This article examines notions of quality and quality assurance in higher education. It does this by raising questions such as whether quality in higher education is the same as, for example, quality of clothing or the quality of meat in local butcheries. The article questions the assumption that if certain things, such as criteria or…

This article is a re-analysis of three self-studies conducted by three sub-groups of the Active Collaborative Education (ACE) team and originally presented at a conference in 2008. Revisiting and retelling these stories for the purpose of this article highlighted some of the concepts that form the warp and the woof of our interwoven collaborative…

This case study analyzed a special education (SE) teacher's activity within his workplace community and external professional network in a Finnish special education context. The nature of the SE teacher's networks and his networking role were examined using an interview and a questionnaire, completed by the teachers working in the community…

This article is based on a project in which a teacher educator, acting as a critical friend, worked with six engineering teachers in a Masters program in Machine Engineering in order to stimulate their reflection on their own teaching and learning as a way of developing their scholarship of teaching. The article draws particular attention to ways…

This paper describes a collaborative educational data mining tool based on association rule mining for the continuous improvement of e-learning courses allowing teachers with similar course's profile sharing and scoring the discovered information. This mining tool is oriented to be used by instructors non experts in data mining such that, its…

Many recent studies on teacher learning are grounded in the works of Rosenholtz (1989), Ball and Cohen (1999), and Putnam and Borko (2000). Their research, collectively, suggests that teacher learning occurs in at least two realms: the individual and the interpersonal. In the individual realm, teachers gain knowledge about content and pedagogy,…

This paper draws on my personal experiences with coteaching and my participation in the research described by Wassell and LaVan (2009). It examines the role of coteaching in the development of structures that afforded opportunities for shared reflection and shared responsibility between stakeholders in the classroom. It also describes how the…

In an effort to find a feasible way to provide quality interdisciplinary teaching on a small campus, Southern Vermont College has introduced a program called Roving Professors. The Rovers, a select group of professors, visit multiple classes across the college's five divisions, and each one integrates his or her specialty into each course visited,…

The objective of this study was to develop a model for building professional learning communities (PLCs) in schools. Samples were public primary schools that consisted of 1,826 teachers from 185 schools in Thailand. They randomized by using two-stage random sampling. The questionnaire was used to survey the level or magnitude of teacher…

Teachers constantly question their own practice. Often, their questions remain unexplored. Collegial observation provides one way to see teaching differently and understand the tensions involved in incorporating new theoretical understandings into practice. Gebhard (1999) argues that conversations preceding and following such observations are…

A recent law in a New England state allowed public schools to operate with increased flexibility and autonomy through the authorization of the creation of Innovation Schools. This project study, a program evaluation using a convergent parallel mixed methods research design, allowed for a comprehensive evaluation of the first Innovation School…

Research reveals that many teachers express a discomfort about teaching writing; moreover, there is growing evidence that professional learning communities can have a positive impact on teacher learning and performance. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the relationship between teachers' involvement in a professional…

African American students, commonly designated a sub-group in assessment data reports, consistently score well below their peers in mathematics. A consequence of this phenomenon is that math teachers often feel obligated to provide remedial methods of instruction focused on recall and repetitive practice, believing that these strategies will…

"Experiential" professional development (EPD), influenced by Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound design, was integrated in the classrooms of secondary Spanish teachers to create opportunities for them to learn to use communicative language teaching (CLT) through experience. Teachers collaborated with colleagues, students, and a…

In this article we describe a secondary-postsecondary collaborative partnership that addressed the issue of students' frequent failures as they transition from high school to college mathematics courses. Although the partnership did not take place in a professional development school, secondary and postsecondary participants worked together as…