The current study is a collective self-study on how we as 15 teacher educators at a university in Norway tried to improve our teaching through working with cases with the aim of better supporting student teachers in making links between theory and practice. We wanted to address the common criticism in teacher education concerning a perceived gap…

The study aimed to see primary school leaders' practice of making schools as learning organisations. A qualitative approach with a phenomenological design was employed. Data was collected from 2 supervisors, 2 principals, 2 teachers, and 1 Education Office team leader via interview. The findings show (1) teachers and school leaders conceptualise…

Teacher quality is a perennially fertile field for education reformers. Among teacher quality policies, two of the more highly touted and widely adopted are state-mandated systems of teacher evaluation and formalized models of teacher collaborative teams, often known generally as professional learning communities (PLCs). Indeed, despite a…

Co-teaching provides the opportunity for two licensed professionals to share their expertise and differentiate instruction for a wide range of learners in a general education class. The authors describe four effective types of co-teaching partnerships and offer tips for pairing co-teachers.

Research shows that a cohesive classroom community, or the relationships built between students within a classroom setting, leads to a long list of positive student outcomes in higher education. This research seeks to better understand how to build cohesion in a classroom community, a goal that has become even more urgent given the student…

Overcome your team's dysfunctions and stay focused on important work with these strategies of polarity mapping.

The purpose of this study was to explore teachers' perceptions of the key supports principals provided that contributed to the development of high-functioning professional learning communities (PLCs). This study used a qualitative case study approach to learn from three schools in one mid-city district. Findings revealed three specific supports…

The purpose of this qualitative inquiry study examined principal perceptions of self-efficacy and EB's student achievement. This study collected interview data from a purposeful sample of six elementary, six middle school, and six high school principals from the Region 4 Education Service Center, Harris County area, in the state of Texas utilizing…

This article reports on an interdisciplinary project that conducted a series of systematic reviews of academic research about the use of pornography and sexual health. Academics from a variety of disciplines were involved; half of the team had a background in humanities and the other half a background in psychology. While working closely together,…

This study examined interdisciplinary vocational educator teams to identify differences in their team learning behaviours and examined whether their team affective reactions could explain these differences. We used a mixed-methods approach comprising a survey of 117 interdisciplinary work teams with 604 members and a qualitative analysis of our…

The complex and fluid nature of knowledge is a key dimension of the early childhood curriculum and of early childhood teaching and learning. Such complexity adds to the already complex and dynamic work of an early childhood teacher. With a dynamic view of knowledge in mind, this article reports on research with a team of early childhood teachers…

Background: Team-based instructional change is a promising model for improving undergraduate STEM instruction. Teams are more likely to produce sustainable, innovative, and high-quality outcomes than individuals working alone. However, teams also tend to involve higher risks of failure and can result in inefficient allocation of valuable…

This paper discusses the instructional design experiences and processes shared by a multi-disciplinary group--including more than a dozen faculty, staff, and students--while developing a series of online courses on Model-based Systems Engineering (MBSE) for professional engineers, a project sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The team…

Professional development programs might affect teachers' perceptions of how STEM disciplines are interconnected. The purpose of this research was to examine the change in perceptions of science teachers particularly in disadvantageous schools, who participated in a practice-based professional development program offered in Turkey, about STEM,…

The word spirituality has a variety of meanings. Maria Montessori explored different facets of spirituality in her writings. Though she did not explicitly define "spirituality," she focused on the spiritual nature of the child and of the teacher-child relationship, as well as the spiritual preparation of the teacher. During her lifetime,…