A Mixed-Methods Study Examining the Role of the Instructional Coach within a Professional Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jorgensen, Christie L.

2016-01-01

Although instructional coaching and professional learning communities provide ongoing, job-embedded support and professional learning, little is known about what role the instructional coach serves within the setting of the professional learning community or what coaching skills teachers find most helpful within this setting. Research examining…

Examining a One-Hour Synchronous Chat in a Microblogging-Based Professional Development Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gao, Fei; Li, Lan

2017-01-01

Research on microblogging in education has suggested its potential to promote community building and collaborative learning, but little is known about the nature of interaction in such microblogging communities. More research is needed to understand how online learning communities can be designed in a way that supports effective learning. The…

An Analysis of Gender and Major Differences upon Undergraduate Student Attitudes about Community Service Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shukla, P. K.; Shukla, Monica P.

2014-01-01

Community Service Learning (CSL) believes that university and colleges should incorporate community based service projects into courses. There are faculty and administrator supporters who argue for such proposals to require community service learning components into classes, but there are also faculty and administrator critics of such proposals.…

How Do Professional Learning Communities Aid and Hamper Professional Learning of Beginning Teachers Related to Differentiated Instruction?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De Neve, Debbie; Devos, Geert

2017-01-01

Research has shown that adequate support from the school environment is necessary to help beginning teachers in applying differentiated instruction (DI), but how schools can aid in this process remains unclear. This qualitative study explores how professional learning communities (PLCs), an indicator of a supportive school environment, can enhance…

Involving Tutors and Support Staff in the Adult and Community Learning Quality Agenda.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ravenhall, Mark; Ogilvie, Margaret; Ewens, David

This booklet outlines the new policy context facing adult and community learning (ACL) providers in Great Britain in their pursuit of high-quality learning experiences for their customers. It shows how a Total Quality Management (TQM) approach to supporting staff development can be effective in securing quality. TQM components are values,…

Launching Professional Learning Communities: Beginning Actions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leo, Tara; Cowan, D'Ette

2000-01-01

A Professional Learning Community (PLC) is a school where administrators and teachers continuously seek and share learning to increase their effectiveness for students and act on what they learn. PLCs are characterized by five dimensions: shared and supportive leadership, shared values and vision, collective learning and application of learning,…

Culture as a Tool: Facilitating Knowledge Construction in the Context of a Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Bo

2010-01-01

Knowledge construction is regarded as an effective learning model in practice. When more and more learning communities are organized to promote knowledge construction, it is necessary to know how to use different tools to support knowledge construction in the learning community context. In the literature, few researchers discuss how to construct…

Dublin Institute of Technology's Programme for Students Learning with Communities: A Critical Account of Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gamble, Elena; Bates, Catherine

2011-01-01

Purpose: This paper aims to focus on the process of critically evaluating Dublin Institute of Technology's Programme for Students Learning With Communities after its first year of operation. The programme supports and promotes community-based learning/service-learning across DIT. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is presented in the form of a…

Building up STEM education professional learning community in school setting: Case of Khon Kaen Wittayayon School

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thana, Aduldej; Siripun, Kulpatsorn; Yuenyong, Chokchai

2018-01-01

The STEM education is new issue of teaching and learning in school setting. Building up STEM education professional learning community may provide some suggestions for further collaborative work of STEM Education from grounded up. This paper aimed to clarify the building up STEM education learning community in Khon Kaen Wittayayon (KKW) School setting. Participants included Khon Kaen University researchers, Khon Kaen Wittayayon School administrators and teachers. Methodology regarded interpretative paradigm. The tools of interpretation included participant observation, interview and document analysis. Data was analyzed to categories of condition for building up STEM education professional learning community. The findings revealed that the actions of developing STEM learning activities and research showed some issues of KKW STEM community of inquiry and improvement. The paper will discuss what and how the community learns about sharing vision of STEM Education, supportive physical and social conditions of KKW, sharing activities of STEM, and good things from some key STEM teachers' ambition. The paper may has implication of supporting STEM education in Thailand school setting.

Layered Learning, Eustress, and Support: Impact of a Pre-Service-Learning Training on Students' Self-Efficacy in Teaching in the Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cooke, Natalie K.; Pursifull, Anne K.; Jones, Kerry M.; Goodell, L. Suzanne

2017-01-01

Service-learning programs provide students with opportunities to gain discipline-specific skills, while providing community organizations with a steady pool of volunteers. However, because students may lack the skills needed to effectively serve the community, skills-based training may need to be incorporated into service-learning courses.…

21st Century Community Learning Centers: Providing Afterschool and Summer Learning Support to Communities Nationwide

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Afterschool Alliance, 2014

2014-01-01

The 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) initiative is the only federal funding source dedicated exclusively to before-school, afterschool, and summer learning programs. Each state education agency receives funds based on its share of Title I funding for low-income students at high-poverty, low performing schools. Funds are also…

A Community Development Approach to Service-Learning: Building Social Capital between Rural Youth and Adults

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henness, Steven A.; Ball, Anna L.; Moncheski, MaryJo

2013-01-01

Using 4-H and FFA case study findings, this article explores how community service-learning supports the building of social capital between rural youth and adults and the positive effects on community viability. Key elements of practice form a community development approach to service-learning, which opens up doorways for youth to partner with…

Supporting Sophomore Success through a New Learning Community Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Virtue, Emily E.; Wells, Gayle; Virtue, Andrew D.

2013-01-01

The creation of a Sophomore Learning Community (SLC) model can help address concerns about the "sophomore slump" and sophomore attrition. While managing the logistics of a sophomore LC can be difficult, with proper faculty, staff, and administrative support, positive results can be produced. This article outlines the need for Sophomore…

Beyond Superheroes and Sidekicks: Empowerment, Efficacy, and Education in Community Partnerships

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stanlick, Sarah; Sell, Marla

2016-01-01

To support the work of service-learning and community engagement (SLCE) being done in a high-quality, sustainable way, ("Combining Service and Learning: A Resource Book for Community and Public Service"), Kendall offered three Principles of Good Practice: (1) integrating service-learning programs into the central mission and goals of the…

Investigating student communities with network analysis of interactions in a physics learning center

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brewe, Eric; Kramer, Laird; Sawtelle, Vashti

2012-06-01

Developing a sense of community among students is one of the three pillars of an overall reform effort to increase participation in physics, and the sciences more broadly, at Florida International University. The emergence of a research and learning community, embedded within a course reform effort, has contributed to increased recruitment and retention of physics majors. We utilize social network analysis to quantify interactions in Florida International University’s Physics Learning Center (PLC) that support the development of academic and social integration. The tools of social network analysis allow us to visualize and quantify student interactions and characterize the roles of students within a social network. After providing a brief introduction to social network analysis, we use sequential multiple regression modeling to evaluate factors that contribute to participation in the learning community. Results of the sequential multiple regression indicate that the PLC learning community is an equitable environment as we find that gender and ethnicity are not significant predictors of participation in the PLC. We find that providing students space for collaboration provides a vital element in the formation of a supportive learning community.

The Role of Nonclassroom Spaces in Living-Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Altimare, Emily; Sheridan, David M.

2016-01-01

A body of research suggests that learning communities provide a range of academic benefits by increasing social connectedness. Researchers have also hypothesized that informal learning spaces--nonclassroom spaces (NCSs)--can facilitate learning by supporting social connectedness. This study uses qualitative methods to explore the way nonclassroom…

Right Time, Right Place: Building an Online Learning Community for Afterschool Practitioners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balow, Nancy; Benard, Bonnie; Hipps, Jerry; Lauver, Sherri; McManus, John; Montgomery, Robert; Truebridge, Sara; Vitale, Alfred; Walker, Roy

2010-01-01

In 2008, the U.S. Department of Education awarded a contract to a team of education, youth development, and web development specialists to develop an online professional learning community for grantees in the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC). The online community, You for Youth (Y4Y, www.Y4Y.ed.gov) will support afterschool…

Principal Professional Learning Community Behavior in Low Wealth High Schools with Higher and Lower Student Achievement as Measured by Mastery Scores on the New York State Eleventh Grade ELA Regents Exam

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adams, Adrian

2016-01-01

This study was designed to analyze non-principal staff supervisors' perceptions of PLC efforts, encouragements, and activities in the six dimensions of a professional learning community (PLC) characterized as shared and supportive leadership, shared values and vision, collaborative culture, a focus on learning, supportive relationships, and…

Online Learning in Divorce: How the Formation of a Community of Practice in a Divorce Support Website Enables and Inhibits Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paechter, Carrie

2012-01-01

This article is about the informal learning that took place in an online divorce support and advice forum. In it, the author discusses the formation of a community of practice among the members during the first nine months of the site's operation. The author shows how the key markers of mutual engagement, joint enterprise and shared repertoire…

Numbers Are Not Enough. Why e-Learning Analytics Failed to Inform an Institutional Strategic Plan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Macfadyen, Leah P.; Dawson, Shane

2012-01-01

Learning analytics offers higher education valuable insights that can inform strategic decision-making regarding resource allocation for educational excellence. Research demonstrates that learning management systems (LMSs) can increase student sense of community, support learning communities and enhance student engagement and success, and LMSs…

Analysing a Web-Based E-Commerce Learning Community: A Case Study in Brazil.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Joia, Luiz Antonio

2002-01-01

Demonstrates the use of a Web-based participative virtual learning environment for graduate students in Brazil enrolled in an electronic commerce course in a Masters in Business Administration program. Discusses learning communities; computer-supported collaborative work and collaborative learning; influences on student participation; the role of…

Enhanced Learning through Electronic Communities: A Research Review.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burgstahler, Sheryl; Swift, Catherine

This report, in support of the project "Enhanced Learning through Electronic Communities," investigated successful practices of electronic communities. A literature review was conducted and a survey was sent to 15 system operators of networks that had a community-based focus with ancillary educational components and networks that focused primarily…

Learning for the Future: Neighborhood Renewal through Adult and Community Learning. A Guide for Local Authorities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Merton, Bryan; Turner, Cheryl; Ward, Jane; White, Lenford

This guide is intended to assist managers within England's local authority adult and community education services in supporting neighborhood renewal through adult and community learning (ACL). The guide's overall aim is to promote the skills, knowledge, and understanding that underpin the following items: (1) identification and development of…

Supporting Conditionally-Admitted Students: A Case Study of Assessing Persistence in a Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heaney, April; Fisher, Rick

2011-01-01

Using Astin's I-E-O model as a framework, this article explores the effects of a variety of factors on first-year persistence for conditionally-admitted students participating in a learning community at a public land-grant university. Since the learning community began in 2002, program administrators have collected survey, interview, and academic…

Building Capacity for Innovation: The Vanguard for Learning Model.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hunter, Beverly

When a school community is making a major investment in technology, the major challenge is to ensure that the technologies are used to support innovative practices that are responsive to the community's changing needs and opportunities for teaching and learning. How can implementation of technology be integrally embedded in and supportive of…

Evaluating How the Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Community Fosters Critical Reflective Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ma, Ada W.W.

2013-01-01

In recent research, little attention has been paid to issues of methodology and analysis methods to evaluate the quality of the collaborative learning community. To address such issues, an attempt is made to adopt the Activity System Model as an analytical framework to examine the relationship between computer supported collaborative learning…

Strategic Tooling: Technology for Constructing a Community of Inquiry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thompson, Penny; Vogler, Jane S.; Xiu, Ying

2017-01-01

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework describes online learning as a collaborative process supported by social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence, which work together to facilitate critical thinking and learning. The technology used in an online class can facilitate a CoI when its features support, rather than constrain,…

School-Community Links: Supporting Learning in the Middle Years

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hayes, Debra; Chodkiewicz, Andrew

2006-01-01

This paper reports on research into how schools, parents and local communities work together to support students' learning during the transition from primary to secondary schools in what is referred to as the middle years of schooling. The research was conducted in four Australian schools within one urban school district. These schools were…

Exploring the Impact of Learning Communities at a Community College: An Effort to Support Students Enrolled in a Developmental Math Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

VonHandorf, Teri A.

2012-01-01

The purpose of this mixed-methods participatory action research study was to explore the impact of learning communities on students enrolled in the lowest level of developmental math at a two-year college. The learning community consisted of twenty-three students who were enrolled in both a student success course (GEN102) and a developmental math…

Assessment of (Computer-Supported) Collaborative Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Strijbos, J. -W.

2011-01-01

Within the (Computer-Supported) Collaborative Learning (CS)CL research community, there has been an extensive dialogue on theories and perspectives on learning from collaboration, approaches to scaffold (script) the collaborative process, and most recently research methodology. In contrast, the issue of assessment of collaborative learning has…

Teacher Leadership Enactment in Professional Learning Community Contexts: Towards a Better Understanding of the Phenomenon

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hairon, Salleh; Goh, Jonathan Wee Pin; Chua, Catherine Siew Kheng

2015-01-01

Professional learning communities (PLCs) have gained considerable attention in education. However, PLCs are dependent on how group members collectively work and learn towards shared goals on improving teaching and learning. This would require leadership to support meaningful and productive interactions within PLC contexts, and hence, the…

Teacher Professional Learning Communities in Innovative Contexts: "Ah Hah Moments," "Passion" and "Making a Difference" for Student Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Owen, Susanne Mary

2015-01-01

Innovative educational approaches for schooling require changes to the traditional teacher role towards operating as co-facilitators and co-learners, and working in teacher teams, with considerable professional learning supporting this. Professional learning communities (PLCs) have been acknowledged as highly effective, with their characteristics…

Learning in Discussion Forums: An Analysis of Knowledge Construction in a Gaming Affinity Space

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Don; Marone, Vittorio

2016-01-01

In the learning sciences and game studies communities, there has been an increasing interest in the potential of game-related "paratexts" and "surrounds" in supporting learning, such as online discussion forums and gaming affinity spaces. While there have been studies identifying how learning occurs in such communities, little…

One Happy Union: Infusing Community-Based Learning Projects through Online Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Jason W.; Kane, Jennifer; Cavanaugh, Terence

2015-01-01

Both community-based learning (CBL) and online learning are popular pedagogical practices, with distinct benefits and issues for teaching and learning. The integration of these practices may seem challenging, but they can be compatible. This article seeks to provide effective examples and support for conducting CBL projects in online courses while…

Unlocking the Potential of Urban Communities: Case Studies of Twelve Learning Cities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valdés-Cotera, Raúl, Ed.; Longworth, Norman, Ed.; Lunardon, Katharina, Ed.; Wang, Mo, Ed.; Jo, Sunok, Ed.; Crowe, Sinéad, Ed.

2015-01-01

UNESCO established the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities (GNLC) to encourage the development of learning cities. By providing technical support, capacity development, and a platform where members can share ideas on policies and best practice, this international exchange network helps urban communities create thriving learning cities. The…

Integrating Schools, Families, and Communities through Successful School Reform: The School Development Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haynes, Norris M.; Comer, James P.

1996-01-01

The concept of community is significant in the discourse on children's development and learning. In view of the continuing disintegration of childrens' supportive communities, efforts to reform and improve American education must include ways to reinvent and revive learning communities. This is the central work of the School Development Program…

Building Relationships, Sharing Resources, and Opening Opportunities: A STEM Learning Community Builds Social Capital for Students with Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whitney, Jean; Langley-Turnbaugh, Samantha; Lovewell, Lynn; Moeller, Babette

2012-01-01

This article describes a learning community designed for university students with disabilities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) majors at the University of Southern Maine. The Learning Community (LC) seminar is a credit-bearing class and part of a pipeline of supports and services for high school and college students with…

Creating Learning Communities: A Practical Guide to Winning Support, Organizing for Change, and Implementing Programs. Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shapiro, Nancy S.; Levine, Jodi H.

This book offers guidance for the development of learning communities at the college level. The book analyzes examples of learning communities at a wide variety of institutions, including research universities, commuter campuses, residential campuses, and four- and two-year institutions. Chapter 1 offers definitions and characteristics of learning…

Learning Outside of Classroom: Exploring the Active Part of an Informal Online English Learning Community in China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sun, Yanyan; Franklin, Teresa; Gao, Fei

2017-01-01

This study explored how the GRE Analytical Writing Section Discussion Forum, an informal online language learning community in China, functioned to support its members to improve their English writing proficiency. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) model was used as the theoretical framework to explore the existence of teaching presence, cognitive…

Enhancing project-oriented learning by joining communities of practice and opening spaces for relatedness

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pascual, R.

2010-03-01

This article describes an extension to project-oriented learning to increase social construction of knowledge and learning. The focus is on: (a) maximising opportunities for students to share their knowledge with practitioners by joining communities of practice, and (b) increasing their intrinsic motivation by creating conditions for student's relatedness. The case study considers a last year capstone course in Mechanical Engineering. The work addresses innovative practices of active learning and beyond project-oriented learning through: (a) the development of a web-based decision support system, (b) meetings between the communities of students, maintenance engineers and academics, and (c) new off-campus group instances. The author hypothesises that this multi-modal approach increases deep learning and social impact of the educational process. Surveys to the actors support a successful achievement of the educational goals. The methodology can easily be extended to further improve the learning process.

Building community capacity using web-supported work-based learning.

PubMed

Pearson, Pauline; Young-Murphy, Lesley; Yaseen, Jonathan; Shiel, Gillian

2013-02-01

Health visitors are a central component of policy to create strong, stable families and communities. The programme which is described here is intended to facilitate existing health visitors to gain confidence and extend or renew their skills in building community capacity (BCC). Networking and relationships are essential to effective community development. These are key skills for the health visitor, which along with professional principles support community capacity building. Learning in this programme is self-directed, supported by web-based resources over a 24 week period. Learning mainly takes place in practice. It involves carrying out a work based project through to completion. Participants register online, and follow a series of six phases. Evaluation of the pilot took place during 2011. Three main areas for improvement were identified: reflective software; signposting access to resources; and dealing with workload pressures. Community engagement for health improvement remains an important element of the vision for health visiting. The programme described is a core resource through which health visitors can build the skills and confidence of community groups and staff in other agencies to make a difference to health and wellbeing.

Assessing and Acknowledging Learning through Non-Accredited Community Adult Language, Literacy and Numeracy Programs: Support Document

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dymock, Darryl; Billett, Stephen

2008-01-01

This Support Document was produced by the authors based on their research for the report, "Assessing and Acknowledging Learning through Non-Accredited Community Adult Language, Literacy and Numeracy Programs," and is an added resource for further information. There were five phases of this project: Phase 1 comprised further interrogation…

A Case Study of Certified Support Staff Members' Perceptions of Professional Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Byrd, Tresseler S.

2012-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the perceptions of certified support staff at a Georgia middle school, focusing on their opinions of Professional Learning Communities (PLC), the roles they played in PLCs and the effect PLCs had on their professional practices. This descriptive case study utilized open-ended interviews,…

Teacher Academy Induction Learning Community: Guiding Teachers through Their Zone of Proximal Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flores, Belinda Bustos; Hernandez, Arcelia; Garcia, Claudia Trevino; Claeys, Lorena

2011-01-01

This is a preliminary analysis of The Academy for Teacher Excellence (ATE) induction support provided through the Teacher Academy Induction Learning Community (TAILC). In response to current US teacher attrition rates, ATE-TAILC's primary objective is to retain teachers in the classroom and provide support to ensure they are fully prepared to meet…

Supporting Public High School Teachers in a Context of Multiple Mandates: A Social Justice Approach to Professional Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harak, Philip J.

2012-01-01

Although public school teaching by its inherent nature presents numerous classroom challenges, the public high school teacher today is faced in addition with multiple external mandates from several outside stakeholders. Given the established track record of professional learning communities (PLCs) to provide teacher support and development, I…

School-Community Partnerships in Support of Student Learning: Taking a Second Look at the Governance of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blank, Martin J.; Hale, Elizabeth L.; Housman, Naomi; Kaufmann, Barbara; Martinez, Monica; McCloud, Barbara; Samberg, Laura; Walter, Sharon

This study, the second of 2 conducted by the Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL) on the governance of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC) program, describes the growth and development of collaborative decision-making in 4 of the initial grantee communities after 2 years of funding. IEL's first report asked the original 99…

Convergent Technologies in Distance Learning Delivery.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wheeler, Steve

1999-01-01

Describes developments in British education in distance learning technologies. Highlights include networking the rural areas; communication, community, and paradigm shifts; digital compression techniques and telematics; Web-based material delivered over the Internet; system flexibility; social support; learning support; videoconferencing; and…

Engaging students in a community of learning: Renegotiating the learning environment.

PubMed

Theobald, Karen A; Windsor, Carol A; Forster, Elizabeth M

2018-03-01

Promoting student engagement in a student led environment can be challenging. This article reports on the process of design, implementation and evaluation of a student led learning approach in a small group tutorial environment in a three year Bachelor of Nursing program at an Australian university. The research employed three phases of data collection. The first phase explored student perceptions of learning and engagement in tutorials. The results informed the development of a web based learning resource. Phase two centred on implementation of a community of learning approach where students were supported to lead tutorial learning with peers. The final phase constituted an evaluation of the new approach. Findings suggest that students have the capacity to lead and engage in a community of learning and to assume greater ownership and responsibility where scaffolding is provided. Nonetheless, an ongoing whole of course approach to pedagogical change would better support this form of teaching and learning innovation. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

New models to support the professional education of health visitors: A qualitative study of the role of space and place in creating 'community of learning hubs'.

