In August 2012, I was awarded a Fulbright grant to travel to Malawi, one of the poorest countries in Africa. One critical education issue is that the government has opened its education sector to the donor community. Outside donors identify and define the educational needs of the country and often impose solutions with minimum stakeholder input;…

This article describes the knowledge and skills that professional learning community members need to create a habit out of their desire. Habits serve educators as signposts of progress toward achieving their desires. They are interim indicators of a professional learning community's success. Ultimately, of course, professional learning communities…

This article discusses the effects of separating 15-16 years-old school students in isolated academic and practical study programs in upper-secondary education. It is based on an investigation of the social identities developed by and about youth learners in these circumstances. In particular we examine the creation of identity positions by youth…

A body of literature asserts that group work can be beneficial in enhancing learning and in developing specific skills among students. This research builds on the literature and on Gardner's (2006a) five notions of mindsets: disciplined, synthesising, creation, ethical and respectful, as a descriptive framework to explore and understand the…

The purpose of this study was to adapt "The Boundary Violations Scale" (Madden et al., 2002), which was created to measure the intergenerational boundary violations in families from the perspective of children, to Turkish and to test the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of this instrument. This instrument was developed…

French is the ninth most widely used language globally, but French-learning environments in Taiwan have been insufficient. Language acquisition is easier in a natural setting, and so such a setting should be available to language learners wherever possible. This study aimed to (1) create an authentic environment for learning French in Second Life…

In recent reform efforts, school-community partnerships have been touted as a means for promoting student success (Decker, Decker, & Brown 2007; Epstein 2010) and meeting student needs (Hands 2010). Yet, despite any accolades, the motives and results of school-community partnerships are contested. Gary Anderson (1998) points out that…

This study investigated synchronous discourses involving student collaboration in fixed groups during an introductory research methods course's first 8-week phase, and opportunistic collaboration during its second 8-week phase. Twenty-seven Chinese undergraduates participated in online discourse on Knowledge Forum as part of the course. A…

This article presents a conceptual framework for analyzing how researchers and district leaders perceive and navigate differences they encounter in the context of research-practice partnerships. Our framework contrasts with images of partnership work as facilitating the translation of research into practice. Instead, we argue that partnership…

This report distills the learnings from focus groups, in-depth interviews, and a two-day symposium with over 50 state legislative leaders and explores how they get their information, what matters most to them, and how groups that work with state legislators can engage them most effectively. As state legislators work to get education policy right,…

In this article, we present our findings regarding promoting group drawing activities in order to facilitate the learning of systemic aspects of projects. We discuss the approach we used to engage the students and foster learning in our classes. We used group drawing activities in two project management undergraduate courses. The courses, which…

This article is grounded in social constructivist perspectives of learning: its purpose is to provide an overview of the "Interactions Sociales et Acquisition" (ISA) [Social Interactions and Acquisition] French group's research that examines how a peer-assisted learning (PAL) group context facilitates students' acquisition of motor and…

Despite increased research into team science and collaboration, little is known about postdoctoral scholars' pathways to becoming independent researchers, particularly as it relates to the mentoring relationship. The purpose of our study was to explore if and how the team science framework promotes collaboration and the development of independent…

National calls for improving science education (e.g., "Vision and Change") emphasize the need to learn disciplinary core ideas through scientific practices. To address this need, we engaged small groups of students in developing diagrammatic models within two (one large-enrollment and one medium-enrollment) undergraduate introductory…

The goals were to (a) replicate the findings of previous research with regard to the Consultee/Teacher Version of the Interpersonal Power Inventory (IPI), and (b) advance the literature by examining IPI scores about a current consultation relationship. Sample 1 included 99 elementary school teachers (44.4% Hispanic) who completed the IPI. Results…