Working from the view of schools as a system, and of school improvement as an ongoing journey (Hallinger & Heck, 2011; Jackson, 2000), this study investigated the perspectives of teacher leaders and principals from four metropolitan Catholic grade schools engaged in efforts to improve their school science programs. Built upon existing…

This paper reports on the result of a study on Chinese university EFL learners' foreign language writing anxiety in terms of general pattern, effect and causes. 1174 first-year students answered the 26-item Foreign Language Writing Anxiety Scale (FLWAS) (Young, 1999) and took an English writing test, 18 of whom were invited for semi-structured…

This study aims to explore the application of reading strategies to the reading of English texts by Thai vocational college students. Data were collected via questionnaire surveys, think-aloud experiments and semi-structured interviews. The research results reveal different typologies of reading strategies adopted by lower and higher level English…

In this ethnographic study, Elaine C. Allard describes and analyzes the characteristics and experiences of undocumented newcomer adolescents attending a US suburban high school. She considers the ways in which newcomer adolescents show agency in their border crossing, prioritize work over formal education, and express transnational identities. She…

Twenty-four university students with disabilities were interviewed about their experiences studying at Czech universities. The interviews were analysed using the grounded theory approach. The most commonly experienced barriers faced by these students were institutional barriers, attitudinal barriers, and disability-specific barriers. The types of…

This pilot case study of two teachers and their learner groups from Adult and Community settings, investigates how numeracy teachers, working with adult learners in discrete numeracy classes, motivate and enable learners to build on their informal skills and apply new learning to their own real-life contexts. Teachers used a range of abstract and…

Purpose: The purpose of the present study is to explore the process, routines, and structuration at successful schools leading their students to high achievements. Method: The approach of building a theory from case study research together with process perspective and an organizational routines model were applied to analyzing seven successful…

Project-based learning is an example of powerful social studies learning in which student engage in active inquiry. Action civics is a relatively new educational practice in which students "act as citizens" through a cycle of research, action, and reflection about problems they care about in their community. "Building Civic…

This paper examines the enactment of instructional leadership (IL) in high-performing secondary schools (HPSS), and the relationship between leadership and learning in raising student outcomes and encouraging teachers' professional learning in the highly centralised context of Greece. It reports part of a comparative research study focused on…

Drawing on data collected for a larger study investigating kindergarten teachers' online discussions of play, the present qualitative study examines teachers' discussions of gender. Findings suggest that teachers' project onto their kindergarten students many of their own gender prejudices about play. These teachers reinforced gendered attitudes…

Background: Currently, obesity is one major pressing health concern for children, with physical inactivity being one main contributor. Schools are an excellent venue to provide pupils with opportunities for physical activity; however, schools are in need of user-friendly intervention programs that increase pupil activity and healthy behavior…

Within the academy, signals of a scholar's academic influence are made manifest in indices like the "h"-index, which rank output. In open scholarly networks, however, signals of influence are less codified, and the ways in which they are enacted and understood have yet to be articulated. Yet the influence scholars cultivate in open…

This qualitative study explores the abstinence-only sex education experiences of a small group of young adults in the southeastern USA. Most participants felt that their abstinence-only sex education had mixed value and low overall impact in their lives. Perceptions about abstinence, virginity, and marriage varied significantly from those stressed…

Objective: The STI/HIV prevention programme in Amsterdam aims to improve the sexual health of Amsterdam residents of African, Antillean, Aruban and Surinamese origins. The programme strategy is to achieve and enhance the participation of migrant community-based organisations (CBOs) in sexual health promotion through a grant scheme and by providing…

Despite few limitations, GeoGebra as a dynamic geometry software stood as a powerful instrument in helping university math majors understand, explore, and gain experiences in visualizing the limits of functions and the ?-d formalism. During the process of visualizing a theorem, the order mattered in the sequence of constituents. Students made use…