PubMed

Donetto, Sara; Malone, Mary; Sayer, Lynn; Robert, Glenn

2017-07-01

In response to a policy-driven workforce expansion in England new models of preparing health visitors for practice have been implemented. 'Community of Learning hubs' (COLHs) are one such model, involving different possible approaches to student support in clinical practice placements (for example, 'long arm mentoring' or 'action learning set' sessions). Such models present opportunities for studying the possible effects of spatiality on the learning experiences of students and newly qualified health visitors, and on team relationships more broadly. To explore a 'community of learning hub' model in health visitor education and reflect on the role of space and place in the learning experience and professional identity development of student health visitors. Qualitative research conducted during first year of implementation. Three 'community of learning hub' projects based in two NHS community Trusts in London during the period 2013-2015. Managers and leads (n=7), practice teachers and mentors (n=6) and newly qualified and student health visitors (n=16). Semi-structured, audio-recorded interviews analysed thematically. Participants had differing views as to what constituted a 'hub' in their projects. Two themes emerged around the spaces that shape the learning experience of student and newly qualified health visitors. Firstly, a generalised need for a 'quiet place' which allows pause for reflection but also for sharing experiences and relieving common anxieties. Secondly, the role of physical arrangements in open-plan spaces to promote access to support from more experienced practitioners. Attention to spatiality can shed light on important aspects of teaching and learning practices, and on the professional identities these practices shape and support. New configurations of time and space as part of educational initiatives can surface new insights into existing practices and learning models. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

A Study of the Relationship between Distance Learners' Perception of the Value of Student Support Services and a Sense of Belonging in the University's Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Emmanuel-Frenel, Rouseline

2017-01-01

This study asked two primary questions: (1) to what extent do distance learners find value in student support services; and (2) is there a relationship between the value placed on student support services and students' sense of belonging in the university's learning community? Value was defined as the frequency of use, importance, and satisfaction…

Critically Reflective Dialogues in Learning Communities of Professionals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Groot, Esther; Endedijk, Maaike D.; Jaarsma, A. Debbie C.; Simons, P. Robert-Jan; van Beukelen, Peter

2014-01-01

Communities in which professionals share and create knowledge potentially support their continued learning. To realise this potential more fully, members are required to reflect critically. For learning at work such behaviour has been described as critically reflective work behaviour, consisting of six aspects: challenging groupthink, critical…

Lessons Learned by Community Stakeholders in the Massachusetts Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration (MA-CORD) Project, 2013–2014

PubMed Central

Ganter, Claudia; Aftosmes-Tobio, Alyssa; Chuang, Emmeline; Kwass, Jo-Ann; Land, Thomas

2017-01-01

Introduction Childhood obesity is a multifaceted disease that requires sustainable, multidimensional approaches that support change at the individual, community, and systems levels. The Massachusetts Childhood Obesity Research Demonstration project addressed this need by using clinical and public health evidence-based methods to prevent childhood obesity. To date, little information is known about successes and lessons learned from implementing such large-scale interventions. To address this gap, we examined perspectives of community stakeholders from various sectors on successes achieved and lessons learned during the implementation process. Methods We conducted 39 semistructured interviews with key stakeholders from 6 community sectors in 2 low-income communities from November 2013 through April 2014, during project implementation. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed by using the constant comparative method. Data were analyzed by using QSR NVivo 10. Results Successes included increased parental involvement in children’s health and education, increased connections within participating organizations and within the broader community, changes in organizational policies and environments to better support healthy living, and improvements in health behaviors in children, parents, and stakeholders. Lessons learned included the importance of obtaining administrative and leadership support, involving key stakeholders early in the program planning process, creating buffers that allow for unexpected changes, and establishing opportunities for regular communication within and across sectors. Conclusion Study findings indicate that multidisciplinary approaches support health behavior change and provide insight into key issues to consider in developing and implementing such approaches in low-income communities. PMID:28125400

In pursuit of a holistic learning environment: the impact of music in the medical physiology classroom.

PubMed

Modell, Harold I; DeMiero, Frank G; Rose, Louise

2009-03-01

A holistic learning environment is one that nurtures all aspects of students' learning. The environment is safe, supportive, and provides opportunities to help students deal with nonacademic as well as academic factors that impact their learning. Creation of such an environment requires the establishment of a supportive learning community. For a variety of reasons, establishing such a learning community of first-year medical students can be challenging. This communication presents one approach to meeting this challenge in a medical school Human Physiology course. Steps were taken at the beginning of the course to create the community, and activities designed to reinforce these efforts were incorporated into the course as it progressed. Two pilot studies were conducted to test the hypothesis that providing students with a participatory music experience may help to promote a holistic learning environment by helping them restore a sense of balance to their emotional well-being as well as reinforce a sense of community in the classroom. Student response to these activities indicated that these efforts provided emotional support during stressful periods during the quarter, helped promote a feeling of safety within the environment, and re-energized the class during long class sessions. This project illustrates that each instructor, within the confines of his/her own classroom, can make a significant contribution to achieving a holistic learning environment for his/her students.

Cultural patterns in children's learning through keen observation and participation in their communities.

PubMed

Correa-Chávez, Maricela; Roberts, Amy L D; Pérez, Margarita Martínez

2011-01-01

This chapter examines children's learning through careful attention and participation in the ongoing activities of their community. This form of learning, which has been called learning through Intent Community Participation, seems to be especially common in Mesoamerican Indigenous communities. In these communities, children are integrated into the everyday work and lives of adults and their learning may not be the central focus. We contrast this pattern with that of middle-class European American communities where children are segregated from the primary adult functions of the community. In middle-class communities and schools, children are often encouraged to engage in abstract lessons where their attention is explicitly directed to specific events. In contrast, learning through keen attention and observation may rely on learning through attention to instructions not specifically directed to the learner. Studies demonstrate Mesoamerican Indigenous children's ability to learn through simultaneous and open attention to overheard or observed activities. This form of learning is supported through multiple modalities of communication and interaction. Motivation to learn stems from the learner's inclusion into the major activities and goals of the community. Implications of research and future directions for the study of learning through keen observation are discussed.

Learning from Success as Leverage for a Professional Learning Community: Exploring an Alternative Perspective of School Improvement Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schechter, Chen

2010-01-01

Background: Although the professional learning community as a means of improving student achievement has received growing support from researchers and practitioners alike, professionals are still exploring ways to develop interaction networks regarding teaching and learning issues. Purpose: This study explores the evolving stages of a collective…

Learning Design for Multiple Modes of Provision: The Zambian Community School Teacher Development Programme

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Amory, Alan; Bialobrzeska, Maryla; Welch, Tessa

2018-01-01

The use of technology to support learning is becoming ubiquitous in Africa. However, technology is more often used to distribute information rather than as a tool to mediate learning. The work presented here on a programme for Zambian community school teachers (non-traditional students) illustrates how learning design allied to appropriate…

Lifting the Status of Learning Support Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kusuma-Powell, Ochan; Powell, William

2016-01-01

Status, the perception of one's standing in relation to others in a group, negatively influence learning. Status issue have implications for educating students with special learning needs: Both these students and the learning support or special education teachers who serve them often hold low status in a school community. Like adults, children…

Use of Service-Learning to Teach Health Literacy with Online Graduate Nursing Students.

PubMed

George, Tracy P; DeCristofaro, Claire

To meet Healthy People 2020 goals, health literacy must be included in health care program curricula. In a fully online graduate nursing course, an innovative service-learning activity asked students to collaborate in the creation of low-literacy patient education pamphlets for practice partners at a community rehabilitation facility. Involvement with community stakeholders such as support groups and interprofessional team members enhanced interdisciplinary educational outcomes. Through this innovative project-based activity, students were able to meet the clinical education and decision support needs of rehabilitation patients while translating academic coursework to support actual community needs.

Academic Outcomes among a Sample of Learning Support Community College Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Skinner, Amy D.

2014-01-01

This research examined the relationship between placement in a learning support college program and subsequent academic outcomes. The sample consisted of 275 entering freshmen students who were enrolled in the Learning Support reading courses in the fall of 2005. Data were collected from the Gordon College Office of Institutional Research. The…

Informal teacher communities enhancing the professional development of medical teachers: a qualitative study.

PubMed

van Lankveld, Thea; Schoonenboom, Judith; Kusurkar, Rashmi; Beishuizen, Jos; Croiset, Gerda; Volman, Monique

2016-04-14

Informal peer learning is a particularly powerful form of learning for medical teachers, although it does not always occur automatically in the departments of medical schools. In this article, the authors explore the role of teacher communities in enhancing informal peer learning among undergraduate medical teachers. Teacher communities are groups of teachers who voluntarily gather on a regular basis to develop and share knowledge. Outside of medical education, these informal teacher communities have proved to be an effective means of enhancing peer learning of academic teachers. The processes underlying this outcome are, however, not known. This study therefore aims to explore the processes that make informal teacher communities effective in supporting peer learning of teachers. A qualitative study was performed at a Dutch medical school, where a student-centred undergraduate curriculum had recently been introduced. As part of this curriculum, tutors are segregated into separate specialty areas and thus have only limited opportunities for informal learning with other tutors. The authors followed two informal teacher communities aimed at supporting these tutors. They observed the interactions within the teacher communities and held semi-structured interviews with ten of the participants. The observation notes and interview data were analysed using thematic analysis. The informal teacher communities allowed the tutors to engage in a dialogue with colleagues and share questions, solutions, and interpretations. The teacher communities also provided opportunities to explicate tacit expertise, which helped the tutors to develop an idea of their role and form a frame of reference for their own experiences. Furthermore, the communities enhanced the tutors' sense of belonging. The tutors felt more secure in their role and they felt valued by the organisation due to the teacher communities. This study shows that informal teacher communities not only support the professional development of tutors, but also validate and strengthen their identity as teachers. They seem to provide a dialogical space where informal intercollegiate learning is stimulated, stories are shared, tacit knowledge is made explicit, concerns are shared, and teacher identity is nurtured.

45 CFR 2517.710 - Are there limits on the use of funds?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICE-LEARNING PROGRAMS Funding Requirements § 2517.710... financial support to any participant in a service-learning program under this part except reimbursement for...

45 CFR 2517.710 - Are there limits on the use of funds?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICE-LEARNING PROGRAMS Funding Requirements § 2517.710... financial support to any participant in a service-learning program under this part except reimbursement for...

An Examination of the Factors That Influence the Transfer of Learning among K-12 Educators Participating in Professional Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCullum, Charcelor Channing

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate and identify the factors that either support or inhibit learning transfer among educators within K-12 professional learning communities (PLCs) as well as to obtain a better understanding of how adult education principles relate to teacher learning and job satisfaction within this environment. Although…

Cohorts, Communities of Inquiry, and Course Delivery Methods: UTC Best Practices in Learning--The Hybrid Learning Community Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rausch, David W.; Crawford, Elizabeth K.

2012-01-01

From the early 1990s to present, the practice of cohort-based learning has been on the rise in colleges, universities, organizations, and even some K-12 programs across the nation. This type of learning model uses the power of the interpersonal relationships to enhance the learning process and provide additional support to the cohort members as…

Conceptualization and Support of the Role of Teachers Serving as Team Leaders in a Professional Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gordin, Lanelle

2010-01-01

This study presents the results of a phenomenological qualitative investigation into the new role of teachers serving as team leaders in a professional learning community, as well as the support team leaders need from members and principals to be effective. Collaborative teacher teams in 6 schools that have been developing as professional learning…

From Long-Stay Hospitals to Community Care: Reconstructing the Narratives of People with Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leaning, Brian; Adderley, Hope

2016-01-01

Raymond, a 62 year old gentleman diagnosed with severe and profound learning disabilities, autistic spectrum disorder and severe challenging behaviour, who had lived in long stay campus-based hospital accommodation for 46 years was supported to move to a community project developed to support people to live in their own bespoke flat. This…

Moving on the Continuum between Teaching and Learning: Communities of Practice in a Student Support Programme

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Naude, Luzelle; Bezuidenhout, Hannemarie

2015-01-01

The focus of this article is on the experiences of staff members involved in a student support programme. The experiential, social, and student-centred approaches incorporated in this programme provided not only students, but also academics with pathways to lifelong learning. Functioning in a community of practice (CoP) (with students and also…

Teaching on Purpose: A Collegium Community Model for Supporting Intentional Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robinson, Jennifer Meta; Kearns, Katherine Dowell; Gresalfi, Melissa; Sievert, April K.; Christensen, Tyler Booth

2015-01-01

The "collegium" learning community teaches mid-career graduate students intentionally to prepare for and create learning opportunities for their undergraduate students, what the authors call "teaching on purpose." The design addresses the lack of alignment between research on learning and preparation of faculty for teaching,…

Sustaining Excellence in Experienced Principals? Critique of a Professional Learning Community Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Piggot-Irvine, Eileen

2006-01-01

Independent reviewer evaluations of the Ministry of Education (MoE) funded Principal Professional Learning Community (PPLC) programme for experienced principals in New Zealand (NZ) suggest a highly valued and strongly supportive programme. My own critique of the programme, against criteria for "strong" professional learning communities…

Social Networks and Performance in Distributed Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cadima, Rita; Ojeda, Jordi; Monguet, Josep M.

2012-01-01

Social networks play an essential role in learning environments as a key channel for knowledge sharing and students' support. In distributed learning communities, knowledge sharing does not occur as spontaneously as when a working group shares the same physical space; knowledge sharing depends even more on student informal connections. In this…

Social Networks, Communication Styles, and Learning Performance in a CSCL Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cho, Hichang; Gay, Geri; Davidson, Barry; Ingraffea, Anthony

2007-01-01

The aim of this study is to empirically investigate the relationships between communication styles, social networks, and learning performance in a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) community. Using social network analysis (SNA) and longitudinal survey data, we analyzed how 31 distributed learners developed collaborative learning…

Critically Reflective Work Behaviour within Autonomous Professionals' Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de Groot, Esther; van den Berg, B. A. M.; Endedijk, M. D.; van Beukelen, P.; Simons, P. R. J.

2011-01-01

Informal learning communities in which participants show critically reflective work behaviour (CRWB) have the potential to support lifelong learning. In practice this behaviour does not always occur in groups of autonomous professionals. This study explores design principles (DPs) that could act as social affordances for CRWB, within the context…

CSU Digital Ambassadors: An Empowering and Impactful Faculty Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soodjinda, Daniel; Parker, Jessica K.; Ross, Donna L.; Meyer, Elizabeth J.

2014-01-01

This article chronicles the work of the California State University Digital Ambassador Program (DA), a Faculty Learning Community (FLC), which brought together 13 faculty members across the state to create ongoing, targeted spaces of support for colleagues and educational partners to learn about innovative technological and pedagogical practices…

Utilizing Peer Mentor Roles in Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rieske, Laura Jo; Benjamin, Mimi

2015-01-01

For a number of learning community programs, peer mentors provide an additional layer of staffing support. This chapter highlights peer mentor roles from a sample of programs and suggests important components for the construction of these roles.

Using a multi-state Learning Community as an implementation strategy for immediate postpartum long-acting reversible contraception.

PubMed

DeSisto, Carla L; Estrich, Cameron; Kroelinger, Charlan D; Goodman, David A; Pliska, Ellen; Mackie, Christine N; Waddell, Lisa F; Rankin, Kristin M

2017-11-21

Implementation strategies are imperative for the successful adoption and sustainability of complex evidence-based public health practices. Creating a learning collaborative is one strategy that was part of a recently published compilation of implementation strategy terms and definitions. In partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other partner agencies, the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials recently convened a multi-state Learning Community to support cross-state collaboration and provide technical assistance for improving state capacity to increase access to long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) in the immediate postpartum period, an evidence-based practice with the potential for reducing unintended pregnancy and improving maternal and child health outcomes. During 2015-2016, the Learning Community included multi-disciplinary, multi-agency teams of state health officials, payers, clinicians, and health department staff from 13 states. This qualitative study was conducted to better understand the successes, challenges, and strategies that the 13 US states in the Learning Community used for increasing access to immediate postpartum LARC. We conducted telephone interviews with each team in the Learning Community. Interviews were semi-structured and organized by the eight domains of the Learning Community. We coded transcribed interviews for facilitators, barriers, and implementation strategies, using a recent compilation of expert-defined implementation strategies as a foundation for coding the latter. Data analysis showed three ways that the activities of the Learning Community helped in policy implementation work: structure and accountability, validity, and preparing for potential challenges and opportunities. Further, the qualitative data demonstrated that the Learning Community integrated six other implementation strategies from the literature: organize clinician implementation team meetings, conduct educational meetings, facilitation, promote network weaving, provide ongoing consultation, and distribute educational materials. Convening a multi-state learning collaborative is a promising approach for facilitating the implementation of new reimbursement policies for evidence-based practices complicated by systems challenges. By integrating several implementation strategies, the Learning Community serves as a meta-strategy for supporting implementation.

The Community of Learning Is in the Baobab Tree--How the Branches Stay Together in the Context of Professional Preparation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wolfensberger-Le Fevre, Celeste; Fritz, Elzette; van der Westhuizen, Gert

2011-01-01

This article explores how participation in a community of learning supported transformation on a personal and professional level in a Master's programme at a South African university. It draws on the concept of transformational learning in the professional preparation of educational psychologists, and how such learning plays out in the development…

Creating a Community of Practice: Lessons Learned from the Center for Astronomy Education (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brissenden, G.

2009-12-01

The Center for Astronomy Education (CAE) is devoted to improving teaching and learning in Astro 101. To accomplish this, a vital part of CAE is our broader community of practice which includes over 1000 instructors, graduate and undergraduate students, and postdocs. It is this greater community of practice that supports each other, helps, and learns from each other beyond what would be possible without it. As our community of practice has grown, we at CAE have learned many lessons about how different facets of CAE can best be used to promote and support our community both as a whole and for individual members. We will discuss the various facets of CAE, such as our online discussion group Astrolrner@CAE (http://astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov/discussion) and its Guest Moderator program, our CAE Regional Teaching Exchange Coordinator program, our CAE Workshop Presenter Apprenticeship Training program, our online This Month’s Teaching Strategy, monthly newsletters, and various types of socializing and networking sessions we hold at national meetings. But more importantly, we will discuss the lessons we’ve learned about what does and does not work in building community within each of these facets.

Exploring Students' Language Awareness through Intercultural Communication in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Yu-Fen

2013-01-01

Students seldom think about language unless they are instructed to do so or are made to do so during learning activities. To arouse students' awareness while learning English for Specific Purposes (ESP), this study formed a computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) community to engage teachers and students from different domains and…

Professional Learning Communities Facilitator's Guide for the What Works Clearinghouse Practice Guide: Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten through 3rd Grade. REL 2016-277

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kosanovich, Marcia; Foorman, Barbara

2016-01-01

The Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Southeast developed a Professional Learning Community (PLC) Facilitators Guide to support educators in the implementation of recommendations from the What Works Clearinghouse's. The practice guide focuses on the foundational reading skills that enable students to read words, relate those words to their…

New pathways to physics instruction: Blending a MOOC and in-person discussion to train physics graduate students and postdocs in evidence-based teaching

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goldberg, Bennett

A challenge facing physics education is how to encourage and support the adoption of evidence-based instructional practices that decades of physics education research has shown to be effective. Like many STEM departments, physics departments struggle to overcome the barriers of faculty knowledge, motivation and time; institutional cultures and reward systems; and disciplinary traditions. Research has demonstrated successful transformation of department-level approaches to instruction through local learning communities, in-house expertise, and department administrative support. In this talk, I will discuss how physics and other STEM departments can use a MOOC on evidence-based instruction together with in-person seminar discussions to create a learning community of graduate students and postdocs, and how such communities can affect departmental change in teaching and learning. Four university members of the 21-university network working to prepare future faculty to be both excellent researchers and excellent teachers collaborated on an NSF WIDER project to develop and deliver two massive open online courses (MOOCs) in evidence-based STEM instruction. A key innovation is a new blended mode of delivery where groups of participants engaged with the online content and then meet weekly in local learning communities to discuss content, communicate current experiences, and delve deeper into particular techniques of local interest. The MOOC team supported these so-called MOOC-Centered Learning Communities, or MCLCs, with detailed facilitator guides complete with synopses of online content, learning goals and suggested activities for in-person meetings, as well as virtual MCLC communities for sharing and feedback. In the initial run of the first MOOC, 40 MCLCs were created; in the second run this past fall, more than 80 MCLCs formed. Further, target audiences of STEM graduate students and postdocs completed at a 40-50% rate, indicating the value they place in building their knowledge in evidence-based instruction. We will present data on the impact of being in an MCLC on completion and learning outcomes, as well as data on departmental change in physics supported by MCLCs. Work supported by NSF DUE-1347605.

A Research Agenda for Professional Learning Communities: Moving Forward

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hairon, Salleh; Goh, Jonathan Wee Pin; Chua, Catherine Siew Kheng; Wang, Li-yi

2017-01-01

Professional learning communities (PLCs) as a means of raising the teaching profession are becoming more attractive in education systems seeking to improve school improvement processes and outcomes. The main intention is to increase the individual and collective capacity of teachers so as to support school-wide capacity for teaching and learning.…

Assessing the Change Process in Comprehensive High Schools Implementing Professional Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shaner, Robert G.

