This study answers the following questions: "In what kinds of environments do preschool children want to play?" and "In what kinds of environments do boys and girls want to play?" Methodologically, the study draws on grounded theory, with data collected among Finnish preschoolers through creation sessions consisting of 15…

This article examines the career trajectories and biographies of three women who completed the same graduate preservice program in elementary education. While two have become successful teacher leaders, the third has moved in and out of teaching. This inquiry draws on a ten-year longitudinal study of one of these teachers, positioning that…

More school nurses are engaging in the generation of research, and their studies increasingly are using qualitative methods to describe various areas of practice. This article provides an overview of 4 major qualitative methods: ethnography, phenomenology, grounded theory, and historical research. Examples of school nursing research studies that…

The purpose of this study was to identify and examine the methods that professional dancers use to engage fully into their work as artists. Participants (N=15) were professional dancers from five European nationalities, (7 females; 8 males), currently performing for three major Scotland-based dance companies, including two professional free-lance…

This article addresses teachers' use of their professional time. With the support of substantive grounded theories from two separate studies--focusing on two "invisible" parts of teachers' work: recesses and off-the-clock work--we aim to conceptualize some patterns in contemporary work of teachers and discuss them in the light of…

Instructional design (ID) in its short life has been dominated by behaviourist approaches despite critique focusing on issues of practice as well as theory. Nonetheless, little research has addressed two fundamental questions: "What constitutes good instructional design?" and "How do instructional designers create good design?"…

Approaching reflection from the perspective of a teachable skill set implies that research may inform how to help students reflect. Employing a framework of making connections often used in reading comprehension, this study aimed to characterize how making connections between the service-learning experience (SLE) and prior experiences in similar…

The phenomenon of using progress monitoring data to inform literacy instruction was explored in the context of four schools during their 2nd year of Reading First implementation. Open-ended interviews and surveys from 10 teachers, purposefully selected for maximum variation in effectiveness and skills and resistance to using data to inform…

This study was conducted to understand student identities of five Japanese children (the second through sixth grade) and the processes of identity negotiation within their sojourning experiences between Japan and the United States. An increasing number of Japanese elementary students internationally sojourn in today's globalized societies, and…

The purpose of this study was to explore the use of action research as a framework to investigate cooperative learning and tactical games as instructional models in physical education (PE). The teacher/researcher taught a tennis unit using a combination of Cooperative Learning and Teaching Games for Understanding to three classes of boys aged…

The authors draw on data from weekly e-mail responses to a questionnaire completed by beginning teachers placed in one-year, paid, internships. Interns were assigned mentors who responded every several weeks, also via e-mail, to a questionnaire about the interns and their development. Data from 23 interns were analyzed. Seven themes were…

After successful pilot projects, Zhejiang Province, China, decided to systematically scale-up health promoting schools (HPS) over the entire province of 47 million. This study describes the interventions and self-reported changes in attitudes, knowledge and behavior during the first phase of scaling-up. Group interviews were conducted with a…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse the formation of CoPs (communities of practice) in three call centres of cellular communication operating companies in Israel. Design/methodology/approach: This study is based on a qualitative methodology including observations, interviews and textual analysis. Findings: In all three…

A common outcome of entering post-compulsory education as a mature aged learner appears to be development and growth of the self. However, this is often only viewed as an outcome or considered an added benefit, rather than an integral part of the academic process itself. This paper explores the relationship between academic growth and personal…

Background: In the UK, Early Intensive Behavioural Intervention [EIBI] programmes typically are conducted within the homes of children with autism. Despite evidence for their effectiveness in producing appreciable developmental gains in children with autism, a concern expressed about EIBI programmes is that stressful effects from the high levels…