Since 2001, the Graduate School of Political Management (GSPM) at The George Washington University (GW) has managed a cooperative education program with a network of nine respected universities in South America. This "governance and political management" program serves working professionals in the civil service, political party offices,…

Dynamic Ecological Analysis (DEA) is a model of practice which increases a teams' efficacy by enabling the development of more effective interventions through collaboration and collective reflection. This process has proved to be useful in: a) clarifying thinking and problem-solving, b) transferring knowledge and thinking to significant parties,…

Researchers have long lamented the lack of research regarding the preparation of school leaders. In response, we offer lessons about school and university partnerships from exemplary professional development school (PDS) research to inform collaborative efforts for leadership preparation. We conducted an extensive literature review of 250 studies…

In their earlier work, the authors explained how the co-construction perspective has been heuristic in the study of organizational change and educational reform, often providing more nuanced analyses and findings than "technical-rational" models that dominated the field previously (Datnow, Hubbard, & Mehan, 2002). In framing organizational change…

This case study examined a joint assessment and allocation panel set up to inform local implementation of the UK Government's policy of integrating children's services, particularly the introduction of a Common Assessment Framework and the lead practitioner role. It brought together agencies serving one community. Professionals and parents agreed…

In this era of high-stakes testing, teachers are often required to follow a standards-based, standardized curriculum, which can be constraining for English to speakers of other languages (ESOL) and mainstream teachers who are trying to meet the needs of English language learners. Despite the challenges presented by such curricula, this study found…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of competitive Student Team Achievement Division (STAD), non-competitive STAD, and traditional learning on chemistry learning and learning perceptions. Sample, design and methods: By adopting the STAD approach, this study examined 144 nursing students at a five-year junior…

In this project, the researchers set out to develop a protocol to measure team behaviors in engineering education. The objective of this paper is the result of the attempt by the researchers to observe teams in the engineering classroom. The focus is the development of the protocol to measure team behavior and lessons learned from implementing…

The purpose of this study was to identify, describe and interpret group processes occurring in tutorials in problem-based learning. Another aim was to investigate if a combination of Steiner's (Steiner, I. D. (1972). "Group process and productivity". New York: Academic Press.) theory of group work and Bion's (Bion, W. R. (1961). "Experiences in…

This article profiles Christopher Benfey, 53--an art critic for Slate, a poet, and a prolific literary essayist for such venues as "The New York Times Book Review, The New Republic," and "The New York Review of Books." His latest book, "A Summer of Hummingbirds: Love, Art, and Scandal in the Intersecting Worlds of Emily…

In an effort to better understand learning teams, this study examines the effects of shared mental models on team and individual performance. The results indicate that each team's shared mental model changed significantly over the time that subjects participated in team-based learning activities. The results also showed that the shared mental…

Open and sustained discussions in heterogeneous collaborative online groups should provide opportunities for adults to reshape their thinking, deeply understand the subject content, and have their voices heard and respected. These opportunities turn on trust. The ability to trust thoughts that are different from their own is influenced by the…

There has been a body of emerging research describing students' understanding of complex systems. This research has primarily studied students understanding of complex phenomena in science. However, complex phenomena are also pervasive in everyday life. Children observe and participate in them daily. How do they reason about such ordinary complex…

This paper presents a study of a series of band rehearsals run by five young people as they practised for a gig together: preparing new songs as well as developing their existing sets. The analysis specifically explores the ways in which the band members collectively develop and evaluate their musical "works in progress." Their interactions were…

It is proffered rather frequently that co-offending is the dominate form of criminal offending among juveniles because of the enhanced salience of peer pressure during adolescence, and that this enhanced propensity to co-offend is pivotal for understanding the age-crime curve. Using National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) data for 2002,…