2009-01-01

Professional learning communities (PLC) have been identified as scaffolds that can facilitate, support, and sustain systemic change focused on improving student achievement. PLCs represent the application of the theoretical constructs of the learning organization within the framework of schools and school systems. Little is known about the change…

Mentoring as a Formalized Learning Strategy with Community Sports Volunteers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Griffiths, Mark; Armour, Kathleen

2012-01-01

The aim of our study was to examine formalized mentoring as a learning strategy for volunteer sports coaches and to consider implications for other volunteer groups in the community. Despite the increasingly popular use of mentoring as a learning and support strategy across professional domains, and the sheer scale of volunteer sports coach…

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Using a Common Read to Transform a Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Virtue, Emily; Wells, Gayle; MacKusick, Carol; Murphy-Nugen, Amy; Rose, Amy

2018-01-01

First-year seminars and learning communities (LC) have been used to help increase retention, provide continuity, and support students as they transition to the university setting. Another high impact educational practice--common intellectual experiences (CIE)--includes student activities centered on a theme to help facilitate learning, increase…

Designing a Resource Evolution Support System for Open Knowledge Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yang, Xianmin; Yu, Shengquan

2015-01-01

The continuous generation and evolution of digital learning resources is important for promoting open learning and meeting the personalized needs of learners. In the Web 2.0 era, open and collaborative authoring is becoming a popular method by which to create vast personalized learning resources in open knowledge communities (OKCs). However, the…

Applying TLC (a Targeted Learning Community) to Transform Teaching and Learning in Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Steiner, Hillary H.; Dean, Michelle L.; Foote, Stephanie M.; Goldfine, Ruth A.

2013-01-01

This article describes the development of a Targeted Learning Community (TLC) that supports first-year science students enrolled in a General Chemistry course. Drawing on student feedback and knowledge and expertise in their respective disciplines, four faculty members from two colleges at Kennesaw State University came together to develop a…

Education Diplomacy for Improving Learning of Vulnerable Children in Community Schools in Zambia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murru, Anna C.; Miyato, Harriet; Vandenbosch, Tom E.

2018-01-01

Communities and governments can learn from each other to provide access to education and meet the learning needs of their most vulnerable children. Education Diplomacy can be used to prioritize education challenges, build mutual understanding, and shape consensus toward solutions that are supported by empowered parents/guardians, teachers, school…

Understanding and Supporting Online Communities of Practice: Lessons Learned from Wikipedia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhao, Xiaoli; Bishop, M. J.

2011-01-01

In order to seek more effective ways to design and support online communities of practice, we examined how Wikipedia, a large-scale online community of practice, is developed and emerges over time. We conducted a Delphi study to explore the social, organizational, and technical factors that Wikipedia experts believe have supported the evolution of…

The Esther Madriz Diversity Scholars: A Case Study of Critical Consciousness Development within a Living-Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sears, Stephanie D.; Tu, Dawn Lee

2017-01-01

Living-Learning Communities (LLCs) develop and strengthen students' persistence by providing a greater sense of community, opportunities for co-curricular activities, and socially engaging and academically supportive peer environments (Shapiro & Levine, 1999). While researchers have affirmed the rationale, impact, and efficacy of LLCs, very…

Difference, Ambiguity and Potential for Learning--Local Communities Working in Partnership with Local Government.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blaxter, Loraine; Farnell, Richard; Watts, Jane

2003-01-01

An action learning project for neighborhood regeneration in Coventry, England, showed that differences of power and viewpoint were inevitable and essential. More open networks enabling communication among community groups were needed. Funding for community networking needed to go beyond short-term projects supported by the current policy agenda.…

Reducing Distance through Distance Learning: The Community College Leadership Doctoral Program at Colorado State University.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davies, Timothy Gray; Quick, Don

2001-01-01

Reports that the Community College Leadership program at Colorado State University creates a community among its nontraditional doctoral students using a blend of different learning modalities, including face-to-face experiences and synchronous and asynchronous online discussions. Discusses three types of support necessary for distance learning…

Professional Development in the Digital Age: Case Studies of Blended Communities of Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wagner, Jennifer Michelle

2010-01-01

The need for sustainable, meaningful teacher professional development to support the rising professional demands remains an on-going challenge for education. The use of current technologies, such as online learning systems, to leverage the development of learning communities, including communities of practice (CoPs), where teachers with a common…

Living and Learning Communities: One University's Journey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whitcher-Skinner, Kendra; Dees, Sharon J.; Watkins, Paul

2017-01-01

University housing has the capacity to offer more than comfortable living spaces, and campuses across the U.S., including our own, are exploring models of residential learning communities that provide both academic and social support students while cultivating a strong sense of community. In this article, we describe our campus foray into offering…

Rethinking women's learning and empowerment in Kenya: Maasai village women take initiative

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Takayanagi, Taeko

2016-12-01

This study investigates the activities of a village-based literacy centre in Kenya and explores the benefits of community development activities on women's well-being in Africa. Through the analysis of the stories of two Maasai women who had experienced adult literacy learning, the author discovered that: (1) the literacy instructor had inadequate in-service teacher training support from the government; (2) these women were using a space generated by collaborative informal learning through the literacy centre to improve their families' and community's well-being; and (3) these women gained empowerment through community development activities organised by the literacy centre. The author concludes that grassroots literacy and informal learning have been effective in improving the quality of life for the village women, and should be encouraged and supported by external agencies.

People Power.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howlett, Patricia

1993-01-01

School boards need to learn how to galvanize public support. Suggests ways to communicate with and involve citizens in supporting schools. Suggestions include parent centers, television interviews, cable access, community newsletters, and opening the schools to the community. (MLF)

Teaching Service Learning in the Geosciences: An On the Cutting Edge Workshop Report

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bruckner, M. Z.; Laine, E. P.; Mogk, D. W.; O'Connell, S.; Kirk, K. B.

2010-12-01

Service learning is an instructional method that combines community service and academic instruction within the context of an established academic course. It is a particularly effective approach that uses active and experiential learning to develop the academic skills required of a course of study and to simultaneously address authentic community needs. Service learning projects can energize and motivate students by engaging a sense of civic responsibility by working in concert with community partners. The geosciences provide abundant opportunities to develop service learning projects on topics related to natural hazards, resources, land use, water quality, community planning, public policy, and education (K-12 and public outreach). To explore the opportunities of teaching service learning in the geosciences, the On the Cutting Edge program convened an online workshop in February 2010. The goals of the workshop were to: 1) introduce the principles and practices of effective service learning instructional activities; 2) provide examples of successful service learning projects and practical advice about "what works;" 3) provide participants with the opportunity to design, develop, and refine their own service learning courses or projects; 4) develop collections of supporting resources related to the pedagogy of service learning; and 5) support a community of scholars interested in continued work on service learning in the geoscience curriculum. The workshop consisted of a series of web-based synchronous and asynchronous sessions, including presentations from experienced practitioners of service learning, panel discussions, threaded discussions, and editable web pages used to develop new material for the website. Time was also provided for small group and individual work and for participants to peer-review each others' service learning projects and to revise their own activities based on reviewer comments. Insights from the workshop were integrated into new web pages that can help others implement service learning projects in their own institutions and communities. Online resources developed by the workshop participants, conveners, and supporting staff include an assemblage of online and print resources, a searchable collection of peer-reviewed examples of service learning projects, a tutorial on using the "8-Block Model" to design and implement a service learning project, tips on finding service learning partners, advice on motivating students, departments and the community, and example assessment instruments. Faculty are encouraged to submit their own examples of additional service learning projects in the geosciences. The entire workshop program, resources and activities are available online at: http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/servicelearning/index.html

School Teachers' Continuous Professional Development in an Online Learning Community: Lessons from a Case Study of an eTwinning Learning Event

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holmes, Brian

2013-01-01

A social revolution is occurring in the way information is shared, knowledge is generated and innovation takes place over the Internet and there is renewed interest in the social concept of "community" to support online learning. This article describes action research conducted in the context of an eTwinning Learning Event (LE) that…

A Successful Implementation Strategy to Support Adoption of Decision Making in Mental Health Services.

PubMed

MacDonald-Wilson, Kim L; Hutchison, Shari L; Karpov, Irina; Wittman, Paul; Deegan, Patricia E

2017-04-01

Individual involvement in treatment decisions with providers, often through the use of decision support aids, improves quality of care. This study investigates an implementation strategy to bring decision support to community mental health centers (CMHC). Fifty-two CMHCs implemented a decision support toolkit supported by a 12-month learning collaborative using the Breakthrough Series model. Participation in learning collaborative activities was high, indicating feasibility of the implementation model. Progress by staff in meeting process aims around utilization of components of the toolkit improved significantly over time (p < .0001). Survey responses by individuals in service corroborate successful implementation. Community-based providers were able to successfully implement decision support in mental health services as evidenced by improved process outcomes and sustained practices over 1 year through the structure of the learning collaborative model.

Using an academic-community partnership model and blended learning to advance community health nursing pedagogy.

PubMed

Ezeonwu, Mabel; Berkowitz, Bobbie; Vlasses, Frances R

2014-01-01

This article describes a model of teaching community health nursing that evolved from a long-term partnership with a community with limited existing health programs. The partnership supported RN-BSN students' integration in the community and resulted in reciprocal gains for faculty, students and community members. Community clients accessed public health services as a result of the partnership. A blended learning approach that combines face-to-face interactions, service learning and online activities was utilized to enhance students' learning. Following classroom sessions, students actively participated in community-based educational process through comprehensive health needs assessments, planning and implementation of disease prevention and health promotion activities for community clients. Such active involvement in an underserved community deepened students' awareness of the fundamentals of community health practice. Students were challenged to view public health from a broader perspective while analyzing the impacts of social determinants of health on underserved populations. Through asynchronous online interactions, students synthesized classroom and community activities through critical thinking. This paper describes a model for teaching community health nursing that informs students' learning through blended learning, and meets the demands for community health nursing services delivery. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Professional Learning Communities Participant's Activities for the What Works Clearinghouse Practice Guide: Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten through 3rd Grade. REL 2016-277a

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kosanovich, Marcia; Foorman, Barbara

2016-01-01

The Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Southeast developed a Professional Learning Community (PLC) Facilitators Guide to support educators in the implementation of recommendations from the What Works Clearinghouse's. The practice guide focuses on the foundational reading skills that enable students to read words, relate those words to their…

The Community Perinatal Care Study: Home Visiting and Nursing Support for Pregnant Women

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnston, David; Tough, Suzanne; Siever, Jodi

2006-01-01

This article describes The Community Perinatal Care Study, a community-based study of pregnancy support that was conducted in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, between 2001 and 2004. The study was conducted to learn how to improve community-based pregnancy care and to improve prenatal care and healthy births, particularly for women with increased…

Participatory Action Research and Environmental Learning: Implications for Resilient Forests and Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ballard, Heidi L.; Belsky, Jill M.

2010-01-01

How can a participatory approach to research promote environmental learning and enhance social-ecological systems resilience? Participatory action research (PAR) is an approach to research that its' supporters claim can foster new knowledge, learning, and action to support positive social and environmental change through reorienting the standard…

Cohorts and Relatedness: Self-Determination Theory as an Explanation of How Learning Communities Affect Educational Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beachboard, Martine Robinson; Beachboard, John C.; Li, Wenling; Adkison, Stephen R.

2011-01-01

This study examines whether feelings of relatedness constitute a substantial means by which learning communities (cohorts) improve learning outcomes in higher education. It applies Ryan and Deci's Self-Determination Theory to an analysis of the National Survey of Student Engagement. The SDT hypothesizes that environments that support perceptions…

Othering in Online Learning: An Examination of Social Presence, Identity, and Sense of Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phirangee, Krystle; Malec, Alesia

2017-01-01

Fostering a strong sense of community among students in online courses is the goal of many instructors because it is seen as being essential in supporting students' learning experiences. However, high dropout rates in online learning suggest that students feel disconnected and isolated from their course, feelings which have been attributed to the…

Growing Lemon Trees from Lemons: Lessons Reaped from a SoTL Faculty Learning Community's Research "Failures"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dich, Linh; Brown, Karen M.; Kuznekoff, Jeff H.; Conover, Theresa; Forren, John P.; Marshall, Janet

2017-01-01

Failure can be central to faculty research; however, failure produces a vehicle for learning. Through an interdisciplinary faculty community, the authors supported each other in facing, learning from, and overcoming "failed" aspects of research projects. This article reports obstacles encountered in conducting Scholarship of Teaching and…

Civic Engagement and Organizational Learning Strategies for Student Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, Tami L.; Mendez, Jesse P.

2014-01-01

Students succeed in college by engaging with faculty, peers, and the community. Institutional leaders can utilize organizational learning strategies to learn what works to support civic learning outcomes and student success.

Using Web 2.0 for Learning in the Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mason, Robin; Rennie, Frank

2007-01-01

This paper describes the use of a range of Web 2.0 technologies to support the development of community for a newly formed Land Trust on the Isle of Lewis, in NW Scotland. The application of social networking tools in text, audio and video has several purposes: informal learning about the area to increase tourism, community interaction,…

Leveraging the Power of a Community of Practice to Improve Teaching and Learning about the Earth

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kastens, Kim; Manduca, Cathryn

2017-01-01

Faculty Communities of Practice (CoP) have been promoted as a way to improve education in both K-12 and higher education. Over the last two decades, faculty who teach undergraduate geoscience in the United States have built a thriving nationwide community of practice, characterized by individual learning, supportive colleagues, group…

From Community to Community of Practice: Exploring the Connection of Online Learners to Informal Learning in the Workplace

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conrad, Dianne L.

2008-01-01

The study that informs this article investigated how online learners' participation in and perception of their sense of learning community contributed to or affected their relationship to their workplace environment and their workplace colleagues. The findings support contentions that, in the workplace, the work itself constitutes the most…

Supporting Shared Resource Usage for a Diverse User Community: the OSG Experience and Lessons Learned

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garzoglio, Gabriele; Levshina, Tanya; Rynge, Mats; Sehgal, Chander; Slyz, Marko

2012-12-01

The Open Science Grid (OSG) supports a diverse community of new and existing users in adopting and making effective use of the Distributed High Throughput Computing (DHTC) model. The LHC user community has deep local support within the experiments. For other smaller communities and individual users the OSG provides consulting and technical services through the User Support area. We describe these sometimes successful and sometimes not so successful experiences and analyze lessons learned that are helping us improve our services. The services offered include forums to enable shared learning and mutual support, tutorials and documentation for new technology, and troubleshooting of problematic or systemic failure modes. For new communities and users, we bootstrap their use of the distributed high throughput computing technologies and resources available on the OSG by following a phased approach. We first adapt the application and run a small production campaign on a subset of “friendly” sites. Only then do we move the user to run full production campaigns across the many remote sites on the OSG, adding to the community resources up to hundreds of thousands of CPU hours per day. This scaling up generates new challenges - like no determinism in the time to job completion, and diverse errors due to the heterogeneity of the configurations and environments - so some attention is needed to get good results. We cover recent experiences with image simulation for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), small-file large volume data movement for the Dark Energy Survey (DES), civil engineering simulation with the Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES), and accelerator modeling with the Electron Ion Collider group at BNL. We will categorize and analyze the use cases and describe how our processes are evolving based on lessons learned.

The Predictive Relationship among the Community of Inquiry Framework, Perceived Learning and Online, and Graduate Students' Course Grades in Online Synchronous and Asynchronous Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rockinson-Szapkiw, Amanda J.; Wendt, Jillian; Wighting, Mervyn; Nisbet, Deanna

2016-01-01

The Community of Inquiry framework has been widely supported by research to provide a model of online learning that informs the design and implementation of distance learning courses. However, the relationship between elements of the CoI framework and perceived learning warrants further examination as a predictive model for online graduate student…

Technology Integration through Professional Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cifuentes, Lauren; Maxwell, Gerri; Bulu, Sanser

2011-01-01

We describe efforts to build a learning community to support technology integration in three rural school districts and the contributions of various program strategies toward teacher growth. The Stages of Adoption Inventory, classroom observations, the Questionnaire for Technology Integration, interviews, STAR evaluation surveys, a survey of…

A VIRTUAL LEARNING COMMUNITY TO FACILITATE SUSTAINABLE BEHAVIOR

EPA Science Inventory

Research to date on virtual learning communities suggests that electronic interaction can be a useful way to impact new skills and to encourage innovative practices by creating networked systems of mutual support. We expect that by being able to exchange information, trade tip...

Research and Policy: Can Online Learning Communities Foster Professional Development?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beach, Richard

2012-01-01

This column posits enhancing professional development through uses of digital tools to create professional learning communities (PLCs) designed to support collective inquiry and action research leading to schoolwide improvement. These digital tools include a social networking/discussion forum for teacher collaboration; teachers' individual…

Learner Support Services for Online Students: Scaffolding for Success.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ludwig-Hardman, Stacey; Dunlap, Joanna C.

2003-01-01

Effective retention for online students requires learner support services. Based on the principle of scaffolding, these services include intake and diagnosis during recruitment and admission, orientation to online learning, one-to-one advising, and access to a learning community. These supports can help overcome isolation, lack of self-direction…

The Essential Supports for School Improvement. Research Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sebring, Penny Bender; Allensworth, Elaine; Bryk, Anthony S.; Easton, John Q.; Luppescu, Stuart

2006-01-01

This report sets forth a framework of essential supports and contextual resources for school improvement, examines empirical evidence on its key elements and how they link to improvements in student learning, and investigates how a school's essential supports interact with community context to affect student learning. The purpose of this research…

Accelerating learning for pro-poor health markets.

PubMed

Bennett, Sara; Lagomarsino, Gina; Knezovich, Jeffrey; Lucas, Henry

2014-06-24

Given the rapid evolution of health markets, learning is key to promoting the identification and uptake of health market policies and practices that better serve the needs of the poor. However there are significant challenges to learning about health markets. We discuss the different forms that learning takes, from the development of codified scientific knowledge, through to experience-based learning, all in relationship to health markets. Notable challenges to learning in health markets include the difficulty of acquiring data from private health care providers, designing evaluations that capture the complex dynamics present within health markets and developing communities of practice that encompass the diverse actors present within health markets, and building trust and mutual understanding across these groups. The paper proposes experimentation with country-specific market data platforms that can integrate relevant evidence from different data sources, and simultaneously exploring strategies to secure better information on private providers and health markets. Possible approaches to adapting evaluation designs so that they are better able to take account of different and changing contexts as well as producing real time findings are discussed. Finally capturing informal knowledge about health markets is key. Communities of practice that bridge different health market actors can help to share such experience-based knowledge and in so doing, may help to formalize it. More geographically-focused communities of practice are needed, and such communities may be supported by innovation brokers and/or be built around member-based organizations. Strategic investments in and support to learning about health markets can address some of the challenges experienced to-date, and accelerate learning that supports health markets that serve the poor.

Communities of practice in support of collaborative multi-disciplinary learning and action in response to climate change

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heimlich, J. E.; Stylinski, C.; Palmquist, S.; Wasserman, D.

2017-12-01

Collaborative efforts reaching across interdisciplinary boundaries to address controversial issues such as climate change present significant complexities, including developing shared language, agreeing on common outcomes, and even establishing habits of regular dialogue. Such collaborative efforts should include museums, aquariums, zoos, parks, and youth groups as each of these informal education institutions provides a critical avenue for supporting learning about and responding to climate change. The community of practice framework offers a potential effective approach to support learning and action of diverse groups with a shared interest. Our study applied this framework to the NSF-funded Maryland and Delaware Climate Change Assessment and Education (MADE-CLEAR) project, facilitating informal educators across these two states to advance their climate change education practices, and could provide insight for a building a citywide multi-sector collaborative effort. We found strategies that center on the process of group evolution; support different perspectives, levels of participation, and community spaces; focus on value as defined by members; and balance familiarity and fun produced a dynamic and functional community with a shared practice where none had existed before. Also important was expanding the community-of-practice focus on relationship building to include structured professional development and spin-off opportunities for small-group team-based endeavors. Our findings suggest that this collaborative professional learning approach is well suited to diverse groups seeking creative solutions to complex and even divisive challenges.

Building online learning communities in a graduate dental hygiene program.

PubMed

Rogo, Ellen J; Portillo, Karen M

2014-08-01

The literature abounds with research related to building online communities in a single course; however, limited evidence is available on this phenomenon from a program perspective. The intent of this qualitative case study inquiry was to explore student experiences in a graduate dental hygiene program contributing or impeding the development and sustainability of online learning communities. Approval from the IRB was received. A purposive sampling technique was used to recruit participants from a stratification of students and graduates. A total of 17 participants completed semi-structured interviews. Data analysis was completed through 2 rounds - 1 for coding responses and 1 to construct categories of experiences. The participants' collective definition of an online learning community was a complex synergistic network of interconnected people who create positive energy. The findings indicated the development of this network began during the program orientation and was beneficial for building a foundation for the community. Students felt socially connected and supported by the network. Course design was another important category for participation in weekly discussions and group activities. Instructors were viewed as active participants in the community, offering helpful feedback and being a facilitator in discussions. Experiences impeding the development of online learning communities related to the poor performance of peers and instructors. Specific categories of experiences supported and impeded the development of online learning communities related to the program itself, course design, students and faculty. These factors are important to consider in order to maximize student learning potential in this environment. Copyright © 2014 The American Dental Hygienists’ Association.

Analyzing Educators' Online Interactions: A Framework of Online Learning Support Roles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nacu, Denise C.; Martin, Caitlin K.; Pinkard, Nichole; Gray, Tené

2016-01-01

While the potential benefits of participating in online learning communities are documented, so too are inequities in terms of how different populations access and use them. We present the online learning support roles (OLSR) framework, an approach using both automated analytics and qualitative interpretation to identify and explore online…

Faculty Members' Perceptions of Community College Centers for Teaching and Learning: A Qualitative Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frey, Sandra A.

