In school systems around the world, there is an increasing focus on students' academic achievement. The challenge of how to improve schools is an important issue for all levels in the school system. However, a central question of both practical and theoretical relevance is how it is possible to understand why (or why not) school-development…

This article reports on a two-year study of one principal's professional learning practices in "Transform," a professional learning program in Edmonton Catholic Schools, Alberta, Canada. Transform was designed to be a bottom-up, morally-oriented professional learning approach in which principals and teachers worked as partners on…

Around the world, governments and the higher education sector are being asked to become more accountable for the money they spend on research funding. Research quality measurement exercises, such as the Excellence in Research for Australia initiative, use a number of agreed indicators to measure, analyse and report on various institution and…

Research projects are worth doing. They raise student interest in science and offer experience in authentic scientific practices. Implementing independent research projects among students requires the teacher to be skilled not only in scientific research but also in project management. Teachers' duties include--but are not limited…

Design and problem-solving is a key learning focus in technology education and remains a distinguishing factor that separates it from other subject areas. This research investigated how two expert designers considered experiences with hard materials contributed to their learning design and problem-solving with these materials. The research project…

Vocational education and training (VET) systems differ internationally regarding how practitioners are required to hold qualifications to teach, or undertake continuing professional development. Few require the undertaking of research into professional practice, although in some cases there are strategies to encourage and enhance this. This…

Interest in supporting undergraduate research programs continues to grow within academic librarianship. This article presents how undergraduate research program coordinators perceive and value library support of their programs. Undergraduate research coordinators from a variety of institutions were surveyed on which elements of libraries and…

The paper draws on a series of Australian Research Council (ARC) projects aimed at understanding better the process of doctoral examination. The early phase focussed on the Australian doctorate, which functions without a Viva, while the later phase was concerned with comparing the earlier findings with analysis of the United Kingdom (UK) and New…

The School of Engineering, Mathematics, and Science (SEMS) at Robert Morris University (RMU) was awarded a five-year grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to fund scholarships to 21 academically talented but financially challenged students majoring in the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Each…

As academic libraries struggle to remain relevant when technological advancements and electronic resources threaten to make them obsolete, libraries are learning to re-invent themselves by molding and adapting staff skills to cultivate innovative outreach programs. The Science Outreach Committee of the John D. MacArthur Campus library at Florida…

A PAL (Peer-Assisted Learning) project supported research that focused on e-learning and Web 2.0 technologies as part of a pedagogical approach in the context of a tertiary institution. This project responded to a call for a rejuvenation of conventional approaches to pedagogy while teaching an early childhood unit in a large Australian university.…

Education is increasingly being framed by a competence mindset; the value of knowledge lies much more in competence performativity and innovation than in simply knowing. Reaching such competency in areas such as astronomy and physics has long been known to be challenging. The movement from everyday conceptions of the world around us to a…

Inaugurated in 2013, this collective research programme aims to construct an international mapping of the history of education that accounts for recent developments in the field. Our goal is to create a current and retrospective assessment of the discipline's institutional grounding and of the knowledge produced by its practitioners,…

Two mural projects in Brunei offer insight into the specific and universal aspects of public art education and community art making. This article describes how the author used his initiative and experience as a muralist to plan and implement two community art research projects in Bandar Seri Begwan, the capital of Brunei Darussalam. A premise of…

The Ministry of Education has set the target of 100% of New Zealand schools to be "mostly" inclusive by 2014. But what are the essential elements of inclusion? This paper explores essential core elements that allow inclusion to flourish. Based on an extensive time in the field as part of a year-long doctoral research project, these…