Alternative and flexible education settings may come in different forms, but they generally have in common a focus on young people who have been disengaged from conventional schooling. One challenge of these settings, therefore, is to change the way education is offered in order to better engage these students. Much of the onus for this changed…

Despite the growing interest in digital literacy within educational policy, guidance for secondary educators in terms of how digital literacy translates into the classroom is lacking. As a result, many teachers feel ill-prepared to support their learners in using technology effectively. The DigiLit Leicester project created an infrastructure for…

Farrell's (2001) theory of collaborative circles provides a useful frame for analyzing the interpersonal dynamics that enable creative collaboration in small groups, but it leaves contextual factors of collaboration undertheorized. Using ethnographic data on freestyle BMXers in Greenville, North Carolina, this article demonstrates how resource…

In 2013, with a 30% state budget cut after the Great Recession, many of the 450,000 California State University (CSU) students across the 23-campus system were unable to enroll in courses they needed to move closer to graduation; there was a lack of available course sections. In addition to a reduced number of seats available for students, 30% to…

Collaborative inquiry among faculty focused on common teaching and learning questions can result in a rich array of outcomes. This paper reports on Digital Literacies, a collaborative inquiry project focused on infusing the use of computers and collaborative on-line writing environments into our college writing program. Participants were members…

It is important for leadership teams and faculty members in higher education to create an atmosphere of trust as new and improved ideas are addressed in a professional learning community setting. Prior to the past ten years, many faculty members at the university have been accustomed to working somewhat independently in their own discipline.…

At its most basic level, service learning integrates community service activities with intentional learning components to enhance students' understanding of subject content and to meet identified community needs. Although service learning is similar to other active learning pedagogies--such as project-based, problem-based, inquiry-based, and…

Superficially, the Brooklyn Generation School, in the Flatbush area, looks a lot like the other six small public high schools that share space in this tall building, the former South Shore High School. What's noticeably different about it, though, is the strength of the relationships among staff members. Teachers can be seen running across the…

Teachers who are positive deviants are the most effective teachers, able to produce results and solutions to problems that others in the learning community cannot. As a result, students in their classrooms usually produce assessment scores that are higher than those of students in their colleagues' classrooms. Teachers willing to learn from their…

Despite the common belief that information and communication technology (ICT) has the potential to support certain fundamental changes in learning, few have examined ICT implementation conceptually within a wider context of educational change. Methodologically, we are by and large limited to building simple models that accommodate only a single…

In January 2006, the College of Business at Eastern Michigan University (EMU) instituted a cross-disciplinary program in international business (IB). Business communication is a major component of the program. Moreover, the need for business communication in other languages contributed greatly to the cross-disciplinary nature of the program. This…

This article documents the Critical Friends Group (CFG) process five university colleagues used to blend the theoretical frameworks of Universal Design for Learning (Rose & Meyer, 2002) and Interactive Phase Theory (McIntosh, 1990) as tools to increase equity and access in our classrooms. Using the CFG reflective approach, the faculty…

Explains a collegial ethic of hospitality as a cardinal academic virtue and suggests a way of building a "collegium," the covenantal community of academe. Discusses how academicians can develop hospitable teaching, hospitable scholarship, and hospitable service. (Author/SLD)

Educational technology can be a catalyst for creating new learning structures. For the past six years, Central Harlem's Earth Lab project has been designing, implementing, and observing effects of a local area network system intended to facilitate collaborative work in elementary earth science. System coordinates small groups, promotes teacher…

In this article, the author discusses the need for collaboration in developmental education and proposes two major ideas for consideration: (1) that educators need to re-conceptualize how they go about delivering developmental education; and (2) that they need to collaborate more fully with others in practicing it. The author notes that of almost…