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore faculty members' perceptions of community college Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTLs); whose main purpose is to promote, facilitate, and honor excellence in teaching and learning through the support of full-time and adjunct faculty, at all career stages. A generic qualitative study with a grounded…

Faculty Learning Communities: A Model for Supporting Curriculum Changes in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Engin, Marion; Atkinson, Fairlie

2015-01-01

This article reports on a faculty learning community (FLC) as a professional development model for faculty in an English-medium university in the United Arab Emirates. The authors describe how the introduction of a new learning and teaching technology, in the form of iPads, resulted in many of the faculty feeling unsure about their pedagogy. A…

What Difference Can ePortfolio Make? A Field Report from the Connect to Learning Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eynon, Bret; Gambino, Laura M.; Török, Judit

2014-01-01

Connect to Learning (C2L) is a FIPSE-funded project coordinated by LaGuardia Community College (CUNY) that links ePortfolio teams from 24 campuses nationwide into a supportive community of practice. Launched in 2011, C2L focused on exploring and documenting ePortfolio strategies to advance student, faculty, and institutional learning. Working…

Transitioning from learning healthcare systems to learning health care communities.

PubMed

Mullins, C Daniel; Wingate, La'Marcus T; Edwards, Hillary A; Tofade, Toyin; Wutoh, Anthony

2018-02-26

The learning healthcare system (LHS) model framework has three core, foundational components. These include an infrastructure for health-related data capture, care improvement targets and a supportive policy environment. Despite progress in advancing and implementing LHS approaches, low levels of participation from patients and the public have hampered the transformational potential of the LHS model. An enhanced vision of a community-engaged LHS redesign would focus on the provision of health care from the patient and community perspective to complement the healthcare system as the entity that provides the environment for care. Addressing the LHS framework implementation challenges and utilizing community levers are requisite components of a learning health care community model, version two of the LHS archetype.

Legitimate Peripheral Participation in Communities of Practice: Participation Support Structures for Newcomers in Faculty Student Councils

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eberle, Julia; Stegmann, Karsten; Fischer, Frank

2014-01-01

Participating in communities of practice (CoPs) is an important way of learning. For newcomers in such communities, the learning process can be described as legitimate peripheral participation (LPP). Although a body of knowledge on LPP has been accumulated from qualitative case studies, mostly focusing on the use of practices, the concrete…

Shared Values as Anchors of a Learning Community: A Case Study in Information Systems Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Giordano, Daniela

2004-01-01

This paper examines the role in both individual and organizational learning of the system of values sustained by a community undertaking a design task. The discussion is based on the results of a longitudinal study of a community of novice information system designers supported by a Web-based shared design memory which allows reuse of design…

Shadow netWorkspace: An Open Source Intranet for Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laffey, James M.; Musser, Dale

2006-01-01

Shadow netWorkspace (SNS) is a web application system that allows a school or any type of community to establish an intranet with network workspaces for all members and groups. The goal of SNS has been to make it easy for schools and other educational organizations to provide network services in support of implementing a learning community. SNS is…

Exploring Virtual Opportunities to Enhance and Promote an Emergent Community of Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Courtney, Kathy

2007-01-01

This paper gives an account of an attempt by an educational developer to support and strengthen an emergent Community of Practice (CoP) (Wenger 1998a). This community consists of members of staff associated in different capacities with the Centre for Interprofessional e-Learning (CIPeL), a Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL),…

Developing strategic systems supporting communities of practice in the Georgia Department of Transportation.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2011-12-01

This study is designed to explore strategies through which the Georgia Department of : Transportation (GDOT) can develop communities of practice to help employees facilitate critical : exchanges of knowledge, support organizational learning, and ulti...

Creating a Community of Learners in a Middle School Methods Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

D'Souza, Lisa Andries

2017-01-01

This examination of practice aims to share pedagogical practices, grounded in the research of teaching and learning, for building a community of learners in teacher education coursework. The pedagogical exploration supports explicit modeling of strategies to support teacher candidates in their mission to develop a community of learners in their…

Teachers' Challenges, Strategies, and Support Needs in Schools Affected by Community Violence: A Qualitative Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maring, Elisabeth F.; Koblinsky, Sally A.

2013-01-01

Background: Exposure to community violence compromises teacher effectiveness, student learning, and socioemotional well-being. This study examined the challenges, strategies, and support needs of teachers in urban schools affected by high levels of community violence. Methods: Twenty teachers from 3 urban middle schools with predominantly…

Cultivating Sustainable and Authentic Service-Learning Partnerships in the Environmental Sciences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ivanochko, Tara; Grain, Kari

2017-04-01

The two-term, community service-learning capstone course for Environmental Sciences at the University of British Columbia, Canada, aims to support both community and students using authentic science practice in service of the community. During the course development, we implemented a routine process for student and community feedback, instructor reflection and course revision. Drawing on data from 23 interviews and 9 focus groups collected over three years, findings from this study highlight ways that community partnerships can be sustained while students have an authentic science experience. Based on data collected from community partners, we highlight the key processes, challenges, successes, and practical considerations in the creation and sustainability of a scientifically robust service-learning course.

Professional Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eley, Alison

2017-01-01

There are many professional development programmes on offer for primary science. The best of these involve teachers in developing practice over time, alongside engaging with theory. In this article, the author considers how working as part of a professional learning community can support a collaborative and evidence informed approach to improving…

Supporting Clinical Practice Candidates in Learning Community Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeJarnette, Nancy K.; Sudeck, Maria

2015-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to monitor pre-service teacher candidates' progression and implementation of the learning community philosophy along with classroom management strategies. The study took place during their final semester of clinical practice. Data were collected from self-reports, surveys, university supervisor…

Factors That Develop Effective Professional Learning Communities in Taiwan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Peiying; Lee, Che-Di; Lin, Hongda; Zhang, Chun-Xi

2016-01-01

This research aimed to investigate the key factors of developing effective professional learning communities (PLCs) within the Taiwanese context. Four constructs--supportive and shared leadership, shared visions, collegial trust, and shared practices--were adopted and developed into an instrument for measuring PLC function. A stratified random…

Making Dissatisfaction Divine: An Inspired Approach to Whole-School Reform

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sweetland, Julie

2008-01-01

Building community and supporting learning are two principles of Whole Schooling. This article describes how Center for Inspired Teaching, a nonprofit educational reform organization, uses these principles to foster professional learning communities in public schools in Washington, DC. When change agents approach disengaged, disempowered faculties…

How to Trigger Emergence and Self-Organisation in Learning Networks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brouns, Francis; Fetter, Sibren; van Rosmalen, Peter

The previous chapters of this section discussed why the social structure of Learning Networks is important and present guidelines on how to maintain and allow the emergence of communities in Learning Networks. Chapter 2 explains how Learning Networks rely on social interaction and active participations of the participants. Chapter 3 then continues by presenting guidelines and policies that should be incorporated into Learning Network Services in order to maintain existing communities by creating conditions that promote social interaction and knowledge sharing. Chapter 4 discusses the necessary conditions required for knowledge sharing to occur and to trigger communities to self-organise and emerge. As pointed out in Chap. 4, ad-hoc transient communities facilitate the emergence of social interaction in Learning Networks, self-organising them into communities, taking into account personal characteristics, community characteristics and general guidelines. As explained in Chap. 4 community members would benefit from a service that brings suitable people together for a specific purpose, because it will allow the participant to focus on the knowledge sharing process by reducing the effort or costs. In the current chapter, we describe an example of a peer support Learning Network Service based on the mechanism of peer tutoring in ad-hoc transient communities.

Faculty Learning Communities: Improving Teaching in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ward, Hsuying C.; Selvester, Paula M.

2012-01-01

Faculty learning communities (FLCs) are collaborative collegial groups of faculty and other teaching staff who are interested in and committed to the improvement of their teaching to accommodate a diverse student population through group discourse, reflection and goal setting. In this article, we describe our FLC experiences that were supported by…

Professional Learning Communities: Keeping the Focus on Instructional Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spencer, Elizabeth J.

2016-01-01

The inclusion of professional learning community (PLC) groups is now a common initiative in many districts across the country. While this step supports the professional development of teachers, an effective PLC program must go beyond just bringing colleagues together during a common time. The author recommends organizational structures for schools…

Building Learning Communities: Partnerships, Social Capital and VET Performance. Support Document

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allison, Janelle; Gorringe, Scott; Lacey, Justine

2006-01-01

This document was produced by the authors based on their research for the report "Building Learning Communities: Partnerships, Social Capital and VET Performance." It provides regional summaries and the "facts and flavour" for each of the following areas: (1) Restructuring Rural Landscape (Wide Bay Burnett, Queensland); (2)…

Green Richland: Building Sustainable Local and World Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lester, Carole N.

2008-01-01

This article shares the college's experiences and the lessons learned in the creation of the GREENRichland Program and the other approaches to building sustainability. These programs directly support the college's vision to be the best place to learn, teach, and build sustainable local and world community. This discussion features details…

Increasing Student Success: An Interview with Edward A. Morante.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spann, Milton G.; Calderwood, Barbara J.

1998-01-01

Presents an interview with Edward Morante, Dean of Student Services and Learning Resources at College of the Desert (California), regarding the needs of high-risk community college students. Morante focuses on assessment, placement, basic-skills courses, student-support services, the learning-community concept, student involvement, and evaluation,…

Using Cognitive Maps to Promote Self-Managed Learning in Online Communities of Inquiry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peacock, Susi; Cowan, John

2016-01-01

As online learners become more diverse and less well-prepared individually, particular help is required when transitioning into new, online learning environments, requiring engagement in collaborative, community-based educational activities. Cognitive maps provide one tool for tutors to support individuals in navigating the unfamiliar maze of…

Developing Critically Thoughtful e-Learning Communities of Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balcaen, Philip L.; Hirtz, Janine R.

2007-01-01

In this paper, we consider an approach to developing critically thoughtful e-Learning communities of practice--where participants are deliberate about the use of specific intellectual tools supporting critical thinking. We address Garrison & Anderson's (2003) argument that such critical thinking should play a central role within the ecology of…

Teacher Learning from Girls' Informal Science Experiences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Birmingham, Daniel J.

2013-01-01

School science continues to fail to engage youth from non-dominant communities (Carlone, Huan-Frank & Webb, 2011). However, recent research demonstrates that informal science learning settings support both knowledge gains and increased participation in science among youth from non-dominant communities (Dierking, 2007; Falk et al., 2007; HFRP,…

Prisoners Teaching ESL: A Learning Community among "Language Partners"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olinger, Andrea; Bishop, Hugh; Cabrales, Jose; Ginsburg, Rebecca; Mapp, Joseph; Mayorga, Orlando; Nava, Erick; Nunez, Elfego; Rosas, Otilio; Slater, Andre; Sorenson, LuAnn; Sosnowski, Jim; Torres, Agustin

2012-01-01

This article features Language Partners, an ESL program offered at the Danville Correctional Center, a medium-security men's prison in central Illinois. The program in which prisoners teach ESL classes, supported by volunteer teacher-trainers, is a learning community with immense and sometimes unforeseen value. The authors discuss reasons for…

Learning Communities in Teacher Education Programs: Four Success Stories.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cox, Barbara, Ed.

This report describes a program implemented by the Tomas Rivera Center (Claremont, California) to increase the number of well-prepared Latino teachers. Based on the concept of learning communities, the program aims to reduce the isolation experienced by minority students, offer support services that help nontraditional students satisfy academic…

Community College Student Perceptions of Their Experiences Related to Global Learning: Understanding the Impact of Family, Faculty, and the Curriculum

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robertson, Jennifer J.; Blasi, Laura

2017-01-01

The purpose of this mixed-method research study was to better understand community college students' engagement in global learning. The study, supported by the Florida Consortium for International Education, was conducted during the 2015-2016 academic year in Florida across nine community colleges drawing from a 55-question survey with an 11%…

34 CFR 380.5 - What activities may the Secretary fund under community-based supported employment projects?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... development, including work site modification and use of advanced learning technology for skills training. (3...-based supported employment projects? 380.5 Section 380.5 Education Regulations of the Offices of the... the Secretary fund under community-based supported employment projects? (a) Authorized activities. The...

34 CFR 380.5 - What activities may the Secretary fund under community-based supported employment projects?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... development, including work site modification and use of advanced learning technology for skills training. (3...-based supported employment projects? 380.5 Section 380.5 Education Regulations of the Offices of the... the Secretary fund under community-based supported employment projects? (a) Authorized activities. The...

34 CFR 380.5 - What activities may the Secretary fund under community-based supported employment projects?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... development, including work site modification and use of advanced learning technology for skills training. (3...-based supported employment projects? 380.5 Section 380.5 Education Regulations of the Offices of the... the Secretary fund under community-based supported employment projects? (a) Authorized activities. The...

"I Reassessed Who I Am"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Meara, Casey

2017-01-01

This instrumental case study describes students' experiences in an academic cluster gateway course through social justice service-learning as civic learning pedagogy. The case under study recognized institutional factors supporting participatory off-campus community learning, and social justice service-learning as a type of civic learning pedagogy.

Oakland Unified School District Community Schools: Understanding Implementation Efforts to Support Students, Teachers, and Families

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fehrer, Kendra; Leos-Urbel, Jacob

2015-01-01

In 2010, Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) launched an initiative to transform all district schools into full service community schools. The community school design provides integrated supports to students and fosters a school climate conducive to academic, social, and emotional learning. Interventions span in-school and out-of-school time,…

Peeling the layers: a grounded theory of interprofessional co-learning with residents of a homeless shelter.

PubMed

E Rutherford, Gayle

2011-09-01

Clients, patients, families, and communities must be conceived as partners in care delivery, not just as recipients (D'Amour, D. & Oandasan, I. (2005). Journal of Interprofessional Care, 19(Suppl.), 8-20). Health-care students need an opportunity to understand community member self-determination, partnership, and empowerment (Scheyett, A., & Diehl, M. ( 2004 ). Social Work Education, 23(4), 435-450), within the frame of interprofessional education (IPE) where community members are involved as teachers and learners. The aim of this grounded theory research was to determine the conditions that support health-care students to learn with, from, and about community members. This study took place in a shelter for the homeless where nursing and social work students learned interprofessionally along with residents and clients of the shelter. Data were gathered through 7 months of participant observation, interviews, and focus groups. The interprofessional co-learning theory that emerged introduces the three phases of entering, engaging, and emerging, which co-learners experienced at different levels of intensity. This article outlines the conditions that support each of these phases of the co-learning process. This interprofessional co-learning theory provides a basis for further development and evaluation of IPE programs that strive to actively include community members as teachers and learners, experts, and novices together with service providers, students, and faculty members.

Expanding the Reach of Continuing Educational Offerings Through a Web-Based Virtual Network: The Experience of InspireNet.

PubMed

Frisch, Noreen C; Atherton, Pat; Borycki, Elizabeth M; Mickelson, Grace; Black, Agnes; Novak Lauscher, Helen; Cordeiro, Jennifer

2017-01-01

Virtual platforms using webinars, e-posters, e-newsletters, wikis and blogs connect people who have common interests in new ways. When those individuals are healthcare providers, a professional network that operates on a virtual platform can support their needs for learning, professional development and information currency. The practice of e-learning for continuing professional development is emerging , particularly in nursing where shift work shift inhibits their ability to attend conferences and classes. This article reports the experience of the InspireNet network that provided e-learning models to: 1) provide opportunities for healthcare providers to organize themselves into learning communities through development of electronic communities of practice; 2) support learning on demand; and 3) dramatically increase the reach of educational offerings.

Accelerating learning for pro-poor health markets

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Given the rapid evolution of health markets, learning is key to promoting the identification and uptake of health market policies and practices that better serve the needs of the poor. However there are significant challenges to learning about health markets. We discuss the different forms that learning takes, from the development of codified scientific knowledge, through to experience-based learning, all in relationship to health markets. Discussion Notable challenges to learning in health markets include the difficulty of acquiring data from private health care providers, designing evaluations that capture the complex dynamics present within health markets and developing communities of practice that encompass the diverse actors present within health markets, and building trust and mutual understanding across these groups. The paper proposes experimentation with country-specific market data platforms that can integrate relevant evidence from different data sources, and simultaneously exploring strategies to secure better information on private providers and health markets. Possible approaches to adapting evaluation designs so that they are better able to take account of different and changing contexts as well as producing real time findings are discussed. Finally capturing informal knowledge about health markets is key. Communities of practice that bridge different health market actors can help to share such experience-based knowledge and in so doing, may help to formalize it. More geographically-focused communities of practice are needed, and such communities may be supported by innovation brokers and/or be built around member-based organizations. Summary Strategic investments in and support to learning about health markets can address some of the challenges experienced to-date, and accelerate learning that supports health markets that serve the poor. PMID:24961671

Learning Leaders for Learning Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Frederick; Psencik, Kay

2017-01-01

Principals who pay attention to their own learning serve as models for others. What principals do every day, how they view and value student and educator learning, how they organize their staff into learning communities, and the designs they support for those teams to learn make a significant difference in the learning of those they serve. In this…

E-Model for Online Learning Communities.

PubMed

Rogo, Ellen J; Portillo, Karen M

2015-10-01

The purpose of this study was to explore the students' perspectives on the phenomenon of online learning communities while enrolled in a graduate dental hygiene program. A qualitative case study method was designed to investigate the learners' experiences with communities in an online environment. A cross-sectional purposive sampling method was used. Interviews were the data collection method. As the original data were being analyzed, the researchers noted a pattern evolved indicating the phenomenon developed in stages. The data were re-analyzed and validated by 2 member checks. The participants' experiences revealed an e-model consisting of 3 stages of formal learning community development as core courses in the curriculum were completed and 1 stage related to transmuting the community to an informal entity as students experienced the independent coursework in the program. The development of the formal learning communities followed 3 stages: Building a Foundation for the Learning Community, Building a Supportive Network within the Learning Community and Investing in the Community to Enhance Learning. The last stage, Transforming the Learning Community, signaled a transition to an informal network of learners. The e-model was represented by 3 key elements: metamorphosis of relationships, metamorphosis through the affective domain and metamorphosis through the cognitive domain, with the most influential element being the affective development. The e-model describes a 4 stage process through which learners experience a metamorphosis in their affective, relationship and cognitive development. Synergistic learning was possible based on the interaction between synergistic relationships and affective actions. Copyright © 2015 The American Dental Hygienists’ Association.

Clinical supervision in a community setting.

PubMed

Evans, Carol; Marcroft, Emma

Clinical supervision is a formal process of professional support, reflection and learning that contributes to individual development. First Community Health and Care is committed to providing clinical supervision to nurses and allied healthcare professionals to support the provision and maintenance of high-quality care. In 2012, we developed new guidelines for nurses and AHPs on supervision, incorporating a clinical supervision framework. This offers a range of options to staff so supervision accommodates variations in work settings and individual learning needs and styles.

Strategic Relationship Management in School Public Relations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Hair, Mary John; O'Hair, H. Dan; Lee, Renee; Averso, Randy

2006-01-01

Research supports the need for schools to operate as professional learning communities fueled by a supportive accurate understanding of collaborative relationships among school stakeholders. These relationships are necessary to build trust and foster discourse focused on improved teaching and learning practices and increased student achievement.…

Improved Student Learning through a Faculty Learning Community: How Faculty Collaboration Transformed a Large-Enrollment Course from Lecture to Student Centered

PubMed Central

Elliott, Emily R.; Reason, Robert D.; Coffman, Clark R.; Gangloff, Eric J.; Raker, Jeffrey R.; Powell-Coffman, Jo Anne; Ogilvie, Craig A.

2016-01-01

Undergraduate introductory biology courses are changing based on our growing understanding of how students learn and rapid scientific advancement in the biological sciences. At Iowa State University, faculty instructors are transforming a second-semester large-enrollment introductory biology course to include active learning within the lecture setting. To support this change, we set up a faculty learning community (FLC) in which instructors develop new pedagogies, adapt active-learning strategies to large courses, discuss challenges and progress, critique and revise classroom interventions, and share materials. We present data on how the collaborative work of the FLC led to increased implementation of active-learning strategies and a concurrent improvement in student learning. Interestingly, student learning gains correlate with the percentage of classroom time spent in active-learning modes. Furthermore, student attitudes toward learning biology are weakly positively correlated with these learning gains. At our institution, the FLC framework serves as an agent of iterative emergent change, resulting in the creation of a more student-centered course that better supports learning. PMID:27252298

Pedagogical Scholarship in Public Health: A Call for Cultivating Learning Communities to Support Evidence-Based Education.

PubMed

Merzel, Cheryl; Halkitis, Perry; Healton, Cheryl

Public health education is experiencing record growth and transformation. The current emphasis on learning outcomes necessitates attention to creating and evaluating the best curricula and learning methods for helping public health students develop public health competencies. Schools and programs of public health would benefit from active engagement in pedagogical research and additional platforms to support dissemination and implementation of educational research findings. We reviewed current avenues for sharing public health educational research, curricula, and best teaching practices; we identified useful models from other health professions; and we offered suggestions for how the field of public health education can develop communities of learning devoted to supporting pedagogy. Our goal was to help advance an agenda of innovative evidence-based public health education, enabling schools and programs of public health to evaluate and measure success in meeting the current and future needs of the public health profession.

