The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between physical distance from the headquarters, number of years working within the Division of Agriculture, and job title compared to mission statement and goal focus. The Division of Agriculture as part of the University of Arkansas System is a unique organization because many of its…

"Professional learning communities," the name given to teachers' collaborative professional learning--or PLCs, as they are often called--has become so overused that the term's meaning is often lost. Only when teachers reflect on their instructional practice, consider the effect instruction has on students, and implement insights gained…

Knowledge derived from practice forms a significant portion of the knowledge base in the education field, yet is not accessible using existing empirical research methods. This paper describes a systematic, rigorous, grounded approach to collecting and analysing practice-based knowledge using the authors' research in teacher leadership as an…

Districts nationwide are facing budget cuts that, to some, feel more like funding cliffs. Accordingly, school teams are re-examining their personnel, programs, and schedules so that they can make difficult decisions about where to spend resources to realize the greatest improvement. The principals who are able to make decisions with data from…

This article is an excerpt from "A Playbook for Professional Learning: Putting the Standards Into Action" (Learning Forward, 2012). Written by Learning Forward Executive Director Stephanie Hirsh and Scholar Laureate Shirley Hord, "A Playbook for Professional Learning" provides those who work in professional learning with readily accessible…

Understanding the experience of CACREP on-site review team members provides insight into the phenomenon of four counselor educators who have each served as a CACREP on-site visiting review team chairperson a minimum of three times. In total, the participants had been within the counselor education field for approximately 95 years and active within…

According to the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education, a "promising practice is any technique used that has a positive impact on students and has some data to support the claims made." Sources of this data range from experimental research to district- or state-level data analysis, but they must provide…

This article provides an overview of the ways in which data and text mining have potential as research methodologies in composition studies. It introduces data mining in the context of the field of composition studies and discusses ways in which this methodology can complement and extend our existing research practices by blending the best of what…

Computational models of hippocampal function propose that the hippocampus is capable of rapidly storing distinct representations through a process known as pattern separation. This prediction is supported by electrophysiological data from rodents and neuroimaging data from humans. Here, we test the prediction that damage to the hippocampus would…

This paper describes a simple, cost-effective experiment which introduces students to drug delivery and modeling using alginate beads. Students produce calcium alginate beads loaded with drug and measure the rate of release from the beads for systems having different stir rates, geometries, extents of cross-linking, and drug molecular weight.…

In this study, the effect of 3 cognitive variables such as logical thinking, field dependence/field independence, and convergent/divergent thinking on some specific students' answers related to the particulate nature of matter was investigated by means of probabilistic models. Besides recording and tabulating the students' responses, a combination…

Mixed-Method studies have emerged from the paradigm wars between qualitative and quantitative research approaches to become a widely used mode of inquiry. Depending on choices made across four dimensions, mixed-methods can provide an investigator with many design choices which involve a range of sequential and concurrent strategies. Defining…

This paper discusses two qualitative research methods, phenomenography and grounded theory. We introduce both methods' data collection and analysis processes and the type or results you may get at the end by using examples from computing education research. We highlight some of the similarities and differences between the aim, data collection and…

While much is known about K-12 teachers' participation in professional development (PD) on inquiry-based science instruction, how professors facilitate such PD is not as well documented. This reflective, descriptive study documents the pedagogical practices of three professors during a two-week summer PD program on inquiry-based science…

In this paper it is argued that virtual processes are dispensable fictions. The argument proceeds by a comparison with the phenomenon of quantum tunnelling. Building on an analysis of Levy-Leblond and Balibar, it is argued that, although the phenomenon known as quantum tunnelling certainly occurs and is at the basis of many paradigmatic quantum…