When new academics begin university life, the support they receive in their departments can vary. For many their initial experiences of the new job can be daunting. In this article 10 new academics from a range of disciplines were involved in a community of practice, known as Catalyst, to support them finding their feet within the university.…

Teacher leadership is widely thought to be critical to the success of local school improvement efforts. But it is often unclear what teacher leadership entails, precisely. Supported by district-level staff, and with assistance from a university-based research team (the authors of this article), a group of science teacher leaders created a…

Critical Friends Groups (CFGs) are a form professional learning community that has been used for teacher learning in K-12 environments for many years. In order to foster community and learning amongst distributed participants, CFGs are beginning to make their way online. This article describes the experience of a four-year old online CFG whose…

The world of online higher education is still in its infancy. This provides the opportunity for universities to create environments where online adjunct faculty acknowledges a sense of belonging and collaboration working with leaders who inspire, support, and mentor. Leaders, who truly listen, are open and honest. Support will inspire online…

Collaboration among higher education professors who are responsible for the education of preservice teachers is one potential solution to the problem of poor teacher preparation. Specifically, collaboration among mathematics educators and mathematicians can enhance preservice teacher preparation because it provides opportunities for preservice…

Based on the system theories approach, this case study investigated the collaboration process that took place among teachers working with newcomer English learners with disabilities. The significance of this study stems from the scarcity of literature on English learner newcomers with disabilities and the need for exploring collaboration among…

This qualitative multiple case study sought to understand staff members' perceptions of the components of an effective and sustainable professional learning community. The Professional Learning Community Assessment questionnaire and interviews were the instruments utilized to attain data. The study's results allowed the researcher to identify…

The focus of this study was to explore high school teachers' perceptions of self-directed professional development learning as participants in a community of practice. The questions for this study were: How did directing their own learning influence high school teachers' perceptions of their professional development? How did participating in a…

Creativity and collaboration in education is a topic of growing interest among scholars and educators. Teachers around the United States are being tasked with the re-design of learning experiences but these demands are seldom accompanied by processes to support the creativity that is required for any design of learning. This study merged theory…

To reform instruction by moving towards student-centered approaches, research has shown that faculty benefit from support and collaboration (Henderson, Beach, & Finkelstein, 2011; Speer & Wagner, 2009). In this study, we examined the ways in which a mathematician's instruction unfolded during his participation in a faculty collaboration…

Numerous studies have shown multiple benefits gained through professional development for teachers, which address increasing pedagogical content knowledge, increasing student achievement and increasing teacher job satisfaction (Banks, 2008; Colbert, Brown, Choi &Thomas, 2008; Dash, de Kramer, O'Dwyer, Masters & Russell, 2012). However,…

This paper draws upon research with a group of work-based students studying for a Foundation Degree in Educational Support. It highlights levels of goodwill evident within their day to day planning and preparation and the ad hoc nature of opportunities for teachers and teaching assistants to work together for planning and feedback purposes. This…

A panel at the 2016 American Academy of Religion conference staged, taped, transcribed, and edited this conversation about the challenges and opportunities of teaching in a "nano department"--an undergraduate religion or religious studies department (or combined religion and philosophy department) with only one, two, or three faculty…

Conventional professional development, while still in full swing in many places, has been widely maligned for its passive approach to learning, its failure to address local differences, and its often single-event format. While the corrective move to more collaborative models of professional learning has been heralded, few empirical studies to date…

Bandura (in: Pajares and Urdan, Self-efficacy beliefs of adolescents, Information Age, Greenwich, 2006) suggested that efficacy beliefs should be considered in relation to key challenges within a (teaching) context. As part of a larger project on the teacher efficacy beliefs of Japanese high-school teachers of English (JTEs), this paper reports…