This article asks difficult questions about higher-education courses provided by Western institutions to people living in refugee camps. It critically examines a blended-learning approach that incorporates a massive online open course (MOOC) into a scaffolded higher-education program--the University of Geneva's Connected Blended Learning model--in…

Teaching resources and professional development based on mathematics education research have the potential to support teachers to develop and sustain improved pedagogies. The Queensland Department of Education provided online professional learning modules for teachers of Prep (Foundation) to Year 10 mathematics. To support implementation of the…

In this essay, Rachel Schachter and Donald Freeman present the familiar problem in studying and improving teaching: how to connect what teachers know and think with what they do as they teach. They outline how research on the public and private worlds of teaching has become bifurcated, with the private side of the work often disconnected from…

In this plenary I reflect on the research I have shared over the past many years of participating and presenting in PME and PME-NA conferences to identify three intellectual divides that continually challenge and motivate my scholarship. I discuss how these intellectual borders (mathematics/education; expert/novice; research/teaching) create…

This paper examines how one primary school in the East Midlands region has worked to establish a culture of teacher-led, evidence-based teacher inquiry. It reports on a pilot year of research when the senior leadership team (SLT) decided to implement a strategic focus on evidence-based teaching, which would generate their own school knowledge,…

This paper introduces the goals of the research project on which this special issue of "Linguistics and Education" is based. A case is made for considering contemporary education as saturated by and dependent on oral and written language, and on beliefs and practices that relate knowledge, talk, reading and writing. The project is directed at a…

"Experiential" professional development (EPD), influenced by Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound design, was integrated in the classrooms of secondary Spanish teachers to create opportunities for them to learn to use communicative language teaching (CLT) through experience. Teachers collaborated with colleagues, students, and a…

Effective performance-based instruction is making a sustained and noticeable impact on township schools in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. We document the performance improvement effort made over the past 7 years by Partnerships for Educational Excellence and Research International (P.E.E.R), a team of educators, instructional system designers,…

In the 2007-2008 school year, the New York City Department of Education and the United Federation of Teachers jointly implemented the Schoolwide Performance Bonus Program in a random sample of the city's high-needs public schools. The program lasted for three school years, and its broad objective was to improve student performance through…

The purpose of this study was to use video feedback in the training of pre-service clinical educators. Thirty athletic training teacher participants were randomly placed in one of three equal groups where they were provided with the following interventions: a) teaching seminar and opportunity to observe video of teaching; b) teaching seminar; and…

Purpose: Teacher research (inquiry) has been characterized as practice improvement, professional development and action research, among numerous names and descriptions. The purpose of this paper is to support the case that teacher research is also a form of quality improvement known as continuous process improvement (CPI).…

We propose that the advent and ubiquity of new media tools and social networking resources provide a means for professional, networked learning to "scale up." We preface our discussion with a review of research that has led us to argue for professional learning communities, document the policies and practices of professional development…

Action research places a powerful tool for school improvement in the hands of teachers. By highlighting the outcomes that are possible and presenting clear steps in the research process, this book is one to encourage anyone who is seeking to implement evidence-based school improvement. Eileen Piggot-Irvine uses her Problem Resolving Action…

The federal government has invested billions of dollars to improve student academic performance, and many schools, teachers, and researchers are trying to determine the most effective instructional practices with which to accomplish this. The Conference Report for the Consolidated Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2008 directed the Government…

Noting that many of the nation's high schools are beset with major problems, such as low student reading and math achievement, high dropout rates, and an inadequate supply of effective teachers, Steve Fleischman and Jessica Heppen survey a range of strategies that educators have used to improve low-performing high schools. The authors begin by…