Beneath Our Eyes: An Exploration of the Relationship between Technology Enhanced Learning and Socio-Ecological Sustainability in Art and Design Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sclater, Madeleine

2016-01-01

This article uses published research to explore how Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) can help to sustain learning communities to engage in creative exploration and open investigation. It then draws on this research to ask: how could we use TEL to support pedagogies of socio-ecological sustainability in the Art and Design education community?…

It takes a village: supporting inquiry- and equity-oriented computer science pedagogy through a professional learning community

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ryoo, Jean; Goode, Joanna; Margolis, Jane

2015-10-01

This article describes the importance that high school computer science teachers place on a teachers' professional learning community designed around an inquiry- and equity-oriented approach for broadening participation in computing. Using grounded theory to analyze four years of teacher surveys and interviews from the Exploring Computer Science (ECS) program in the Los Angeles Unified School District, this article describes how participating in professional development activities purposefully aimed at fostering a teachers' professional learning community helps ECS teachers make the transition to an inquiry-based classroom culture and break professional isolation. This professional learning community also provides experiences that challenge prevalent deficit notions and stereotypes about which students can or cannot excel in computer science.

Using Professional Learning Communities to Bolster Comprehension Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dougherty Stahl, Katherine A.

2015-01-01

High-level comprehension instruction is the focus of the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts. However, it has been a challenge for states to provide the professional development (PD) needed to support teachers' implementation of the CCSS. Professional learning communities (PLC) are a means of providing school-embedded PD to…

A Qualitative Study of Teachers' Work in Professional Learning Communities in a Small Urban District

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thessin, Rebecca Ann

2010-01-01

Numerous districts are implementing Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) as a part of reform efforts to improve student achievement to meet external accountability mandates. Few districts, however, have considered the essential supports and components that teachers working in PLCs require for these teams to result in instructional improvement.…

Using a Digital Game as an Advance Organizer

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Denham, André R.

2018-01-01

The use of digital games as an instructional tool has garnered increasing attention in the education community. Empirical work supported by theory on the learning affordances of digital games allowed the game-based learning community to arrive at the consensus that digital games provide an excellent medium for the acquisition of skills and the…

Pause...Before Rushing In: Examining Motivations to Help in Trauma Impacted Communities Internationally

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Streets, Barbara Faye; Nicolas, Guerda; Wolford, Karen

2015-01-01

International service learning courses, cultural immersion projects, and international disaster response teams have provided valuable aid, services, supplies and programs to trauma-impacted communities across the globe. Many colleges and universities support global learning and the creation of global citizens, and this ethic is reflected in many…

Place-Based Design: An Instructional Design Theory for Supporting Community-Based Inquiry and Design Projects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mathews, James M.

2013-01-01

Place-based education has been forwarded as a pedagogical approach that has the potential to contextualize learning, increase student engagement, and strengthen the relationship between schools and the broader community. Despite this promise, however, many teachers struggle to develop learning experiences that incorporate the key components of…

Blurring the Boundaries between School and Community: Implementing Connected Learning Principles in English Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cartun, Ashley; Penuel, William R.; West-Puckett, Stephanie

2017-01-01

In participatory cultures, the lines between producers and consumers of text are blurred, and communities emerge that are based on shared interest and peer support. Although literacy scholarship has mostly focused on youth engagement and literacy practices within online participatory cultures, scholars in the learning sciences investigate these…

Nurturing Global Collaboration and Networked Learning in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cronin, Catherine; Cochrane, Thomas; Gordon, Averill

2016-01-01

We consider the principles of communities of practice (CoP) and networked learning in higher education, illustrated with a case study. iCollab has grown from an international community of practice connecting students and lecturers in seven modules across seven higher education institutions in six countries, to a global network supporting the…

Sharing Place, Learning Together: Perspectives and Reflections on an Educational Partnership Formation with a Remote Indigenous Community School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Godinho, Sally Caroline; Woolley, Marilyn; Webb, Jessie; Winkel, Kenneth Daniel

2015-01-01

Sustainable partnership formation in a remote Indigenous community involves social, cultural and political considerations. This article reports on the project, "Sharing Place, Learning Together: Supporting Sustainable Educational Partnerships to Advance Social Equity," funded by the Melbourne Social Equity Institute (MSEI) at the…

Preservice Teacher Institute: Developing a Model Learning Community for Student Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kent, Andrea M.; Simpson, Jennifer L.

2009-01-01

The Preservice Teacher Institute (PTI) is a budding learning community designed to provide mentoring and support for senior elementary education undergraduate candidates. This program is an effective paradigm for mentoring and inducting new teachers into the profession. PTI is a two-semester program. The first semester is restricted to candidates…

The Seeds to Success Modified Field Test: Findings from the Impact and Implementation Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boller, Kimberly; Del Grosso, Patricia; Blair, Randall; Jolly, Yumiko; Fortson, Ken; Paulsell, Diane; Lundquist, Eric; Hallgren, Kristin; Kovac, Martha

2010-01-01

In 2006, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Early Learning Initiative (ELI) to improve the school readiness of Washington State's children through three main strategies: (1) development of high-quality, community-wide early learning initiatives in two communities; (2) enhancement of statewide systems that support early…

Sense of Community in Graduate Online Education: Contribution of Learner to Learner Interaction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shackelford, Jo L.; Maxwell, Marge

2012-01-01

Distance learning technologies offer a multitude of ways to build interaction into online courses to support learning. Based on social constructivism theory, this study explored which types of interaction are most predictive of students' sense of community in online graduate courses at a regional comprehensive university. Surveys were used to…

Learning through Life Books: Teaching Human Growth and Development in an Emotionally Rich Community Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Korsmo, John; Baker-Sennett, Jacquelyn; Nicholas, Trula

2009-01-01

One challenge experienced by many educators working in pre-professional programs involves designing courses to support students as they learn how to apply subject area knowledge to professional practice. This article describes a successful collaborative community-based project that contextualizes the often abstract and predominately linear…

Using Quality Schemes in Adult and Community Learning: A Guide for Managers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ewens, David; Watters, Kate

This document examines adult and community learning (ACL) and quality programs across England. The difficulties faced by local education agencies' ACL services in delivering quality are noted, along with ways quality improvement has been supported. Quality programs--whether internal or external, based on awards, or used as diagnostic tools--are…

The Internet Learning Forum: Developing a Community Prototype for Teachers of the 21st Century.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reynolds, Eric; Treahy, Diana; Chao, Chin-chi; Barab, Sasha

2001-01-01

Reports on the creation of a community of practice for teachers' professional development via the World Wide Web. Highlights include theoretical foundations; current online models of professional development; and the Internet Learning Forum, a Web site developed to support mathematics and science teachers. (Author/LRW)

Creating a Collaborative Learning Community in the CIS Sandbox

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frydenberg, Mark

2013-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of transforming a traditional university computer lab to create a collaborative learning community known as the CIS Sandbox, by remodeling a physical space and supporting it with a virtual presence through the use of social media tools. The discussion applies Selander's "designs for…

Preparing School Administrators to Lead Technology Rich Professional Learning Communities in the Digital Age

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Branch, Mary Grace

2011-01-01

This study explores the coaching experiences of educational administrators in an attempt to gain greater understanding of how they develop the necessary skills to implement, lead, and support technology rich professional learning communities (PLCs). Participants came from a mix of urban, rural, and suburban school districts. Using semi-structured…

Impact of a Freshman Academy on Student Performance at a Comprehensive Public High School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hernandez, Jose Angel, Jr.

2012-01-01

Previous high school research has highlighted the importance of students' freshman year. Limited research has supported the implementation of a smaller learning community, also known as a freshman academy. The theoretical framework of the study was based on stage environment fit, adolescence development and smaller learning community theories. The…

Cultivating Community: Faculty Support for Teaching and Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fitzmaurice, Celine

2015-01-01

Emerging approaches to faculty support are moving away from a "fixing" model to a "relational" model. In this article, the author describes a program of faculty support that places trust and community-building at the center of its efforts. The result is a program in which faculty members engage in a peer-to-peer approach to…

Using a Blog to Create and Support a Community of Inquiry in Secondary Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pifarre, Manoli; Guijosa, Alex; Argelagos, Esther

2014-01-01

Understanding how blogs can support collaborative learning is a vital concern for researchers and teachers. This article explores how blogs may be used to support secondary education students' collaborative interaction and how such an interaction process can promote the creation of a Community of Inquiry to enhance critical thinking and…

Strategies, Use, and Impact of Social Media for Supporting Teacher Community within Professional Development: The Case of One Urban STEM Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosenberg, Joshua M.; Greenhalgh, Spencer P.; Wolf, Leigh Graves; Koehler, Matthew J.

2017-01-01

This paper examines the use of social media to foster community connections within the MSU Urban Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) program. We describe the strategies employed by the program and the technologies employed by instructors to provide support, build community, and showcase learning. We highlight three particular…

The Impact of Communities of Practice in Support of Early-Career Academics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cox, Milton D.

2013-01-01

This paper traces the history and impact of communities of practice (CoPs) in supporting early-career academics, although the primary focus here in the United States is on the faculty learning community (FLC) model, a special type of CoP in higher education. The initial development of this model, beginning in 1979, takes place over two decades at…

A Statewide Service Learning Network Ignites Teachers and Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Monsour, Florence

Service learning, curriculum-linked community service, has proved remarkably effective in igniting students' desire to learn. In 1997, the Wisconsin Partnership in Service Learning was initiated as a cross-disciplinary, cross-institutional endeavor. Supported by a grant from Learn and Serve America, the partnership created a network throughout…

Examining Informal Learning in Commercial Airline Pilots' Communities of Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Corns, Kevin M.

2014-01-01

A pragmatic sequential mixed methods research methodology was used to examine commercial airline pilots' (N =156) types and frequencies of informal learning activities, perceptions of workplace informal learning, and opinions on how organizations should support workplace informal learning outside of the formal learning environment. This study…

45 CFR 2516.100 - What is the purpose of school-based service-learning programs?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-10-01

... school-based service-learning programs is to promote service-learning as a strategy to support high...-learning programs? 2516.100 Section 2516.100 Public Welfare Regulations Relating to Public Welfare (Continued) CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE SCHOOL-BASED SERVICE-LEARNING PROGRAMS Eligibility...

45 CFR 2516.100 - What is the purpose of school-based service-learning programs?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-10-01

... school-based service-learning programs is to promote service-learning as a strategy to support high...-learning programs? 2516.100 Section 2516.100 Public Welfare Regulations Relating to Public Welfare (Continued) CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE SCHOOL-BASED SERVICE-LEARNING PROGRAMS Eligibility...

45 CFR 2516.100 - What is the purpose of school-based service-learning programs?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-10-01

... school-based service-learning programs is to promote service-learning as a strategy to support high...-learning programs? 2516.100 Section 2516.100 Public Welfare Regulations Relating to Public Welfare (Continued) CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE SCHOOL-BASED SERVICE-LEARNING PROGRAMS Eligibility...

Collaborative learning: A next step in the training of peer support providers.

PubMed

Cronise, Rita

2016-09-01

This column explores how peer support provider training is enhanced through collaborative learning. Collaborative learning is an approach that draws upon the "real life" experiences of individual learners and encompasses opportunities to explore varying perspectives and collectively construct solutions that enrich the practice of all participants. This description draws upon published articles and examples of collaborative learning in training and communities of practice of peer support providers. Similar to person-centered practices that enhance the recovery experience of individuals receiving services, collaborative learning enhances the experience of peer support providers as they explore relevant "real world" issues, offer unique contributions, and work together toward improving practice. Three examples of collaborative learning approaches are provided that have resulted in successful collaborative learning opportunities for peer support providers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Representing Authentic Learning Designs Supporting the Development of Online Communities of Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oliver, Ron; Herrington, Anthony; Herrington, Jan; Reeves, Thomas C.

2007-01-01

Authentic learning designs have been explored for some time now and have frequently been shown to provide learning settings that provide many meaningful contexts for learning. These meaningful contexts provide not only encouragement for students to learn but also a raft of learning enhancements including higher-order learning and forms of learning…

The impact of a living learning community on first-year engineering students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Flynn, Margaret A.; Everett, Jess W.; Whittinghill, Dex

2016-05-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of an engineering living and learning community (ELC) on first-year engineering students. A control group of non-ELC students was used to compare the experiences of the ELC participants. Analysis of survey data showed that there was significant differences between the ELC students and the non-ELC students in how they responded to questions regarding social support, academic support, connectedness to campus, and satisfaction with the College of Engineering and the institution as a whole. Particularly, there were significant differences between ELC and non-ELC students for questions related to feeling like part of an engineering community, having strong relationships with peers, belonging to a supportive peer network, studying with engineering peers, and spending time with classmates outside of class.

Redesigning community mental health services for urban children: Supporting schooling to promote mental health.

PubMed

Atkins, Marc S; Shernoff, Elisa S; Frazier, Stacy L; Schoenwald, Sonja K; Cappella, Elise; Marinez-Lora, Ane; Mehta, Tara G; Lakind, Davielle; Cua, Grace; Bhaumik, Runa; Bhaumik, Dulal

2015-10-01

This study examined a school- and home-based mental health service model, Links to Learning, focused on empirical predictors of learning as primary goals for services in high-poverty urban communities. Teacher key opinion leaders were identified through sociometric surveys and trained, with mental health providers and parent advocates, on evidence-based practices to enhance children's learning. Teacher key opinion leaders and mental health providers cofacilitated professional development sessions for classroom teachers to disseminate 2 universal (Good Behavior Game, peer-assisted learning) and 2 targeted (Good News Notes, Daily Report Card) interventions. Group-based and home-based family education and support were delivered by mental health providers and parent advocates for children in kindergarten through 4th grade diagnosed with 1 or more disruptive behavior disorders. Services were Medicaid-funded through 4 social service agencies (N = 17 providers) in 7 schools (N = 136 teachers, 171 children) in a 2 (Links to Learning vs. services as usual) × 6 (pre- and posttests for 3 years) longitudinal design with random assignment of schools to conditions. Services as usual consisted of supported referral to a nearby social service agency. Mixed effects regression models indicated significant positive effects of Links to Learning on mental health service use, classroom observations of academic engagement, teacher report of academic competence and social skills, and parent report of social skills. Nonsignificant between-groups effects were found on teacher and parent report of problem behaviors, daily hassles, and curriculum-based measures. Effects were strongest for young children, girls, and children with fewer symptoms. Community mental health services targeting empirical predictors of learning can improve school and home behavior for children living in high-poverty urban communities. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Augmenting Traditional Books with Context-Aware Learning Supports from Online Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Gwo-Dong; Chao, Po-Yao

2008-01-01

Recent advances in ubiquitous computing technologies have brought reality augmentation of traditional objects to context-aware and social supports. Although a significant proportion of students prefer poring over traditional paper textbooks over electronic books, few studies have enhanced reading practice of traditional books with ubiquitous…

The OCHIN community information network: bringing together community health centers, information technology, and data to support a patient-centered medical village.

PubMed

Devoe, Jennifer E; Sears, Abigail

2013-01-01

Creating integrated, comprehensive care practices requires access to data and informatics expertise. Information technology (IT) resources are not readily available to individual practices. One model of shared IT resources and learning is a "patient-centered medical village." We describe the OCHIN Community Health Information Network as an example of this model; community practices have come together collectively to form an organization that leverages shared IT expertise, resources, and data, providing members with the means to fully capitalize on new technologies that support improved care. This collaborative facilitates the identification of "problem sheds" through surveillance of network-wide data, enables shared learning regarding best practices, and provides a "community laboratory" for practice-based research. As an example of a community of solution, OCHIN uses health IT and data-sharing innovations to enhance partnerships between public health leaders, clinicians in community health centers, informatics experts, and policy makers. OCHIN community partners benefit from the shared IT resource (eg, a linked electronic health record, centralized data warehouse, informatics, and improvement expertise). This patient-centered medical village provides (1) the collective mechanism to build community-tailored IT solutions, (2) "neighbors" to share data and improvement strategies, and (3) infrastructure to support innovations based on electronic health records across communities, using experimental approaches.

Supporting Professional Development in Special Education with Web-Based Professional Learning Communities: New Possibilities with Web 2.0

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hardman, Elizabeth L.

2012-01-01

This article describes the challenges in organizing professional learning communities (PLCs) in special education, identifies the teacher and student benefits of using a PLC approach to professional development, and discusses the promise and pitfalls of organizing web-based PLCs to engage distributed stakeholders in the practice of special…

Program Improvement Middle School Scripted and Nonscripted Program Teachers' Perception of Their School as a Professional Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bias, Timothy A.

2009-01-01

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to reveal differences between Program Improvement (PI) middle school scripted program and nonscripted program teachers' perceptions of their schools as professional learning communities (PLCs). The concept of PLCs is framed by Hord's (1997) 5 attributes of successful PLCs: supportive shared leadership, shared…

An Evolutionary Journey: The Case Study of East Muskingum Middle School. Transforming Learning Communities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morrow, Linda E.; Martin, Kaye M.; Glascock, Catherine H.

This book is part of a series of case studies that demonstrate better ways to educate Ohio's students. The case study is part of the Transforming Learning Communities (TLC) Project, designed to support significant school-reform efforts among Ohio's elementary, middle, and high schools. This report describes the implementation of an innovative…

The Influence of Parental Support on the Community Service Learning Experiences of American College Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seider, Scott

2012-01-01

This mixed methods study considered the relationship between the civic development of college students participating in the Serve Program at Ignatius University and the influence of these students' parents. The Serve Program is a community service learning program that combines coursework in philosophy and theology with a year-long service…

Transfer Learning Community: Overcoming Transfer Shock and Increasing Retention of Mathematics and Science Majors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scott, Timothy P.; Thigpin, Sara S.; Bentz, Adrienne O.

2017-01-01

The College of Science at Texas A&M University developed a transfer student learning community with one 2-year institution after receiving National Science Foundation funds for scholarships to support students majoring in engineering and science. To date, 89% of the students that matriculated to Texas A&M University under this grant have…

It Takes a Village: Supporting Inquiry- and Equity-Oriented Computer Science Pedagogy through a Professional Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ryoo, Jean; Goode, Joanna; Margolis, Jane

2015-01-01

This article describes the importance that high school computer science teachers place on a teachers' professional learning community designed around an inquiry- and equity-oriented approach for broadening participation in computing. Using grounded theory to analyze four years of teacher surveys and interviews from the Exploring Computer Science…

Knowledge of Mental Capacity Issues in Community Teams for Adults with Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Willner, Paul; Jenkins, Rosemary; Rees, Paul; Griffiths, Vanessa J.; John, Elinor

2011-01-01

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate the state of knowledge of mental capacity issues among health and social services professionals working in community teams supporting people with learning disabilities. Methods A structured interview was constructed around three scenarios, based on actual cases, concerning a financial/legal issue,…

Online Instructor Strategies: A Study of Instructor Immediacy and Student Perceived Learning at a Community College

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Corona, Shannon F.

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which instructor immediacy correlated with online community college students' perceived learning. The research questions that were investigated in the study focused on online instructor immediacy as it relates to praise (words of approval), encouragement (words of support) and examples…

Facebook as a Learning-Management System in Developmental Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ingalls, Amy L.

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to assess whether Facebook (FB), as an LMS (Learning Management System) may be used in a developmental writing course, may build a community of learners in ENG*K012, and may enhance the presence of a supportive shared community to build confidence in students' writing and/or sharing their writing. An additional…

Professional Learning Communities as a Reform: Implementation, Complications and Implications for Secondary Site Leaders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Padilla, Jennifer Lynn

2013-01-01

Professional learning communities (PLCs) have gained attention as an effective practice for supporting teachers and developing students since their inception in the early 1990s yet there is still work to be done in developing a blueprint for effective implementation in a pervasive culture of isolation and resistance, especially in secondary…

Shifting the Role: School-District Superintendents' Experiences as They Build a Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dickson, John; Mitchell, Coral

2014-01-01

This paper presents the findings of a qualitative action-research study that explored how one group of district-level school superintendents conceptualized their role as they built their own learning community. Data analysis yielded four elements that supported the participants' efforts: (a) using a process as an entry point, (b) aligning various…

What Research Tells Us about the Impact and Challenges of Smaller Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levine, Thomas H.

2010-01-01

In the United States, considerable financial and human resources have been devoted to breaking some large high schools into smaller learning communities (SLCs). This article reviews research that compares SLCs to comprehensive high schools on a variety of measures. Extant research neither supports nor refutes the promise of SLCs to improve…

Teacher Teams That Get Results: 61 Strategies for Sustaining and Renewing Professional Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gregory, Gayle H.; Kuzmich, Lin

2007-01-01

Sustaining results-oriented team efforts is hard work, and achieving diversified solutions to complex issues over time requires commitment an creativity. To support the momentum of learning communities, this book provides an illustrated collection of ready-to-use tools and examples of plans in action for results-oriented faculty and staff.…

Bridging Learning Communities Through Experiential Learning with GIST: 2Y College Experience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sorey, N.; Phillips, C. D.

2017-12-01

This study reviews successes of community engagement through experiential learning with GIST across academic disciplines that leverage topics with technology and community relationships throughout a two-year campus and the community at large. This approach allowed for a diversification of populations reached through college student engagement and community outreach efforts. Technological frameworks and development of best practice resources to support students and faculty were shown to increase the capacity for undergraduate research experiences, K12 short course offerings during the summer, and the formation of a STEM-focused student organization. The RSO has participated in activities that include educational technology development, participating in the growth and development of the area's maker movement community, and geoscience outreach and education. Development of the program thus far and lessons learned have resulted in a proposal for an areal-based informal pathway linking the K12 community to area colleges by integrating geoscience outreach with GIST through the maker movement.

Workplace Wisdom: What Educators Can Learn from the Business World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Sheri S.; Williams, John W.

