Problem-based and project-organized learning (PBL) was originally developed to facilitate collaboration between physically present students; however, due to digitalization, collaboration, dialogues, and other PBL activities should take place online as well. With a theoretical point of departure from Dewey and a methodological point of departure…

Ben Moudry has written a comprehensive overview of the current challenges facing parents, schools, administrators, and students regarding what he calls "handheld computers," commonly known as smart phones. His annotated statistics and description of American society in 2015 are frightening in their clarity, while the percentages and…

Because it is not clear that teachers will volunteer for good professional development if it is made available, this study used surveys--including social network analysis--and interviews to examine why teachers did and did not participate in one school's high-quality study group. While all teachers were motivated by intrinsic incentives, two…

This study extends prior work on questions related to the academic performance of community college students enrolled in online coursework. Using data from the entire community college system of the State University of New York the study employs structural equation modeling to compare course and program level outcomes. Specifically, we compared…

According to the US Department of Education, adult learners make up 45% of all part-time enrollment in community colleges, compared to only 27% of full-time students. As the enrollment of adult learners in post-secondary education increases across the US, accountability efforts among higher education institutions has prioritized full-time…

This hearing from the Subcommittee on Children and Families of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions examines the support of mental health in the transition from high school to college. Opening statements were presented by: (1) Honorable Robert Casey, Chairman, Subcommittee on Children and Families; and (2) Honorable Bill…

This study investigated the implementation of a primary mathematics initiative in an Australian Indigenous community school designed to improve students' mathematical proficiency. Throughout the 7-month initiative, four classes ranging from Year 2 to Year 6 participated in the initiative. Findings indicated an increase in mathematics achievement…

This paper reports on the experiences of newcomers at the 36th Annual MERGA Conference. The paper applies Wenger's (1998) social learning theory to explore the kinds of feedback that might assist newcomers. Questionnaire responses to describe the experience of ten newcomers and interview responses from five of the ten are reported. The…

This paper draws from a large longitudinal study into issues related to student retention beyond the compulsory years of schooling and gives voice to a commonly-overlooked set of stakeholders, namely those in the community. Although many studies report on students' and teachers' opinions of the influence of the community on student engagement and…

In contrast to the myth of the "Digital Native" and the ubiquity of Facebook use, we have found that students' digital identities are predominantly social with their online activity beyond Facebook limited to being social media consumers rather than producers. Within a global economy students need to learn new digital literacy skills to…

Many mathematics teachers engage in the practice of blogging. Although they are separated geographically, they are able to discuss teaching-related issues. In an effort to better understand the nature of these discussions, this paper presents an analysis of one particular episode of such a discussion. Wenger's theoretical framework of communities…

We theorize about ambiguity in mathematical communication and define a certain subset of ambiguous language usage as imprecise. For us, imprecision in classroom mathematics discourse hinders in-the-moment communication because the instance of imprecision is likely to create inconsistent interpretations of the same statement among individuals. We…

This study uses ethnographic methods to generate an understanding of college students' experiences participating in an immersive service-learning program located in an urban, high poverty neighborhood. While living in the community, students learned from organizers and participated in activities designed to build relationships that enhanced their…

This paper discusses the result of a statewide research effort in California to improve the accuracy of student placement in math and English in the California Community College system. We apply decision tree methods to high school and college transcript data to identify key measures of high school achievement that predict success in ten levels of…

The growth of online learning and the demand for quality education has prompted universities to investigate innovative approaches for providing students with a more interactive, engaging and authentic learning experience. Frameworks such as Garrison, Anderson and Archer?s (2001) community of inquiry (CoI) model have been widely used in the design…