schmid explores the concept of the beautiful or good life by asking what is necessary for each…

English learners in EFL contexts where grammar-based instruction is still dominant often lack opportunities to use the target language both within and outside the classroom. In 2010, we initiated a club-based approach to facilitate students' learning beyond the classroom. It focused on meaningful communication, authentic tasks, student agency,…

This article focuses on the methodological use of reflective narratives from discourses and activities of an experienced primary teacher as evidence of her professional identity. The teacher's reflective narratives emerge from her participation in a 3-year developmental and research project, Learning Communities in Mathematics, conducted at the…

Teachers' efficacy beliefs are critical to improving student learning, but we have yet to fully understand how these beliefs develop. The prevailing model of teachers' efficacy development emerges from cognitive theories, but sociocultural theories may add insights to modeling the impact of teachers' school contexts. This case study takes a…

This quasi-experimental, nonequivalent control group study compared the impact of Ennis's (1989) mixed instructional methodology to the immersion methodology on the development of critical thinking in a multicultural, undergraduate senior-year learning community. A convenience sample of students (n =171) were selected from four sections of a…

Despite continuing interest in teacher reflection and an extensive body of research on peer assessment, the interaction between these areas has not been sufficiently investigated. This study on reflection and peer feedback is part of an ongoing action research addressing the design and pedagogical model of a theoretically oriented teacher training…

Despite the prevalence of professional development in schools and the variability in its implementation, little research has been conducted on how professional development makes its way into the classroom. Even when teachers participate in high-quality professional development, there remains a large and often undocumented variability in how…