2014-01-01

In many schools and businesses today, the pressure to produce results is far greater than attention to employee learning. If continued learning impacts service for business customers and their communities, then what lessons can be learned from business to support and advocate for educator learning? This article is a collection of lessons learned…

Towards a Theory of the Ecology of Reflection: Reflective Practice for Experiential Learning in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harvey, Marina; ; Coulson, Debra; McMaugh, Anne

2016-01-01

Reflective practice is widely adopted across the field of experience-based learning subjects in higher education, including practicums, work-integrated learning, internships, service learning and community participation. This adoption of reflective practice implies that it supports student learning through experience. When reviewing the evidence…

Opportunities and Challenges for Teacher Professional Development: A Case of Collaborative Learning Community in South Korea

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Park, Minjeong; So, Kyunghee

2014-01-01

This study investigates how characteristics of a collaborative professional learning activity support and hinder teacher learning and growth by examining the experiences of three Korean secondary teachers who participated in a school-initiated collaborative teacher learning project. The findings demonstrated that this learning opportunity…

Statistical Model for Predicting Roles and Effects in Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Chih-Kai; Chen, Gwo-Dong; Wang, Chin-Yeh

2011-01-01

Functional roles may explain the learning performance of groups. Detecting a functional role is critical for promoting group learning performance in computer-supported collaborative learning environments. However, it is not easy for teachers to identify the functional roles played by students in a web-based learning group, or the relationship…

Looking within and beyond the community: lessons learned by researching, theorising and acting to address urban poverty and health.

PubMed

Hodgetts, Darrin; Chamberlain, Kerry; Tankel, Yadena; Groot, Shiloh

2014-01-01

Urban poverty and health inequalities are inextricably intertwined. By working in partnership with service providers and communities to address urban poverty, we can enhance the wellness of people in need. This article reflects on lessons learned from the Family100 project that explores the everyday lives, frustrations and dilemmas faced by 100 families living in poverty in Auckland. Lessons learned support the need to bring the experiences and lived realities of families to the fore in public deliberations about community and societal responses to urban poverty and health inequality.

The use of misclassification costs to learn rule-based decision support models for cost-effective hospital admission strategies.

PubMed

Ambrosino, R; Buchanan, B G; Cooper, G F; Fine, M J

1995-01-01

Cost-effective health care is at the forefront of today's important health-related issues. A research team at the University of Pittsburgh has been interested in lowering the cost of medical care by attempting to define a subset of patients with community-acquire pneumonia for whom outpatient therapy is appropriate and safe. Sensitivity and specificity requirements for this domain make it difficult to use rule-based learning algorithms with standard measures of performance based on accuracy. This paper describes the use of misclassification costs to assist a rule-based machine-learning program in deriving a decision-support aid for choosing outpatient therapy for patients with community-acquired pneumonia.

Toward Rural Prosperity: A State Policy Framework in Support of Rural Community Colleges. Policy Paper.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chesson, J. Parker, Jr.; Rubin, Sarah

In six policy areas, states can better equip rural community colleges to serve their communities. In the area of economic and community development, states can use rural community colleges to promote community development efforts and service learning and to provide small business assistance and entrepreneurship education. States can improve access…

In the Round: Supporting Teachers' Authentic Professional Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Strand, Matt

2013-01-01

This is a study of teachers' authentic professional learning at a public school in Poudre School District in northern Colorado. At Polaris Expeditionary Learning School, teachers and administrators have developed a form of school-based instructional rounds referred to herein as PLC rounds (professional learning community rounds). In PLC rounds,…

Creating a Project-Based Learning Environment to Improve Project Management Skills of Graduate Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arantes do Amaral, Joao Alberto; Gonçalves, Paulo; Hess, Aurélio

2015-01-01

This article describes the project-based learning environment created to support project management graduate courses. The paper will focus on the learning context and procedures followed for 13 years, in 47 project-based learning MBA courses, involving approximately 1,400 students and 34 community partners.

E-learning for healthcare students: developing the communities of practice framework.

PubMed

Moule, Pam

2006-05-01

This paper presents research considering whether healthcare students were able to develop characteristics of communities of practice when engaged in an online module. Little is known about whether the communities of practice framework can be applied to online learning, with no previous consideration of its potential use within healthcare education. Using a case study approach the research, completed in 2004, had two phases. A questionnaire was administered to a group of 109 healthcare students to gain information on which to base sampling for the subsequent phase. Phase 2 employed three strands of data collection: five students completed an online diary, the online interactions of seven students were captured on a discussion board and three students were interviewed. Data were analysed using a form of pattern matching. Students were able to develop essential elements of communities of practice: mutual engagement, joint enterprise and shared repertoire, though this was not uniformly seen. Particular issues emerged for the online community, including enabling access to the online environment to support mutual engagement. The development of trust was also threatened by difficulties of presenting identities online. Joint enterprise was hampered by the online situation, although the virtual classroom proved essential for supporting endeavour. Not all students were committed to their groups. There was some evidence of group members developing shared repertoire, as routines of group working emerged. Professional understanding and computer skills were also enhanced. The framework can be applied to supporting online learning internationally amongst students and has applicability to professional groups. Those intending to employ the framework should ensure that students can gain access to the community and have the computer skills to engage. Course design should be considered to ensure support for developing the essential components of communities of practice.

Community Partners' Perspectives of Community-University Partnerships that Support Service-Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Witchger Hansen, Anne Marie

2010-01-01

Community partner voices are important to understand because they provide the contexts in which occupational therapy students meet course objectives by applying clinical reasoning theory and developing clinical reasoning skills in a natural context (Witchger-Hansen et al., 2007; Provident, et al., 2011). To sustain these community-university…

Using Electronic Technologies To Support Teaching and Learning: Building a Future.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eastwood, Kenneth W.; And Others

The Oswego City School District is committed to creating--through the implementation of its technology plan--an environment that supports effective teaching and learning and prepares all students to succeed in a technologically sophisticated world. This report summarizes the efforts to build a community-wide consensus for a meaningful technology…

Effects of Online Mentoring in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Environments: Mentor Presence and Cognitive Engagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dorner, Helga

2012-01-01

This study examines online mentor roles and effects with the online mentoring process in computer-supported collaborative learning environments in communities of in-service teachers. Interest in the online mentors' activity encompassed their participation in the online interactions, the influence of their activity on participants' patterns of…

Assessing Peer Support and Usability of Blogging in Hybrid Learning Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chang, Y. J.; Chang, Y. S.

2014-01-01

Blogs provide contextualization of the information which is vital to the process of peer support. Through dialogues initiated by blog authors and followed by readers, blog platforms build a viable base of shared experiences and mutual relationships. We employ blogs as interactive learning tools for communities of practice in higher education.…

Creating Synergies: Local Government Facilitating Learning and Development through Partnerships--Support Document

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waterhouse, Peter; Virgona, Crina; Brown, Richard

2006-01-01

This research sought to document and better understand four evolving learning communities in Victoria. It was based upon an earlier study by the Victorian Local Governance Association (VLGA) (Snelling, 2003). The study was qualitative in nature, based on face-to-face interviews and case studies. This supporting document provides the literature…

Distance learning: the future of continuing professional development.

PubMed

Southernwood, Julie

2008-10-01

The recent development of a market economy in higher education has resulted in the need to tailor the product to the customers, namely students, employers and commissioning bodies. Distance learning is an opportunity for nurse educators and institutions to address marketing initiatives and develop a learning environment in order to enhance continuing professional development. It provides options for lifelong learning for healthcare professionals--including those working in community settings--that is effective and cost efficient. Development of continuing professional development programmes can contribute to widening the participation of community practitioners in lifelong learning, practice and role development. This paper considers the opportunities that web-based and online education programmes can provide community practitioners to promote professional skills while maintaining a work-life balance, and the role of the lecturer in successfully supporting professionals on web-based learning programmes.

Critical Connections: Health and Academics

PubMed Central

Michael, Shannon L; Merlo, Caitlin L; Basch, Charles E; Wentzel, Kathryn R; Wechsler, Howell

2015-01-01

BACKGROUND While it is a national priority to support the health and education of students, these sectors must better align, integrate, and collaborate to achieve this priority. This article summarizes the literature on the connection between health and academic achievement using the Whole School, Whole Community, and Whole Child (WSCC) framework as a way to address health-related barriers to learning. METHODS A literature review was conducted on the association between student health and academic achievement. RESULTS Most of the evidence examined the association between student health behaviors and academic achievement, with physical activity having the most published studies and consistent findings. The evidence supports the need for school health services by demonstrating the association between chronic conditions and decreased achievement. Safe and positive school environments were associated with improved health behaviors and achievement. Engaging families and community members in schools also had a positive effect on students' health and achievement. CONCLUSIONS Schools can improve the health and learning of students by supporting opportunities to learn about and practice healthy behaviors, providing school health services, creating safe and positive school environments, and engaging families and community. This evidence supports WSCC as a potential framework for achieving national educational and health goals. PMID:26440816

Designing Educational Social Machines for Effective Feedback

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yee-King, Matthew; Krivenski, Maria; Brenton, Harry; Grimalt-Reynes, Andreu; d'Inverno, Mark

2014-01-01

We report on our development of an educational social machine based on the concept that feedback in communities is an effective means to support the development of communities of learning and practice. Key challenges faced by this work are how best to support educational and social interactions, how to deliver personalised tuition, and how to…

It Takes Research to Build a Community: Ongoing Challenges for Scholars in Digitally-Supported Communicative Language Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dooly, Melinda

2015-01-01

This article provides an argument for closer multilateral alliances between the emergent and loosely-bound international community of educational researchers who are working in areas related to Digitally Supported Communicative Language Teaching and learning (herein DSCLT). By taking advantage of the communications revolution that is currently…

Supporting Parents to Provide Nurturing Care for Young Children: The Fundamental Ingredients for a Better World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richter, Linda M.

2018-01-01

The global community is recognizing how "nurturing care" is critical for the developing child. The term encompasses health and nutrition, safety and security, responsive caregiving, and opportunities for inclusive early learning, all of which are afforded by loving parents and families and supportive communities. Public policies and…

Motivation, Empowerment, and Innovation: Teachers' Beliefs about How Participating in the Edmodo Math Subject Community Shapes Teaching and Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trust, Torrey

2017-01-01

Educators around the world participate in virtual communities, social media sites, and online networks in order to gain support and ideas for improving their practice. Many researchers have explored how and why teachers participate in these online spaces; however, there is limited research on how participation might impact teaching and learning.…

Teachers' Perceptions of the Relationship between Principal's Support and Perceived Effectiveness of Professional Learning Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Speier, Karen Margaret

2011-01-01

Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, standardized test scores have revealed that the U.S. public education system has been unable to adequately address improvement of academic achievement. For 20 years, educators have been promoting professional learning communities (PLCs) as a solution to improving K-12 academic achievement.…

Mapping Physical Education Teachers' Professional Learning and Impacts on Pupil Learning in a Community of Practice in South Korea

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yoon, Keejoon; Armour, Kathleen M.

2017-01-01

Background: A new national physical education (PE) curriculum has been developed in South Korea and PE teachers have been challenged to deliver new transferable educational outcomes in character development through PE. In one geographical area, in order to support teachers to make required changes, a Communities of Practice (CoP) approach to…

High Expectations, Strong Support: Faculty Behaviors Predicting Latina/o Community College Student Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lundberg, Carol A.; Kim, Young K.; Andrade, Luis M.; Bahner, Daniel T.

2018-01-01

In this study we investigated the extent to which faculty interaction contributed to Latina/o student perceptions of their learning, using a sample of 10,071 Latina/o students who took the Community College Survey of Student Engagement. Findings were disaggregated for men and women, but results were quite similar between the 2 groups. Frequent…

Community of Inquiry Development in a Blended Learning Course for In-Service Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Theodosiadou, Dimitra; Konstantinidis, Angelos; Pappos, Christos; Papadopoulos, Nikos

2017-01-01

The paper presents the course design and evaluation methods of an online community of inquiry that is developed in a blended learning training course for in-service teachers working in public K-6 schools in Greece. The course content is about digital storytelling, its educational value, and the use of supportive web 2.0 tools for developing…

A Community of Practice Focused on Resiliency in Graduate Nursing Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wildes, Megan

2016-01-01

The purpose of this project was to create a Community of Practice (CoP) focused on resiliency in graduate nursing students. CoPs are networks of people who collectively learn and share in learning as a social experience. By engaging a CoP that focused on resiliency in graduate nursing students, the aim was to positively support students' sense of…

The Effects of Technology on the Community of Inquiry and Satisfaction with Online Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rubin, Beth; Fernandes, Ron; Avgerinou, Maria D.

2013-01-01

This paper extends the research on the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework of understanding features of successful online learning to include the effects of the software used to support and facilitate it. This study examines how the Learning Management System (LMS) affords people the ability to take actions in an online course. A model is…

Competence-Related Metadata for Educational Resources that Support Lifelong Competence Development Programmes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sampson, Demetrios G.

2009-01-01

In the context of the emerging paradigm of Lifelong Learning, competence-based learning is gradually attracting the attention of the Technology-Enhanced Learning community, since it appears to meet the 21st Century learning and training expectations of both individuals and organisations. On the other hand, the paradigm of Learning Objects--as a…

Learning in a Physics Classroom Community: Physics Learning Identity Construct Development, Measurement and Validation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Sissi L.

At the university level, introductory science courses usually have high student to teacher ratios which increases the challenge to meaningfully connect with students. Various curricula have been developed in physics education to actively engage students in learning through social interactions with peers and instructors in class. This learning environment demands not only conceptual understanding but also learning to be a scientist. However, the success of student learning is typically measured in test performance and course grades while assessment of student development as science learners is largely ignored. This dissertation addresses this issue with the development of an instrument towards a measure of physics learning identity (PLI) which is used to guide and complement case studies through student interviews and in class observations. Using the conceptual framework based on Etienne Wenger's communities of practice (1998), I examine the relationship between science learning and learning identity from a situated perspective in the context of a large enrollment science class as a community of practice. This conceptual framework emphasizes the central role of identity in the practices negotiated in the classroom community and in the way students figure out their trajectory as members. Using this framework, I seek to understand how the changes in student learning identity are supported by active engagement based instruction. In turn, this understanding can better facilitate the building of a productive learning community and provide a measure for achievement of the curricular learning goals in active engagement strategies. Based on the conceptual framework, I developed and validated an instrument for measuring physics learning identity in terms of student learning preferences, self-efficacy for learning physics, and self-image as a physics learner. The instrument was pilot tested with a population of Oregon State University students taking calculus based introductory physics. The responses were analyzed using principal component exploratory factor analysis. The emergent factors were analyzed to create reliable subscales to measure PLI in terms of physics learning self-efficacy and social expectations about learning. Using these subscales, I present a case study of a student who performed well in the course but resisted the identity learning goals of the curriculum. These findings are used to support the factors that emerged from the statistical analysis and suggest a potential model of the relationships between the factors describing science learning and learning identity in large enrollment college science classes. This study offers an instrument with which to measure aspects of physics learning identity and insights on how PLI might develop in a classroom community of practice.

CoP Sensing Framework on Web-Based Environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mustapha, S. M. F. D. Syed

The Web technologies and Web applications have shown similar high growth rate in terms of daily usages and user acceptance. The Web applications have not only penetrated in the traditional domains such as education and business but have also encroached into areas such as politics, social, lifestyle, and culture. The emergence of Web technologies has enabled Web access even to the person on the move through PDAs or mobile phones that are connected using Wi-Fi, HSDPA, or other communication protocols. These two phenomena are the inducement factors toward the need of building Web-based systems as the supporting tools in fulfilling many mundane activities. In doing this, one of the many focuses in research has been to look at the implementation challenges in building Web-based support systems in different types of environment. This chapter describes the implementation issues in building the community learning framework that can be supported on the Web-based platform. The Community of Practice (CoP) has been chosen as the community learning theory to be the case study and analysis as it challenges the creativity of the architectural design of the Web system in order to capture the presence of learning activities. The details of this chapter describe the characteristics of the CoP to understand the inherent intricacies in modeling in the Web-based environment, the evidences of CoP that need to be traced automatically in a slick manner such that the evidence-capturing process is unobtrusive, and the technologies needed to embrace a full adoption of Web-based support system for the community learning framework.

Lessons Learned from the Young Breast Cancer Survivorship Network.

PubMed

Gisiger-Camata, Silvia; Nolan, Timiya S; Vo, Jacqueline B; Bail, Jennifer R; Lewis, Kayla A; Meneses, Karen

2017-11-30

The Young Breast Cancer Survivors Network (Network) is an academic and community-based partnership dedicated to education, support, and networking. The Network used a multi-pronged approach via monthly support and networking, annual education seminars, website networking, and individual survivor consultation. Formative and summative evaluations were conducted using group survey and individual survivor interviews for monthly gatherings, annual education meetings, and individual consultation. Google Analytics was applied to evaluate website use. The Network began with 4 initial partnerships and grew to 38 in the period from 2011 to 2017. During this 5-year period, 5 annual meetings (598 attendees), 23 support and networking meetings (373), and 115 individual survivor consultations were conducted. The Network website had nearly 12,000 individual users and more than 25,000 page views. Lessons learned include active community engagement, survivor empowerment, capacity building, social media outreach, and network sustainability. The 5-year experiences with the Network demonstrated that a regional program dedicated to the education, support, networking, and needs of young breast cancer survivors and their families can become a vital part of cancer survivorship services in a community. Strong community support, engagement, and encouragement were vital components to sustain the program.

Business and Industry for Continuous Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wiswell, Albert K.

1990-01-01

Witting and unwitting contributions to the learning community by business and industry include learning opportunities for employees and nonemployees, involvement in educational partnerships, corporate museums, trade shows and exhibitions, and support for the arts. Although the company intent may be public relations or marketing, making use of…

The Quality Imperative: A State Guide to Achieving the Promise of Extended Learning Opportunities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Princiotta, Daniel; Fortune, Ayeola

2009-01-01

Extended learning opportunities (ELOs) provide safe, structured learning environments for students outside the traditional school day. ELOs include afterschool and summer learning programs as well as before-school, evening, and weekend programs. ELOs come in many forms and can include tutoring, volunteering, academic support, community service,…

Impacts and Characteristics of Computer-Based Science Inquiry Learning Environments for Precollege Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Donnelly, Dermot F.; Linn, Marcia C.; Ludvigsen, Sten

2014-01-01

The National Science Foundation-sponsored report "Fostering Learning in the Networked World" called for "a common, open platform to support communities of developers and learners in ways that enable both to take advantage of advances in the learning sciences." We review research on science inquiry learning environments (ILEs)…

Rich Media e-Compendiums: A New Tool for Enhanced Learning in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foss, Brynjar; Oftedal, Bjorg F.; Lokken, Atle

2013-01-01

Electronically supported learning has increasingly been introduced and accepted into the academic community over recent decades, and a variety of new digital learning tools have been developed to serve students both for distance education and on-campus blended learning. To serve our distance education nursing students, we recently developed unique…

Cost-Saving Collaboration: Purchasing and Deploying a Statewide Learning Management System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klonoski, Ed

2005-01-01

Higher education is working to integrate next-generation education technology into its learning activities and is struggling to find cost-effective approaches. The learning management systems (LMSs) that evolved to provide support for distance education efforts have been adopted for use by the larger learning community, but the expense of…

Mobile Learning and Indigenous Education in Canada: A Synthesis of New Ways of Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pulla, Siomonn

2017-01-01

M-Learning holds great potential for supporting the positive educational outcomes of underserved Indigenous communities in the Canadian North, and even in urban centers, that are at risk of exclusion from affordable, high-quality learning experiences. The technical advantages of having mobile technology to deliver educational curricula and assess…

Community-Based Participatory Initiatives to Increase Breastfeeding Rates in Indiana.

PubMed

Friesen, Carol A; Hormuth, Laura J; Cardarelli, Tina L

2015-11-01

In 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded the Indiana State Department of Health funding for breastfeeding activities. The grant, issued in part in response to the 2011 Surgeon General's Call to Action to Support Breastfeeding, focused on providing funding and technical support to small community-based organizations to address challenges encountered by breastfeeding mothers. Indiana used the funds to develop the Community Breastfeeding Support Initiative (CBSI). The goal was to provide funding and technical support to small community-based organizations to carry out self-selected projects in their communities. The 13 CBSI programs served 1345 individual clients (n = 3664 visits) during the 9-month period. This article provides valuable information about collaboration at the state level and the supporting infrastructure in place to carry out this project. Our findings about the number of clients served, number of visits, community-specific programs and activities, and lessons learned can be used by other organizations as they plan breastfeeding support programs for their community. © The Author(s) 2015.

Collaborative innovations with rural and regional secondary teachers: enhancing student learning in mathematics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pegg, John; Panizzon, Debra

2011-06-01

When questioned, secondary mathematics teachers in rural and regional schools in Australia refer to their limited opportunities to engage and share experiences with peers in other schools as an under-utilised and cost-effective mechanism to support their professional learning and enhance their students' learning. The paper reports on the creation and evaluation of a network of learning communities of rural secondary mathematics teachers around a common purpose—enhancement and increased engagement of student learning in mathematics. To achieve this goal, teams of teachers from six rural schools identified an issue hindering improved student learning of mathematics in their school. Working collaboratively with support from university personnel with expertise in curriculum, assessment and quality pedagogy, teachers developed and implemented strategies to address an identified issue in ways that were relevant to their teaching contexts. The research study identifies issues in mathematics of major concern to rural teachers of mathematics, the successes and challenges the teachers faced in working in learning communities on the issue they identified, and the efficacy of the professional learning model.

