This article clarifies the reasons underlying educators' cultivation of community involvement in their schools and highlights the role that social capital plays and the benefits of partnering. In this qualitative case study, documents, observations, and 25 interviews with head teachers, teachers, and community partners at 2 Ontario secondary…

Because even the most experienced teacher leader can get tripped up on the intangibles of getting a group of peers to function as a team, here's a book that provides ongoing advice and counsel on how to master the entire spectrum of duties that teacher leaders are expected to accomplish. Emphasizing the dual threads of strong collegial…

The purpose of this study is to describe learning that occurred among participants who engaged in a short-term education abroad program using a modified situated learning theoretical framework. In situated learning theory, experience becomes activity and takes on a dynamic relation to learning. For the study, I selected a specific case to examine…

The current study applies the perspective of decision theory to understanding how choices are made in an in-group setting involving social pressure and risk. Two hundred sixty-one undergraduate students provided assessments of consequences associated with illegally consuming alcohol in different environments with differing degrees of risk. In…

One tradition within the complexity paradigm considers organisations as complex adaptive systems in which autonomous individuals interact, often in complex ways with difficult to predict, non-linear outcomes. Building upon this tradition, and more specifically following the complex systems leadership theory approach, we describe the ways in which…

Evidence exists that children's understanding can be facilitated through collaborative group work with peers, but little is known about the underlying processes. When processes are discussed, they are typically assumed to involve the assimilation of superior ideas that are constructed jointly. However, the assimilation of joint constructions…

This paper considers the work of the Russian social philosopher and cultural theorist, Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin as a source of understanding for those involved in action learning. Drawing upon data gathered over two years during the evaluation of 20 action learning sets in the north of England, we will seek to work with the ideas of Bakhtin to…

Traditional talk therapy, particularly cognitive behavioral techniques, are often ineffective when working with addicted clients for many reasons. By tapping into the power of the group modality, experiential activities can serve as a powerful facilitator of insight and behavior change. The authors provide a brief review of the literature followed…

In this article, the author talks about the highlights of the first design event of the "Northern Action Learning Network" held in Mersey Care NHS Trust Liverpool last November 6, 2008. The intent of the event was to tap into the diverse and flourishing action learning (AL) community by growing an innovative network of practitioners keen…

Classrooms are complex societies. Teachers are the leaders of these societies and the way they exercise their leadership abilities greatly affects the interactions that take place between teachers and students as well as interactions between the students themselves. These interactions, both social and instructional, have a great impact on the…

The aim of this study was to describe the diverse experiences of early childhood student teachers and mentors during the teaching practicum over the period of one semester, and trace power aspects within the relationship of 20 dyads. Data collection included repeated entries within a reflective journal, following specific guiding questions. The…

It is estimated that between ten and twenty percent of children in the United States are exposed to domestic violence annually. While much is known about the impact of domestic violence and other family problems on children within the home, little is known regarding the extent to which these problems spill over to children outside the family. The…

Critical thinking is often presented as a generic technique. This article develops an alternative that links critique more closely to the sociological perspective. I suggest three answers to the above question: that the sociological perspective is critical for comprehending complex issues, that all sociology is implicitly critical by virtue of its…

A novel paradigm was developed to study the behavior of groups of networked people searching a problem space. The authors examined how different network structures affect the propagation of information in laboratory-created groups. Participants made numerical guesses and received scores that were also made available to their neighbors in the…

Background: Although the relationship between collective efficacy and group performance has been frequently investigated, a few studies have investigated the development of collective efficacy. Aim: This paper proposes some determinants of collective efficacy in small university groups. Group level hypotheses and research questions relating…