Assessment as a field of investigation has been influenced by a limited number of perspectives. These have focused assessment research in particular ways that have emphasised measurement, or student learning or institutional policies. The aim of this paper is to view the phenomenon of assessment from a practice perspective drawing upon ideas from…

Given the current challenges facing our democracy in the United States, the role of public schools in forming habits of democratic practice in our citizenry is as important today as ever. To explore this urgent topic, the author interviewed 13 leaders of 10 New York City public schools committed to educating for and with democracy. Six patterns of…

Excessive alcohol use among military personnel is a significant concern. A potential contributor to this problem may be alcohol-serving environments around military installations; however, limited information is available about these environments. We conducted focus groups and interviews with Army personnel from two installations regarding soldier…

Central coordination characterises centralised education systems. Centralised systems pride themselves on efficient systemic planning for strategic foresightedness. This study investigates how educators fostered partnerships towards lateral networking propensities or "laterality" in a centralised system with hierarchical tendencies. A…

Among recent developments in the field of higher education is the emergence of New Public Management and of what has been labelled as 'risk university.' The aim of this paper is to redress the lack of discussion over the role that risk-taking plays in academic practice by exploring what faculty understand academic risk taking to be and how they…

Limited consideration has been given to the challenges young composers and performers face when learning to communicate through notation in contemporary classical music, and the specific opportunities presented for peer learning. This article describes a project at a Swiss music conservatory in which two student composers wrote pieces for solo…

For learners in vocational education, acquiring the specialized language of their field is important in facilitating the ability to communicate appropriately with colleagues and customers. Spoken and written discourse in a range of workplace settings has received some attention, but less attention has been given to discourse in vocational…

Quality management (QM) in teaching and learning has strongly "infected" the higher education sector and spread around the world. It has almost everywhere become an integral part of higher education reforms. While existing research on QM mainly focuses on the national level from a macro-perspective, its introduction at the institutional…

A school principal's workload is recognised as being heavy, with an imbalance between demands and resources. This paper contributes to the development of collective leadership. The principalship constellations of six schools in Sweden were studied with the aim of strengthening the current knowledge about structures and experiences of shared…

Interactional competence has been variously defined as turn-taking ability, paralinguistic features of communication such as eye contact, gesture, and gesticulation, and listener responses. In existing assessment systems such as the oral proficiency interview (OPI), interactional competence is only rarely explicitly factored into the holistic…

The purpose of this research was to investigate secondary teachers' perceptions of professional development. Results indicated that although teachers perceive professional development as a tool for learning, teacher leadership, data analysis, and collaboration are needed to increase its effectiveness. Results of teachers' perceptions may be used…

This study investigates older persons engagement with digital interfaces as one important way to social inclusion. Digital exclusion and social exclusion are intrinsically intertwined, which put older persons at risk for exclusion. To construct meaningful educational practices for inclusion, more insight is needed to understand consequences of low…

The expression 'student success' has gained traction in the university sector and has been applied to various aspects of the higher education (HE) learning trajectory. Yet, 'success' is an amorphous term that means distinctive things to various stakeholders in any educational undertaking. When the literature on this field is examined, it is…

There is mounting evidence that information and communication technology (ICT) has the potential to support children's development and early learning when used effectively, appropriately, and intentionally. In an attempt to improve teachers' performance in integrating ICT into early learning, this study was designed to examine the effect of ICT…

In this study, a grounded theory approach was used to investigate the process college and university instructors undergo to design and develop online courses. Fourteen instructors who created online courses for four-year colleges and universities were interviewed about their experience designing and developing online courses. Results showed that…