The completion agenda is the dominant theme in higher education policy in the United States today, and one of the primary strategies advocated in the agenda is performance funding in budgeting for public institutions. Illinois is one example of a state that has attempted to implement performance funding as a means of directing the behavior of…

Effective professional development (PD) follows adaptive teaching principles; it increases teacher understanding and instructional purpose, which ultimately supports and extends adaptive teaching. Through this article, we compare and contrast training models with educative models of PD (Duffy, 2004). We discuss characteristics of effective PD that…

At a time when the national conversation is focused on lagging upward mobility, it is no surprise that many educators point to poverty as the explanation for mediocre test scores among U.S. students compared to those of students in other countries. If American teachers in struggling U.S. schools taught in Finland, says Finnish educator Pasi…

New Extension educators experience a steep learning curve when attempting to develop effective Extension programs. Formative evaluation is helpful to new, and experienced, Extension educators in determining the changes necessary for making programs more effective. Formative evaluation is an essential part of program evaluation. However, its use…

Having been on the agenda in Finnish policy-making for a decade, tuition fees for students outside the European Union and the European Economic Area became reality in the beginning of 2016. Drawing on institutional theory the current article tracks this development through the analysis of documents and interviews on different levels. The…

The purpose of this study was to identify intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors for professional doctoral degree attainment among educators. The researcher examined the following intrinsic motivating factors: personal attainment, skill and ability enhancement, and goals. The researcher also included the following extrinsic factors:…

This paper presents a discussion on potential conflicts originated by sensorimotor distractions when learning with mobile phones on-the-move. While research in mobile learning points to the possibility of everywhere, all the time learning; research in the area suggests that tasks performed while on-the-move predominantly require low cognitive…

Previous multilevel analyses for Turkey show that performance differences of students vary more between schools than within schools. These school-disparities might be associated with Turkey's tracking system and related differences in student body and learning environments of school tracks. Since it is not known how Turkey's low-performing…

Higher education calls for reform, but deeper knowledge about the prerequisites for teaching development and pedagogical change is missing. In this study, 51 university teachers' experiences of supportive or constraining factors in teaching development were investigated in the context of Finland's multidisciplinary network. The findings reveal…

We propose the use of an ontological perspective to shift current thinking about the phenomenon of home/school partnerships, particularly through an examination of school leaders (leadership team)--community relationships that seek to better serve Indigenous students and their communities. We reanalysed focus group interviews of indigenous Maori…

Research shows that half of all teachers working in urban school settings leave the profession within five years, and many who choose to leave are the ones who are most effective (Coggins & Diffenbaugh, 2013.) Manual Rounds, a structured peer observation process based on the established practice of instructional rounds, was implemented at…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible associations between preservice science teachers' understanding of nature of science and their learner characteristics; understanding of nature of scientific inquiry, science teaching self-efficacy beliefs, metacognitive awareness level, and faith/worldview schemas. The sample of the…

Significant changes are driving the wheels of progress. In the context of higher education, developments in technology and globalization have made a profound impact. There is need for universities to take stock of developments to plan with realistic goals so as not to be left behind in a highly competitive globalized environment. With rapid…

Practicum experiences are critical learning environments for developing requisite skills, knowledge, behaviours and attitudes across the professions. Evidence suggests that international students in professional social and behavioural science programs struggle across a number of dimensions while on practicum. Key issues for these students coalesce…

Over the last few decades, not only organizations but also Higher Education Institutions should be more responsive to the demands of the changed global business environment and improve their effectiveness. Our motivation to write this paper is to assess the implementation of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system in higher education and…