Professional development, typically initiated by administrators to improve student achievement outcomes, is often irrelevant to the needs of early career music teachers. As music teacher educators, we were concerned about issues of importance to early career music teachers as they entered the music teaching profession. We explored conversation as…

This study investigates the effectiveness and knowledge retention of elearning models that could solve education problems in rural areas by considering two different examples: massive online open courses (MOOCs) and gamification hybrid learning. The study also proposes suitable and effective features that could influence student abilities in the…

The barriers to school attendance that affect young Aboriginal people in Australia are diverse, immense and well documented; however, except for a handful of studies, Aboriginal students' voices receive no platform for policy makers to hear them. In this paper, we present results from yarning circles about barriers to school attendance conducted…

An open classroom climate, one where diverse opinions and discussion of social and political issues are welcome, promotes civic development among youth and fosters critical consciousness. Critical consciousness, defined as the capacity to recognize societal inequity along with the motivation and action taken to challenge such inequity and promote…

The theory of deliberative democracy places public deliberations at the heart of democracy. In order to participate in democratic deliberations, citizens need certain skills, attitudes, and values. Within the field of education for deliberative democracy, it is assumed that these are learned through participation in democratic deliberation. Thus,…

This study analyzes teachers' reflective conversations occurring while viewing authentic classroom video captures within a professional learning network. Select video recordings of participating teachers of the PLN were presented in both a small group and large group context. Members of the research team facilitated the discussions and guiding…

The goal of this study was to develop a classification for a range of discourse patterns that occur in text-based asynchronous discussion forums, and that can aid in the distinction of three modes of discourse: knowledge sharing, knowledge construction, and knowledge building. The dataset was taken from Knowledge Forum® databases in the Knowledge…

School reform policies and school administrators are increasingly positioning teacher leaders (TLs) with the responsibility to facilitate professional learning for their colleagues. Although ample evidence exists to suggest the need for facilitators to be highly skilled for teachers' learning to be optimized, there is a dearth of research…

In scientific arguments, claims must have meaning that extends beyond the immediate circumstances of an investigation. That is, claims must be generalised in some way. Therefore, teachers facilitating classroom argumentation must be prepared to support students' efforts to construct or criticise generalised claims. However, widely used…

This article introduces the Instructional Field Observation Rounds Model (INFORM), drawn from the medical profession where resident interns make rounds with experienced physicians, as an alternative approach for conducting classroom observations in pre-service teacher education methods courses. INFORM centers on structured group observations in…

For the forty-third time, the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented online during the annual AECT Convention. Volume 1 contains 37 papers dealing primarily with research and development topics. Papers dealing with the…

The interactive whiteboard (IWB) is increasingly used for teaching and learning in the classroom. Nevertheless, the ways that teachers incorporate this tool within their teaching practices remain poorly understood. This paper examines elementary and high school teachers' self-reported practices with the IWB. The conceptual framework centers on…

A professional development program for US teachers in the state of Oregon was the context in which this study took place. This five-year hybrid (online and face-to-face) program assisted experienced teachers to adapt their practice to meet the needs of language minority and immigrant students. The positive changes in teacher perceptions and…

This study investigated how the different discussion approaches in Facebook influenced students' scientific knowledge acquisition and the nature of science (NOS) views. Two eighth- and two ninth-grade classes in a Taiwanese junior high school participated in the study. In two of the classes students engaged in synchronous discussion, and in the…

For generations of educators who grew up on the printed word (as compared to the electronic one), books remain an enjoyable activity that can contribute to knowledge building for professional educators with wide-ranging responsibilities. Yet they have broader value beyond personal consumption. In many school districts throughout the country, books…