During my first year of practice as a new action learning facilitator undertaking an "ILM Level 5 Certificate in Action Learning Facilitation", an innovative Individual Service Fund pilot was launched by "Certitude", the organisation for which I work. The aim of this pilot was to enable people with learning disabilities and…

Technology and social media, often seen as counter productive to student learning, can provide intriguing new ways to extend and enhance learning across international borders. This article explores one successful learning project, based on the Nobel Peace Prize, that connected students from Norway, South Africa, and the United States through…

In 2011, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation extended grants to three educational organizations working to develop or enhance competency-based approaches in large, urbanized school systems. The grant initiative, called Project Mastery, funded the development of technology-enhanced tools, including curriculum materials and online learning…

In 2011, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation created the Project Mastery grant program to support competency-based education initiatives in large school systems that serve a high proportion of disadvantaged youth. Competency-based education meets students where they are academically, provides students with opportunities for choice, and awards…

This report focuses on one of the State University of New York's (SUNY's) applied learning initiatives that includes work-based activities, e.g., co-ops, internships, work study, and clinical placement (SUNY Works). With funds from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, SUNY asked the Rockefeller Institute of Government to examine applied…

Plan Ceibal is an interinstitutional undertaking which has distributed XO laptops and Internet connectivity among primary school learners and teachers across Uruguay and developed a wide range of educational programmes. Ceibal administration believes that it is imperative to introduce English as a Foreign Language in primary education through the…

Northern Ireland has achieved political stability and its devolved government is now tackling public policy issues neglected during periods of sectarian violence. Notwithstanding the prevailing political optimism, one legacy of the conflict is a deeply divided society. This is particularly manifest in the education system where around 90% of…

The fact that research has shown that fractions are among the most difficult mathematical concepts for elementary school students to master (Behr, Harel, Post, & Lesh, 1992; Bezuk & Cramer, 1989; Moss & Case, 1999) provides a compelling motivation for research and innovation focused on improving the available assessment and…

This case study describes the leadership of a school counselor in implementing positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) in a low-income, diverse elementary school with a modest level of external supports. After initiating a grade-level pilot program, the school counselor partnered with university-based consultants to expand the PBIS…

In an endeavour to find solutions to the country's improving but ailing education system the South African government through some of its departments is attempting to find out if the introduction of technology in the class room has the potential to improve teaching and learning. The paper is based on a pilot study currently underway in Cofimvaba…

Video--once complex and expensive to create with high distribution costs--has become more affordable and highly accessible in addition to being a powerful teaching tool. Self-produced videos are one way educators can connect with a growing number of on-line learners. The authors describe a pilot project in which a series of video clips were…

This study details the experiences from a pilot program aimed at virtually pairing pre-service teacher education candidates with fifth-grade students for the purposes of raising achievement and creating meaningful field experiences. Researchers paired the difficulties of traditional field experiences with the difficulties in vocabulary…

"I can feel it making my brain bigger": from a Year 8 student at Pinjarra Senior High School (SHS) halfway through the two-year Thinking Science Program. Pinjarra was a pilot school for the program in 2009/10 and a growing number of schools in Western Australia (WA) are implementing this program in Years Seven to Nine as part of the…

This article describes several stages in the integration of assistive technology (AT) into and across the curriculum of a teacher education program. The multi-year initiative included several projects and strategies that differentially affected faculty ability to integrate training and evaluation in using AT in their coursework. All strategies…

In South Africa, until recently, mentoring has not been formalized as part of school leadership induction programmes or of leadership professional development. However, the South African government identified mentoring as a distinctive aspect of its pilot leadership development programme for school principals. This programme signalled a shift from…