Medical students' use of Facebook for educational purposes.

PubMed

Ali, Anam

2016-06-01

Medical students use Facebook to interact with one another both socially and educationally. This study investigates how medical students in a UK medical school use Facebook to support their learning. In particular, it identifies the nature of their educational activities, and details their experiences of using an educational Facebook group. Twenty-four medical students who self-identified as being Facebook users were invited to focus groups to attain a general overview of Facebook use within an educational context. A textual analysis was then conducted on a small group of intercalating medical students who used a self-created Facebook group to supplement their learning. Five of these students participated in semi-structured interviews. Six common themes were generated. These included 'collaborative learning', 'strategic uses for the preparation for assessment', 'sharing experiences and providing support', 'creating and maintaining connections', 'personal planning and practical organization' and 'sharing and evaluating educational resources'. Evidence from this study shows that medical students are using Facebook informally to enhance their learning and undergraduate lives. Facebook has enabled students to create a supportive learning community amongst their peers. Medical educators wishing to capitalize on Facebook, as a platform for formal educational initiatives, should remain cautious of intruding on this peer online learning community.

Supporting and structuring "contributing student pedagogy" in Computer Science curricula

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Falkner, Katrina; Falkner, Nickolas J. G.

2012-12-01

Contributing student pedagogy (CSP) builds upon social constructivist and community-based learning principles to create engaging and productive learning experiences. What makes CSP different from other, related, learning approaches is that it involves students both learning from and also explicitly valuing the contributions of other students. The creation of such a learning community builds upon established educational psychology that encourages deep learning, reflection and engagement. Our school has recently completed a review and update of its curriculum, incorporating student content-creation and collaboration into the design of key courses across the curriculum. Our experiences, based on several years of experimentation and development, support CSP-based curriculum design to reinforce the value of the student perspective, the clear description of their own transformative pathway to knowledge and the importance of establishing student-to-student networks in which students are active and willing participants. In this paper, we discuss the tools and approaches that we have employed to guide, support and structure student collaboration across a range of courses and year levels. By providing an account of our intentions, our approaches and tools, we hope to provide useful and transferrable knowledge that can be readily used by other academics who are considering this approach.

Bringing Together Community Health Centers, Information Technology and Data to Support a Patient-Centered Medical Village from the OCHIN community of solutions

PubMed Central

DeVoe, Jennifer E.; Sears, Abigail

2013-01-01

Creating integrated, comprehensive care practices requires access to data and informatics expertise. Information technology (IT) resources are not readily available to individual practices. One model of shared IT resources and learning is a “patient-centered medical village.” We describe the OCHIN Community Health Information Network as an example of this model where community practices have come together collectively to form an organization which leverages shared IT expertise, resources, and data, providing members with the means to fully capitalize on new technologies that support improved care. This collaborative facilitates the identification of “problem-sheds” through surveillance of network-wide data, enables shared learning regarding best practices, and provides a “community laboratory” for practice-based research. As an example of a Community of Solution, OCHIN utilizes health IT and data-sharing innovations to enhance partnerships between public health leaders, community health center clinicians, informatics experts, and policy makers. OCHIN community partners benefit from the shared IT resource (e.g. a linked electronic health record (EHR), centralized data warehouse, informatics and improvement expertise). This patient-centered medical village provides (1) the collective mechanism to build community tailored IT solutions, (2) “neighbors” to share data and improvement strategies, and (3) infrastructure to support EHR-based innovations across communities, using experimental approaches. PMID:23657695

Eliciting and Receiving Online Support: Using Computer-Aided Content Analysis to Examine the Dynamics of Online Social Support

PubMed Central

Kraut, Robert E; Levine, John M

2015-01-01

Background Although many people with serious diseases participate in online support communities, little research has investigated how participants elicit and provide social support on these sites. Objective The first goal was to propose and test a model of the dynamic process through which participants in online support communities elicit and provide emotional and informational support. The second was to demonstrate the value of computer coding of conversational data using machine learning techniques (1) by replicating results derived from human-coded data about how people elicit support and (2) by answering questions that are intractable with small samples of human-coded data, namely how exposure to different types of social support predicts continued participation in online support communities. The third was to provide a detailed description of these machine learning techniques to enable other researchers to perform large-scale data analysis in these communities. Methods Communication among approximately 90,000 registered users of an online cancer support community was analyzed. The corpus comprised 1,562,459 messages organized into 68,158 discussion threads. Amazon Mechanical Turk workers coded (1) 1000 thread-starting messages on 5 attributes (positive and negative emotional self-disclosure, positive and negative informational self-disclosure, questions) and (2) 1000 replies on emotional and informational support. Their judgments were used to train machine learning models that automatically estimated the amount of these 7 attributes in the messages. Across attributes, the average Pearson correlation between human-based judgments and computer-based judgments was .65. Results Part 1 used human-coded data to investigate relationships between (1) 4 kinds of self-disclosure and question asking in thread-starting posts and (2) the amount of emotional and informational support in the first reply. Self-disclosure about negative emotions (beta=.24, P<.001), negative events (beta=.25, P<.001), and positive events (beta=.10, P=.02) increased emotional support. However, asking questions depressed emotional support (beta=–.21, P<.001). In contrast, asking questions increased informational support (beta=.38, P<.001), whereas positive informational self-disclosure depressed it (beta=–.09, P=.003). Self-disclosure led to the perception of emotional needs, which elicited emotional support, whereas asking questions led to the perception of informational needs, which elicited informational support. Part 2 used machine-coded data to replicate these results. Part 3 analyzed the machine-coded data and showed that exposure to more emotional support predicted staying in the group longer 33% (hazard ratio=0.67, P<.001), whereas exposure to more informational support predicted leaving the group sooner (hazard ratio=1.05, P<.001). Conclusions Self-disclosure is effective in eliciting emotional support, whereas question asking is effective in eliciting informational support. Moreover, perceptions that people desire particular kinds of support influence the support they receive. Finally, the type of support people receive affects the likelihood of their staying in or leaving the group. These results demonstrate the utility of machine learning methods for investigating the dynamics of social support exchange in online support communities. PMID:25896033

Eliciting and receiving online support: using computer-aided content analysis to examine the dynamics of online social support.

PubMed

Wang, Yi-Chia; Kraut, Robert E; Levine, John M

2015-04-20

Although many people with serious diseases participate in online support communities, little research has investigated how participants elicit and provide social support on these sites. The first goal was to propose and test a model of the dynamic process through which participants in online support communities elicit and provide emotional and informational support. The second was to demonstrate the value of computer coding of conversational data using machine learning techniques (1) by replicating results derived from human-coded data about how people elicit support and (2) by answering questions that are intractable with small samples of human-coded data, namely how exposure to different types of social support predicts continued participation in online support communities. The third was to provide a detailed description of these machine learning techniques to enable other researchers to perform large-scale data analysis in these communities. Communication among approximately 90,000 registered users of an online cancer support community was analyzed. The corpus comprised 1,562,459 messages organized into 68,158 discussion threads. Amazon Mechanical Turk workers coded (1) 1000 thread-starting messages on 5 attributes (positive and negative emotional self-disclosure, positive and negative informational self-disclosure, questions) and (2) 1000 replies on emotional and informational support. Their judgments were used to train machine learning models that automatically estimated the amount of these 7 attributes in the messages. Across attributes, the average Pearson correlation between human-based judgments and computer-based judgments was .65. Part 1 used human-coded data to investigate relationships between (1) 4 kinds of self-disclosure and question asking in thread-starting posts and (2) the amount of emotional and informational support in the first reply. Self-disclosure about negative emotions (beta=.24, P<.001), negative events (beta=.25, P<.001), and positive events (beta=.10, P=.02) increased emotional support. However, asking questions depressed emotional support (beta=-.21, P<.001). In contrast, asking questions increased informational support (beta=.38, P<.001), whereas positive informational self-disclosure depressed it (beta=-.09, P=.003). Self-disclosure led to the perception of emotional needs, which elicited emotional support, whereas asking questions led to the perception of informational needs, which elicited informational support. Part 2 used machine-coded data to replicate these results. Part 3 analyzed the machine-coded data and showed that exposure to more emotional support predicted staying in the group longer 33% (hazard ratio=0.67, P<.001), whereas exposure to more informational support predicted leaving the group sooner (hazard ratio=1.05, P<.001). Self-disclosure is effective in eliciting emotional support, whereas question asking is effective in eliciting informational support. Moreover, perceptions that people desire particular kinds of support influence the support they receive. Finally, the type of support people receive affects the likelihood of their staying in or leaving the group. These results demonstrate the utility of machine learning methods for investigating the dynamics of social support exchange in online support communities.

Value Creation in Online Communities for Educators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Booth, Sharon E.; Kellogg, Shaun B.

2015-01-01

The popularity and pervasiveness of online communities have led researchers and practitioners alike to closely examine the utility of online communities for supporting and facilitating professional learning. As economic constraints leave fewer resources available for professional development, educators in particular are examining the potential of…

Strong Collaborative Relationships for Strong Community Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Daniel, Julia

2017-01-01

Community schools have gained attention as mechanisms to bring about equitable access to high-quality educational resources, extended learning time and opportunities, integrated student supports, and collaborative engaging relationships with parents and communities. In order to effectively create conditions that provide equitable access to such…

Digital teaching tools and global learning communities.

PubMed

Williams, Mary; Lockhart, Patti; Martin, Cathie

2015-01-01

In 2009, we started a project to support the teaching and learning of university-level plant sciences, called Teaching Tools in Plant Biology. Articles in this series are published by the plant science journal, The Plant Cell (published by the American Society of Plant Biologists). Five years on, we investigated how the published materials are being used through an analysis of the Google Analytics pageviews distribution and through a user survey. Our results suggest that this project has had a broad, global impact in supporting higher education, and also that the materials are used differently by individuals in terms of their role (instructor, independent learner, student) and geographical location. We also report on our ongoing efforts to develop a global learning community that encourages discussion and resource sharing.

Promoting Healthy Youth, Schools, and Communities: A Guide to Community-School Health Advisory Councils.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Larson, Kathlene

This guide presents a five-step approach to planning, conducting, and evaluating a community-school health advisory council. The five steps are: (1) convening an advisory council (learning about community-school health advisory councils, obtaining support from the school district, identifying potential members, organizing and conducting the first…

Linking University and Teacher Communities: A "Think Tank" Model of Professional Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henry, Sarah K.; Scott, Judith A.; Wells, Jan; Skobel, Bonnie; Jones, Alan; Cross, Susie; Butler, Cynthia; Blackstone, Teresa

1999-01-01

Rather than informing the teaching community about good research, five experienced teachers and three university researchers developed a discourse community around vocabulary learning to reflect on practice, engage in shared critiques, and support professional choices. In doing so, they were able to inform the research community about good…

Understanding Privilege as Loss: Community-Based Education at Temple University.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shorr, Lori; Rothman, Nancy; Parks, Steve

2001-01-01

Outlines some of the administrative changes included in Temple University's move toward a more community-based education agenda and focuses on one case, Temple Health Connection (THC). THC is an on-site, community- and university-supported medical facility that serves as a locus for community health care, student learning, and faculty research.…

Building Community in Online Doctoral Classrooms: Instructor Practices That Support Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berry, Sharla

2017-01-01

Instructors play a role in helping online students develop a sense of community in virtual classrooms, but little is known about instructors' roles in online graduate programs. To explore the ways in which online instructors helped students create a learning community, defined as a space of connection, closeness and interactivity, the researcher…

No Need to Invent Them: Community Colleges and Their Place in the Education Landscape

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Milliron, Mark David; Wilson, Cynthia

2004-01-01

The modern comprehensive community college has become a powerful learning nexus, an essential educational player in cities, counties, states, and nations. Community colleges are distinct and necessary players in a strong education community. Their missions are diverse, essential, and supportive of economic, educational, and social development. If…

Narratives of Community Educators Fostering Adult Education and Community Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Delgado, Perla Guadalupe

2017-01-01

This qualitative research reports on the narratives of six community educators and utilizes anatomy of story as a framework. The research question directing this study was: What can we learn from the journeys and trajectories of community educators? Supporting sub-questions included: (1) what are their efforts fostering adult education? and (2)…

Reflective learning in community-based dental education.

PubMed

Deogade, Suryakant C; Naitam, Dinesh

2016-01-01

Community-based dental education (CBDE) is the implementation of dental education in a specific social context, which shifts a substantial part of dental clinical education from dental teaching institutional clinics to mainly public health settings. Dental students gain additional value from CBDE when they are guided through a reflective process of learning. We propose some key elements to the existing CBDE program that support meaningful personal learning experiences. Dental rotations of 'externships' in community-based clinical settings (CBCS) are year-long community-based placements and have proven to be strong learning environments where students develop good communication skills and better clinical reasoning and management skills. We look at the characteristics of CBDE and how the social and personal context provided in communities enhances dental education. Meaningfulness is created by the authentic context, which develops over a period of time. Structured reflection assignments and methods are suggested as key elements in the existing CBDE program. Strategies to enrich community-based learning experiences for dental students include: Photographic documentation; written narratives; critical incident reports; and mentored post-experiential small group discussions. A directed process of reflection is suggested as a way to increase the impact of the community learning experiences. We suggest key elements to the existing CBDE module so that the context-rich environment of CBDE allows for meaningful relations and experiences for dental students and enhanced learning.

The "Virtual Face" of Distance Learning at Public Colleges and Universities: What Do Websites Reveal about Administrative Student Support Services?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Stephanie J.; Meyer, Katrina A.

2012-01-01

This study investigated how higher education institutions support their distance learning initiatives through their institutional websites--their "virtual face." The population was 40 institutions, of which 10 each were doctoral/research, master, baccalaureate, and community college, located in 40 different states. Using a researcher-developed…

Exploring the Relationships between Facilitation Methods, Students' Sense of Community, and Their Online Behaviors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phirangee, Krystle; Epp, Carrie Demmans; Hewitt, Jim

2016-01-01

The popularity of online learning has boomed over the last few years, pushing instructors to consider the best ways to design their courses to support student learning needs and participation. Prior research suggests the need for instructor facilitation to provide this guidance and support, whereas other studies have suggested peer facilitation…

Developing an Embedded Peer Tutor Program in Design Studio to Support First Year Design Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zamberlan, Lisa; Wilson, Stephanie

2015-01-01

An improved first year student experience is a strategic focus for higher education in an increasingly competitive marketplace. A successful peer tutoring program creates a visible community of practice, supports the student learning experience, elevates senior students as ambassadors of the program, and reinforces an emphasis on learning through…

The Role of Informal Learning Spaces in Enhancing Student Engagement with Mathematical Sciences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waldock, Jeff; Rowlett, Peter; Cornock, Claire; Robinson, Mike; Bartholomew, Hannah

2017-01-01

By helping create a shared, supportive, learning community, the creative use of custom-designed spaces outside the classroom has a major impact on student engagement. The intention is to create spaces that promote peer interaction within and across year groups, encourage closer working relationships between staff and students and support specific…

Enabling a Community of Practice: Results of the LSCHE Web Portal Survey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoff, Meagan A.; Hodges, Russ; Lin, Yuting; McConnell, Michael C.

2017-01-01

The study explored usage patterns of the Learning Support Centers in Higher Education (LSCHE) web portal, an open educational resource (OER) that serves learning support center professionals. Results of an online survey taken by LSCHE users (N = 41) tracked their self-reported usage and perceived value of resources on the web portal, which…

Resettlement of Individuals with Learning Disabilities into Community Care: A Risk Audit

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ellis, Roger; Hogard, Elaine; Sines, David

2013-01-01

This article describes a risk audit carried out on the support provided for 36 people with profound learning disabilities who had been resettled from hospital care to supported housing. The risks were those factors identified in the literature as associated with deleterious effects on quality of life. The audit was carried out with a specially…

Community action research track: Community-based participatory research and service-learning experiences for medical students.

PubMed

Gimpel, Nora; Kindratt, Tiffany; Dawson, Alvin; Pagels, Patti

2018-04-01

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) and service-learning are unique experiential approaches designed to train medical students how to provide individualized patient care from a population perspective. Medical schools in the US are required to provide support for service-learning and community projects. Despite this requirement, few medical schools offer structured service-learning. We developed the Community Action Research Track (CART) to integrate population medicine, health promotion/disease prevention and the social determinants of health into the medical school curriculum through CBPR and service-learning experiences. This article provides an overview of CART and reports the program impact based on students' participation, preliminary evaluations and accomplishments. CART is an optional 4‑year service-learning experience for medical students interested in community health. The curriculum includes a coordinated longitudinal program of electives, community service-learning and lecture-based instruction. From 2009-2015, 146 CART students participated. Interests in public health (93%), community service (73%), primary care (73%), CBPR (60%) and community medicine (60%) were the top reasons for enrolment. Significant improvements in mean knowledge were found when measuring the principles of CBPR, levels of prevention, determining health literacy and patient communication strategies (all p's < 0.05). Most students (73%) were satisfied with CART. Projects were disseminated by at least 65 posters and four oral presentations at local, national and international professional meetings. Six manuscripts were published in peer-reviewed journals. CART is an innovative curriculum for training future physicians to be community-responsive physicians. CART can be replicated by other medical schools interested in offering a longitudinal CBPR and service-learning track in an urban metropolitan setting.

Developing a Community of Practice through Learning Climate, Leader Support, and Leader Interaction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baker-Eveleth, Lori J.; Chung, Yunhyung; Eveleth, Daniel M.; O'Neill, Michele

2011-01-01

The Communities of Practice (CoP) concept and the knowledge management literature both provide useful frameworks for conceptualizing how an individual's performance in the classroom (e.g., earning a grade) or in an organization (e.g., solving a client's problem) can be supported by a collection of other individuals performing similar tasks and…

Learning Together: Creating a Community of Practice to Support English Language Learner Literacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peercy, Megan Madigan; Martin-Beltran, Melinda; Daniel, Shannon M.

2013-01-01

This qualitative case study examines an after-school, bilingual family literacy programme that brought together several groups to form a community of practice (CoP) that worked to support the literacy development of English language learners and their families. We explored the following question: How do parents, teachers, students, and other…

Family Support for Early Literacy and Numeracy: Examining Events in the Home and Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kennedy, Anne

2010-01-01

Early childhood educators often make assumptions about the nature of families' understandings and what they do at home to support their young children's literacy and numeracy development and learning. Sometimes educator's have a limited understanding of children's every day experiences at home or in their community and the potential for these to…

Circles of Support and Personalization: Exploring the Economic Case

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wistow, Gerald; Perkins, Margaret; Knapp, Martin; Bauer, Annette; Bonin, Eva-Maria

2016-01-01

Circles of Support aim to enable people with learning disabilities (and others) to live full lives as part of their communities. As part of a wider study of the economic case for community capacity building conducted from 2012 to 2014, we conducted a mixed methods study of five Circles in North West England. Members of these Circles were…

Fostering Distributed Science Learning through Collaborative Technologies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vazquez-Abad, Jesus; Brousseau, Nancy; Guillermina, Waldegg C.; Vezina, Mylene; Martinez, Alicia D.; de Verjovsky, Janet Paul

2004-01-01

TACTICS (French and Spanish acronym standing for Collaborative Work and Learning in Science with Information and Communications Technologies) is an ongoing project aimed at investigating a distributed community of learning and practice in which information and communications technologies (ICT) take the role of collaborative tools to support social…

Improving College and Career Readiness through Challenge-Based Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shuptrine, Carl

2013-01-01

High school students in an Advanced Video class addressed the challenge of increasing community awareness. Students followed a challenge-based learning model developing guiding questions and activities to determine solutions for implementation. Literature supported the use of project-based learning that fostered partnerships outside of the…

ICT, Professional Learning: Towards Communities of Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Webb, Ivan; Robertson, Margaret; Fluck, Andrew

2005-01-01

This article reports on findings from "action research" pilot projects in four Tasmanian primary schools. The projects focused on the provision of professional learning to support the use of information and communication technology (ICT) in teaching and learning. These pilot projects used an approach developed from observations of…

Engaging Scientists in NASA Education and Public Outreach: Higher Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meinke, Bonnie K.; Smith, D. A.; Schultz, G. R.; Lawton, B. L.; Bianchi, L.; Blair, W. P.; Buxner, S.; SEPOF Higher Education Working Group; E/PO Community, SMD

2014-01-01

The NASA Science Education and Public Outreach Forums support the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) and its education and public outreach (E/PO) community through a coordinated effort to enhance the coherence and efficiency of SMD-funded E/PO programs. The Forums foster collaboration between scientists with content expertise and educators with pedagogy expertise. We present opportunities for the astronomy community to participate in collaborations supporting the NASA SMD efforts in the Higher Education community. Members of the Higher Education community include instructors, faculty, and students at community colleges and four-year colleges/universities. The Forums’ efforts for the Higher Education community include a literature review, appraisal of instructors’ needs, coordination of audience-based NASA resources and opportunities, and classroom support materials. Learn how to join in our collaborative efforts to support the Higher Education community based upon mutual needs and interests.

Implementing communities of practice in the Georgia Department of Transportation.

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-12-01

This study explored strategies through which the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) can develop communities of : practice to help managers facilitate critical exchanges of knowledge, support organization learning, and ultimately achieve : im...

