The faculty learning community project at Howard University involved a diverse group of men and women, tenured, tenure-track, and future faculty across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The purpose of the group was to engage in the scholarship of teaching and learning by learning about teaching, reflecting on…

Digital tools are increasingly being used to support teaching in higher education. These tools place new demands on the tasks and responsibilities of the teacher, and can influence teacher roles. In this study we investigate the long-term use and development of a tool for facilitating the negotiation of meaning in argumentative student texts,…

Drawing on an activity theory analysis, Elizabeth A. Wardle considers whether cross-disciplinary FYC collaborations can help us achieve current FYC goals. Her analysis of learning community linked FYC courses at a large Midwestern university suggests that learning community teachers are faced with as many--if not more--challenges as traditional…

Social capital has recently emerged as an important interdisciplinary research area. It is frequently used as a framework for understanding various social issues in temporal communities, neighbourhoods and groups. In particular, researchers in the social sciences and the humanities have used social capital to understand trust, shared…

This article draws on Lefebvre's rhythmanalysis to interrogate and extend Bernstein's theory of pedagogic framing. It develops a typology of modes of pedagogic practice differentiated in terms of the dominance of one of three potential organising referents. These are (a) the grammar of the instructional discourse configured by a regulative…

A novel approach to improving instruction in an introductory computing course for freshmen non-computer-science majors is to couple it with a logic course as part of a Learning Community. Research has shown that effective Learning Communities can lead to higher academic achievement, better retention rates, diminished faculty isolation, and…

Online communities are meeting places for learners on the Internet designed to facilitate interaction and collaboration among people who share common interests and needs. Most participants are drawn by an opportunity to share a sense of community with like-minded strangers, regardless of were they live. School communities can be distinguished by…

Campus teaching is not independent of campus politics. Quality of teaching is partly a function of who cares. The complexity of the disciplines taught is not justification for indifference to the needs of students--and the needs of the public, and the state, and the campus administrative offices, and the instructors. Teaching is not merely a…

In many reports, scholars describe parent involvement in schools by focusing on the influence parents have on their children's learning or on the educators' perspective of parent involvement (e.g., Norton, 2003). This article looks at the issue through a different lens. It focuses on the nature of parents and community engagement in schools that…

As the 50th anniversary of the landmark "Brown v. Board of Education" decision arrives, a notably gesellschaftliche (individualist, freedom-oriented, rationalist) paradigm in the education policy agenda prevails. That is to say, in the wake of a series of Supreme Court decisions and the proliferation of publicly funded, ethnocentric charter…

USPE-L (recently renamed NASPE-L) is an e-mail listserv that provides a forum for physical educators to discuss their teaching and programs--and offer collegial support that may not be immediately available in a local community. This study used two sources of data collection including an e-mail survey (N=113) and follow-up phone interviews (N=10)…

Desiring to overcome sharp feelings of disconnection, a year-long participatory action research seminar involving both clinical and tenure-track teacher education faculty was formed. Working in teams with tenure-track faculty support, clinical faculty set research questions but they were reluctant to assume project leadership. In part, because of…

When we reflect on the emergence of online education and e-learning as the leading contender to confront the traditions of face-to-face teaching and learning, it is not only a case of better understanding the characteristics of online environments, but also timely to assess the relevance of theories and frameworks informing the design and…

The nation's social agenda for improving education and training has converged with national economic forces (Hornbeck & Salamon, 1991). The emphasis on lifelong learning of the workforce through education, training and development, demands for ever-improving productivity and significant technological advancements have required new tools to…

This article arises from a broader study that investigates mathematics teacher learning in relation to teachers' participation in a two-year In-Service Education and Training (INSET) programme, structured to enhance participation in a community of practice, in the context of current South African curriculum change. The broader study focused on…