"If well-trained, competent, caring teachers were present in every classroom, we would witness a staggering increase in student achievement, motivation, and character improvement along with a marked decrease in discipline problems" (Breaux & Wong, 2003, p.22). If school districts do not take the initiative to design and implement…

Professional learning communities have been labeled as effective and capable of producing continuous school improvement. Despite the merits and popularity of professional learning communities, they have been shown to be an elusive concept to implement. The problem this study addressed was the inconsistent quality of professional learning…

Fullan (1998) stated, "Student achievement increases substantially in schools with collaborative work cultures that foster a professional learning community among teachers and others" (p. 8). Vandevoort, Amrein-Beardsley, and Berliner (2004) also found that the quality of the teacher in the classroom is the single most important factor…

In "Systems for Instructional Improvement," Paul Cobb and his colleagues draw on their extensive research to propose a series of specific, empirically grounded recommendations that together constitute a theory of action for advancing instruction at scale. The authors outline the elements of a coherent instructional system; describe…

Mentor teachers (MTs) play a key role in a teacher candidate's (TC) learning to teach and teaching a TC to become a teacher is complex work. While there has been some scholarship that indicates MTs benefit from collective inquiry into and examination of their mentoring practice, there is minimum attention to engaging MTs in deliberate activity…

Collaboration and teamwork are essential aspects of the work of a professional middle level teacher and an integral part of AMLE Standard 5. Preservice teachers typically experience collaborative practices firsthand during field experiences, but the COVID-19 pandemic has caused many schools to shift instruction online thereby limiting the…

One of the required 21st-century skills necessary to cope with challenging tasks in teaching is nurturing active independent learners who can perform self-regulated learning (SRL). To support teachers in attaining and transferring their newly acquired knowledge and practices to real-time teaching in the classroom, an effective professional…

This article outlines the methodology and findings from an interpretive collective case study exploring the professional learning of three elementary music teachers. Participants were purposefully selected based on their differing career stages, background, and teaching situations, and each participant was interviewed five or six times over the…

The COVID-19 confinement has represented both opportunities and losses for education. Rarely before has any other period moved the human spirit into such discipline or submission--depending on one's personal and emotional points of view. Both extremes have been widely influenced by external factors on each individual's life path. Education in the…

Today, internationalization is among the most important strategic goals of higher education. In this context, academicians hold a significant place in academic knowledge exchange since they constitute the key mechanism in internationalization. Despite this fact, female academicians continue to be underrepresented in the internationalization of…

Due to the increase of economic immigration over the last few decades, South Korea has rapidly become a multi-ethnic society. The number of students with a multicultural background (SMBs) has increased more than tenfold in the past ten years. Research has revealed that despite physical inclusion of SMBs in general classrooms, SMBs tend to struggle…

Why do some schools bring forth high achievement levels, whereas others do not? To understand the mechanisms behind school success, one must examine schools as organizations and the social relations and interactions among their members. By integrating the literature on educational effectiveness and sociological institutionalism, this article…

The Core Practices Movement (CPM) and Social Justice Teacher Education (SJTE) represent two communities of practice within which novices develop as professional educators. However, there is little dialogue about how they might collaborate to develop novice social justice educators, and the critiques and recommendations that do cross movements…

Few studies have been conducted in Greece focusing on the inclusion of pupils with Intellectual Disability (ID) in general classes. The aim of this quantitative study was to explore the attitudes of Special Education Teachers (SETs or SET) towards the inclusion of pupils with ID in general classes. A structured questionnaire was sent out. It…

Within teacher education programs, the preparation of general and special educators has often been separated due to differences in the skills each is expected to master (Pugach, Blanton, & Boveda, 2014). With the mandate of inclusion in the IDEA (20 U.S.C. § 1412(a)(5)(A)), as well as the increasing implementation of inclusive practices in…