Competency-based education has become a defining characteristic of higher social work education. This movement provides ample opportunity for students to have transformative learning experiences that will prepare them for professional practice. Yet, scholarly work on competency-based education runs the risk of overlooking the important…

In this paper, we attend to the pedagogical role of reflection within action research practices. We discuss educational considerations of the complex process of improving curriculum, while undertaking collaborative research in which reflection within the iterative process of action research became pedagogical. We draw upon our reflections from an…

This article considers the conditions, possibilities, and challenges of creating what is referred to here as a 'reflective space' within a higher education course for principals. It is informed by the findings of a qualitative research inquiry conducted in the interests of enhancing the principals' learning and professional praxis and the…

With school budgets at their tightest and a wealth of choices for teacher Continuing Professional Development (CPD), how do senior leaders make the right decisions on training which will deliver real change to classroom practice? CPD must go beyond adding content and resources to an already overwhelmed curriculum but also consider how teachers…

This study explored the use of critical reflection blogs to integrate civic-mindedness into an executive education program at a large public university in the south Atlantic region of the United States. Although there is a robust literature on the use of blogs for critical reflection in degree programs, far less attention has been given to…

Many continuing adult and professional education programs have heeded the call of what Packer and Greco-Brooks (1998) refer to as the "ontological work of school," or helping "change the kinds of person their students become" (p. 134). This new "ontological" work attempts to incorporate critical pedagogy to stimulate critical self-reflection and…

With the introduction of free primary education throughout Africa over the past 20 years, the demand for more qualified teachers has grown tremendously (Nilsson, 2003). Mainstream teacher education programs, typically consisting of 1-3 years of residence in teachers' colleges and some form of practice teaching, are unable to meet this…

This article reports on part of a wider study in which a group of teachers opted for a new model of continuing professional development (CPD) that was offered by one local authority (LA) in Scotland. In collaboration with the LA, the teachers selected the topic of critical literacy and the critical pedagogies that develop from a critical literacy…

The purpose of this article is to advocate for, engage with and disseminate to readers the concepts of teacher self-study as an important aspect of lifelong physical education teacher learning and education. Self-study has an important role to play by providing context and real-world understanding for physical education teachers who feel…

These proceedings on the theme, Adult Education Research: Shaping the Future, contain 52 papers. The papers are: "Virtual Adult Education" (W. Archer and D. Conrad); "Reversal Theory Approach to Adult Learning and Education" (M. Atleo); "Objectiver L'Action" (A. Balleux et al.); "Cultural Constructions of…

An evidence-based connection between adult educator professional development (PD) and learner outcomes is difficult to document, yet there is an intuitive assumption that professional development is linked to better teaching and learning outcomes. The field appears to be shifting away from one-shot PD to practitioner engagement in sustained,…