The Research on Informal Learning Model of College Students Based on SNS and Case Study

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, Peng; Cong, Xiao; Bi, Fangyan; Zhou, Dongdai

2017-03-01

With the rapid development of network technology, informal learning based on online become the main way for college students to learn a variety of subject knowledge. The favor to the SNS community of students and the characteristics of SNS itself provide a good opportunity for the informal learning of college students. This research first analyzes the related research of the informal learning and SNS, next, discusses the characteristics of informal learning and theoretical basis. Then, it proposed an informal learning model of college students based on SNS according to the support role of SNS to the informal learning of students. Finally, according to the theoretical model and the principles proposed in this study, using the Elgg and related tools which is the open source SNS program to achieve the informal learning community. This research is trying to overcome issues such as the lack of social realism, interactivity, resource transfer mode in the current network informal learning communities, so as to provide a new way of informal learning for college students.

Learning from a Community Action Plan to Promote Safe Sexual Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weiss, Josie A.; Dwonch-Schoen, Kathy; Howard-Barr, Elissa M.; Panella, Michael P.

2010-01-01

The well-being of a community is only as good as the well-being of the individuals who reside in the community. A group of citizens, concerned about the welfare of their community, recognized the high rates of HIV/AIDS and teenage pregnancy in their south Florida county and decided to take action. Supported by community leaders and using available…

Action-learning collaboratives as a platform for community-based participatory research to advance obesity prevention.

PubMed

Bazos, Dorothy A; Schifferdecker, Karen E; Fedrizzi, Rudolph; Hoebeke, Jaime; Ruggles, Laural; Goldsberry, Yvonne

2013-01-01

Although process elements that define community-based participatory research (CBPR) are well articulated and provide guidance for bringing together researchers and communities, additional models to implement CBPR are needed. One potential model for implementing and monitoring CBPR is Action Learning Collaboratives (ALCs); short term, team-based learning processes that are grounded in quality improvement. Since 2010, the Prevention Research Center at Dartmouth (PRCD) has used ALCs with three communities as a platform to design, implement and evaluate CBPR. The first ALC provided an opportunity for academia and community leadership to strengthen their relationships and knowledge of respective assets through design and evaluation of community-based QI projects. Building on this work, we jointly designed and are implementing a second ALC, a cross-community research project focused on obesity prevention in vulnerable populations. An enhanced community capacity now exists to support CBPR activities with a high degree of sophistication and decreased reliance on external facilitation.

Discovery of Action Patterns and User Correlations in Task-Oriented Processes for Goal-Driven Learning Recommendation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhou, Xiaokang; Chen, Jian; Wu, Bo; Jin, Qun

2014-01-01

With the high development of social networks, collaborations in a socialized web-based learning environment has become increasing important, which means people can learn through interactions and collaborations in communities across social networks. In this study, in order to support the enhanced collaborative learning, two important factors, user…

Why Increased Social Presence through Web Videoconferencing Does Not Automatically Lead to Improved Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Giesbers, Bas; Rienties, Bart; Tempelaar, Dirk T.; Gijselaers, Wim

2014-01-01

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) model provides a well-researched theoretical framework to understand how learners and teachers interact and learn together in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). Most CoI research focuses on asynchronous learning. However, with the arrival of easy-to-use synchronous communication tools the relevance of…

Year-Round Learning: Linking School, Afterschool, and Summer Learning to Support Student Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dechenes, Sarah; Malone, Helen Janc

2011-01-01

Learning consists of all the ways that youth acquire new knowledge, skills, values, and behaviors. It happens not just in school, but also through afterschool and summer activities, time spent with the family, and increasingly, through interaction with digital media. Broadening ideas about where, when, and how learning happens helps communities to…

Moving Science Off the ``Back Burner'': Meaning Making Within an Action Research Community of Practice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goodnough, Karen

2008-02-01

In this study, the participants conceptualized and implemented an action research project that focused on the infusion of inquiry principles into a neglected science curriculum. Specific objectives were to find (a) What factors challenge and support the evolution of an action research community of practice? (b) How are teachers’ beliefs about science teaching and learning transformed? and (c) How does teachers’ knowledge of curriculum, instruction, assessment, and student learning change as a result of learning within a community of practice? In this instrumental case study (Stake 2000, In N. K. Denzin, & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 435-454). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage), a range of data collection sources and methods were adopted. Outcomes focus on how the design principles for cultivating a community of practice emerged in the action research group, as well as the types of teacher learning that occurred by engaging in action research.

Learning Communities in Undergraduate STEM Education: A Quantitative Analysis of how Sense of Community Influences Retention of Students

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Archie, T.; Newman, P.

2012-12-01

Countless programs are aimed at retaining first year college students in their majors and at their institutions. Additionally, first year students in STEM majors are retained at lower rates, than non-STEM majors. Previous research has shown that students who leave the institution are not as academically and socially integrated into the campus community than students who persist at an institution. Residential learning communities can be thought of as a retention tool by enhancing the academic and social integration of their participants. Academic integration has historically been measured by academic success as indicated by GPA, while social integration has been more difficult to measure. We adapted the Sense of Community Index (SCI) as a measure of social integration. Sense of community (SOC) has been defined as ''a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members' needs will be met through their commitment to be together''. This quantitative study examines sense of community as a means of social integration and explores the relationship between learning communities, students' sense of community, and their intent to persist at a large public university and within their current major. An online survey of 60 first-year college students in a Natural Resources College, examined the relationships between learning community participation, sense of community, and student retention. A logistic regression of sense of community was very effective in predicting students' intent to stay or leave the institution. Structural equation models showed that sense of community was strongly positively related to a students' intent to stay or leave the institution for non-learning community participants, but not for learning community participants. We hypothesized that learning community participants sense of community needs would be more fully met than non-learning community participants. Learning community students showed a weak correlation between sense of community and intent to persist in their major, indicating that these students' departure decisions were based on factors other than sense of community. These finding were consistent with previous research of sense of community which has supported this construct as a needs based hierarchical theory. For example, if students' sense of community needs are met, then they can focus on higher level needs, such as academic success. Conversely, if students' sense of community needs are not being fully met, then this factor remains salient in terms of influencing their departure decision. Our results suggest that learning communities fulfill students' sense of community needs, thus this factor has less influence on learning community participants' decision to leave the institution than their counterparts who do not participate in a learning community. Our results suggest that learning communities are effective in fulfilling students' sense of community needs, thus allowing them to focus their energies on higher order needs such as academic success.

Leadership in Disadvantaged Primary Schools: Two Narratives of Contrasting Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oswald, Marietjie; Engelbrecht, Petra

2013-01-01

Research has indicated that schools should be developed as inclusive learning communities that would support collaborative learning and problem solving in order to address learner diversity more effectively. This article explores school leadership as one determining factor which either affords or constrains collaborative teacher learning for…

"A Vital Role in Uncertain Times"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hunt, Melanie

2009-01-01

The adult learning and skills sector is a diverse world, encompassing adult and community learning, apprenticeships, Train to Gain, and contracted employment programmes. The learning and skills sector plays a vital role in uncertain times by giving greater opportunities for social mobility, for example by supporting progression to further and…

Experience API: Flexible, Decentralized and Activity-Centric Data Collection

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kevan, Jonathan M.; Ryan, Paul R.

2016-01-01

This emerging technology report describes the Experience API (xAPI), a new e-learning specification designed to support the learning community in standardizing and collecting both formal and informal distributed learning activities. Informed by Activity Theory, a framework aligned with constructivism, data is collected in the form of activity…

The Practical Enactment of Adventure Learning: Where Will You AL@?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller, Brant G.; Hougham, R. Justin; Eitel, Karla Bradley

2013-01-01

The Adventure Learning (AL) approach to designing and implementing learning experiences has great potential for practitioners. This manuscript delineates the practical enactment of AL to support the K-12 community, teacher educators, and residential environmental science program providers in the conceptualization and delivery of their own AL…

The Complete Learning Disabilities Directory. 2017 Edition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grey House Publishing, 2016

2016-01-01

Published for over a decade, this directory continues to be a successful, sought-after resource, providing valuable information to professionals, families, and individuals in the learning disabilities community. Supported by the National Center for Learning Disabilities, this 2017 edition brings together the most up-to-date information on LD…

Has Research on Collaborative Learning Technologies Addressed Massiveness? A Literature Review

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Manathunga, Kalpani; Hernández-Leo, Davinia

2015-01-01

There is a growing interest in understanding to what extent innovative educational technologies can be used to support massive courses. Collaboration is one of the main desired elements in massive learning actions involving large communities of participants. Accumulated research in collaborative learning technologies has proposed and evaluated…

The Complete Learning Disabilities Directory. 2011 Edition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grey House Publishing, 2010

2010-01-01

Published for over a decade, this directory continues to be a successful, sought-after resource, providing valuable information to professionals, families, and individuals in the learning disabilities community. Supported by the National Center for Learning Disabilities, this 2011 edition brings together the most up-to-date information on LD…

Reflections on experiential learning in evaluation capacity building with a community organization, Dancing With Parkinson's.

PubMed

Nakaima, April; Sridharan, Sanjeev

2017-05-08

This paper discusses what was learned about evaluation capacity building with community organizations who deliver services to individuals with neurological disorders. Evaluation specialists engaged by the Ontario Brain Institute Evaluation Support Program were paired with community organizations, such as Dancing With Parkinson's. Some of the learning included: relationship building is key for this model of capacity building; community organizations often have had negative experiences with evaluation and the idea that evaluations can be friendly tools in implementing meaningful programs is one key mechanism by which such an initiative can work; community organizations often need evaluation most to be able to demonstrate their value; a strength of this initiative was that the focus was not just on creating products but mostly on developing a learning process in which capacities would remain; evaluation tools and skills that organizations found useful were developing a theory of change and the concept of heterogeneous mechanisms (informed by a realist evaluation lens). Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Supporting Collective Inquiry: A Technology Framework for Distributed Learning

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tissenbaum, Michael

This design-based study describes the implementation and evaluation of a technology framework to support smart classrooms and Distributed Technology Enhanced Learning (DTEL) called SAIL Smart Space (S3). S3 is an open-source technology framework designed to support students engaged in inquiry investigations as a knowledge community. To evaluate the effectiveness of S3 as a generalizable technology framework, a curriculum named PLACE (Physics Learning Across Contexts and Environments) was developed to support two grade-11 physics classes (n = 22; n = 23) engaged in a multi-context inquiry curriculum based on the Knowledge Community and Inquiry (KCI) pedagogical model. This dissertation outlines three initial design studies that established a set of design principles for DTEL curricula, and related technology infrastructures. These principles guided the development of PLACE, a twelve-week inquiry curriculum in which students drew upon their community-generated knowledge base as a source of evidence for solving ill-structured physics problems based on the physics of Hollywood movies. During the culminating smart classroom activity, the S3 framework played a central role in orchestrating student activities, including managing the flow of materials and students using real-time data mining and intelligent agents that responded to emergent class patterns. S3 supported students' construction of knowledge through the use individual, collective and collaborative scripts and technologies, including tablets and interactive large-format displays. Aggregate and real-time ambient visualizations helped the teacher act as a wondering facilitator, supporting students in their inquiry where needed. A teacher orchestration tablet gave the teacher some control over the flow of the scripted activities, and alerted him to critical moments for intervention. Analysis focuses on S3's effectiveness in supporting students' inquiry across multiple learning contexts and scales of time, and in making timely and effective use of the community's knowledge base, towards producing solutions to sophisticated, ill defined problems in the domain of physics. Video analysis examined whether S3 supported teacher orchestration, freeing him to focus less on classroom management and more on students' inquiry. Three important outcomes of this research are a set of design principles for DTEL environments, a specific technology infrastructure (S3), and a DTEL research framework.

45 CFR 2516.710 - What are the limits on the use of funds?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-10-01

... NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE SCHOOL-BASED SERVICE-LEARNING PROGRAMS Funding Requirements § 2516.710 What... to pay any stipend, allowance, or other financial support to any participant in a service-learning...

45 CFR 2516.710 - What are the limits on the use of funds?

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-10-01

... NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE SCHOOL-BASED SERVICE-LEARNING PROGRAMS Funding Requirements § 2516.710 What... to pay any stipend, allowance, or other financial support to any participant in a service-learning...

Service-learning: an integral part of undergraduate public health.

PubMed

Cashman, Suzanne B; Seifer, Sarena D

2008-09-01

In 2003, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) described public health as "an essential part of the training of citizens," a body of knowledge needed to achieve a public health literate citizenry. To achieve that end, the IOM recommended that "all undergraduates should have access to education in public health." Service-learning, a type of experiential learning, is an effective and appropriate vehicle for teaching public health and developing public health literacy. While relatively new to public health, service-learning has its historical roots in undergraduate education and has been shown to enhance students' understanding of course relevance, change student and faculty attitudes, encourage support for community initiatives, and increase student and faculty volunteerism. Grounded in collaborative relationships, service-learning grows from authentic partnerships between communities and educational institutions. Through emphasizing reciprocal learning and reflective practice, service-learning helps students develop skills needed to be effective in working with communities and ultimately achieve social change. With public health's enduring focus on social justice, introducing undergraduate students to public health through the vehicle of service-learning as part of introductory public health core courses or public health electives will help ensure that our young people are able to contribute to developing healthy communities, thus achieving the IOM's vision.

Innovative Graduate Research Education for Advancement of Implementation Science in Adolescent Behavioral Health

PubMed Central

Levin, Bruce Lubotsky; Massey, Tom; Baldwin, Julie; Williamson, Heather

2016-01-01

An innovative approach to research education that integrates the theory and principles of implementation science, participatory research, and service learning in the area of adolescent behavioral health is presented. Qualitative interviews and surveys of program participants have been conducted to assess the program’s curricula, service-learning partnerships, student (scholar) satisfaction, and views of community partnerships and academic mentors. The Institute has experienced the successful completion of its first and second cohorts and enrollment of a third cohort of scholars. Community partners are utilizing results of service-learning projects to influence agency operations. Institute scholars have identified research and service learning experiences as key factors in the decision to apply to the Institute graduate certificate program. The availability of tuition support is identified as valuable but not ranked as the most important reason for scholar interest in the program. Academic mentors report positive relationships with community agencies. Future iterations of the program will expand options for distance learning and alternatives to traditional graduate education for community-based scholars. Community partner agency capacity for participation is expected to change over time. Methods are being identified to both sustain existing partnerships and develop new community partnership relationships. PMID:26746638

Learning about population-health through a community practice learning project: An evaluation study.

PubMed

Davenport, Maggie; Ooms, Ann; Marks-Maran, Di

2016-03-01

Increasing student nurse numbers requiring community placement learning opportunities has led to insufficient numbers of community nurses being available to support student nurses in the community. Although the study presented in the article is based in the UK this issue is reported widely in the literature across the globe. Universities in many countries have had to find innovative ways of providing community health learning opportunities for student nurses. This article reports on how one university in the UK has approached this challenge through students engaging in a population-based study in the community through group work. A research study was undertaken into this innovation which found that the student nurses engaged well with the project and with their groups and undertaking the project had positive value and impact on them and their understanding of population-health. Issues that arose for them largely focused on unequal participation in the group work by some with many participants perceiving that they had done more work on the group project and presentation than others in their group. However, working in this way was perceived to be a good learning experience for the majority of participants. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Innovative Graduate Research Education for Advancement of Implementation Science in Adolescent Behavioral Health.

PubMed

Burton, Donna L; Levin, Bruce Lubotsky; Massey, Tom; Baldwin, Julie; Williamson, Heather

2016-04-01

An innovative approach to research education that integrates the theory and principles of implementation science, participatory research, and service learning in the area of adolescent behavioral health is presented. Qualitative interviews and surveys of program participants have been conducted to assess the program's curricula, service-learning partnerships, student (scholar) satisfaction, and views of community partnerships and academic mentors. The Institute has experienced the successful completion of its first and second cohorts and enrollment of a third cohort of scholars. Community partners are utilizing results of service-learning projects to influence agency operations. Institute scholars have identified research and service learning experiences as key factors in the decision to apply to the Institute graduate certificate program. The availability of tuition support is identified as valuable but not ranked as the most important reason for scholar interest in the program. Academic mentors report positive relationships with community agencies. Future iterations of the program will expand options for distance learning and alternatives to traditional graduate education for community-based scholars. Community partner agency capacity for participation is expected to change over time. Methods are being identified to both sustain existing partnerships and develop new community partnership relationships.

Critical connections: health and academics.

PubMed

Michael, Shannon L; Merlo, Caitlin L; Basch, Charles E; Wentzel, Kathryn R; Wechsler, Howell

2015-11-01

While it is a national priority to support the health and education of students, these sectors must better align, integrate, and collaborate to achieve this priority. This article summarizes the literature on the connection between health and academic achievement using the Whole School, Whole Community, and Whole Child (WSCC) framework as a way to address health-related barriers to learning. A literature review was conducted on the association between student health and academic achievement. Most of the evidence examined the association between student health behaviors and academic achievement, with physical activity having the most published studies and consistent findings. The evidence supports the need for school health services by demonstrating the association between chronic conditions and decreased achievement. Safe and positive school environments were associated with improved health behaviors and achievement. Engaging families and community members in schools also had a positive effect on students' health and achievement. Schools can improve the health and learning of students by supporting opportunities to learn about and practice healthy behaviors, providing school health services, creating safe and positive school environments, and engaging families and community. This evidence supports WSCC as a potential framework for achieving national educational and health goals. © 2015 The Authors. Journal of School Health published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American School Health Association.

Supporting the Development of Science Communication Skills in STEM University Students: Understanding Their Learning Experiences as They Work in Middle and High School Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grant, Brooke L.; Liu, Xiufeng; Gardella, Joseph A.

2015-01-01

This paper examines the roles that 52 university Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) students play in an Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering Partnership that connects several middle schools, high schools, institutions of higher learning, businesses, and community institutions. It also examines the support these students…

Building and Supporting Online Learning Environments through Web Course Tools: It Is Whippy, but Does It Work?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Tim H.; Lindner, James R.

This study describes and explores student perceptions regarding the use of WebCT in building and supporting online learning communities (a practical application). Participants were all students enrolled in "AGED 440: Principles of Technological Change," an undergraduate level course at Texas A&M University. Objectives were to describe and explore:…

Learning from the Wisdom of Practice: Teachers' Educational Purposes as Pathways to Supporting Adolescent Purpose in Secondary Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quinn, Brandy P.

2016-01-01

Purpose in life is beneficial for adolescents and their communities. However, less is known about supports for purpose development during adolescence, particularly in the school setting. The study described here drew from theories about teacher beliefs and knowledge, and a multidimensional definition of purpose in life, in order to learn from…

Exploration of the Factors That Support Learning: Web-Based Activity and Testing Systems in Community College Algebra

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hauk, Shandy; Matlen, Bryan

2016-01-01

A variety of computerized interactive learning platforms exist. Most include instructional supports in the form of problem sets. Feedback to users ranges from a single word like "Correct!" to offers of hints and partially to fully worked examples. Behind-the-scenes design of such systems varies as well --from static dictionaries of…

Exploration of the Factors That Support Learning: Web-Based Activity and Testing Systems in Community College Algebra [Contributed Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hauk, Shandy; Matlen, Bryan; Thomas, Larry

2017-01-01

A variety of computerized interactive learning platforms exist. Most include instructional supports in the form of problem sets. Feedback to users ranges from a single word like "Correct!" to offers of hints and partially- to fully-worked examples. Behind-the-scenes design of systems varies as well--from static dictionaries of problems…

Supporting Teachers' Professional Learning at a Distance: A Model for Change in At-Risk Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warren, Elizabeth A.; Quine, Janine; DeVries, Eva

2012-01-01

This paper examines the effectiveness of a professional learning model developed to support early years teachers in rural and remote communities in Queensland as they began to implement the Australian Curriculum in Mathematics. The data are drawn from 35 teachers at the initial stage of a large, four year longitudinal study RoleM (Representations,…

21st Century Community Learning Centers: Stable Funding for Innovation and Continuous Improvement. Research Update: Highlights from the Out-of-School Time Database. Number 8

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wimer, Christopher; Harris, Erin

2012-01-01

As the only federal funding stream that provides dedicated funds for afterschool programs across the country, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) initiative plays an important role in supporting the innovation that takes place in afterschool programs. Social innovation has been defined as "a novel solution to a social…

Re-Designing Community Mental Health Services for Urban Children: Supporting Schooling to Promote Mental Health

PubMed Central

Atkins, Marc S.; Shernoff, Elisa S.; Frazier, Stacy L.; Schoenwald, Sonja K.; Cappella, Elise; Marinez-Lora, Ane; Mehta, Tara G.; Lakind, Davielle; Cua, Grace; Bhaumik, Runa; Bhaumik, Dulal

2015-01-01

Objective This study examined a school- and home-based mental health service model, Links to Learning (L2L), focused on empirical predictors of learning as primary goals for services in high poverty urban communities. Method Teacher key opinion leaders (KOLs) were identified through sociometric surveys and trained, with mental health providers (MHPs) and parent advocates (PAs), on evidence-based practices to enhance children’s learning. KOLs and MHPs co-facilitated professional development sessions for classroom teachers to disseminate two universal (Good Behavior Game, Peer Assisted Learning) and two targeted (Good News Notes, Daily Report Card) interventions. Group-based and home-based family education and support were delivered by MHPs and PAs for K-4th grade children diagnosed with one or more disruptive behavior disorder. Services were Medicaid-funded through four social service agencies (N = 17 providers) in seven schools (N = 136 teachers, 171 children) in a two (L2L vs. services-as-usual SAU]) by six (pre- and post-tests for three years) longitudinal design with random assignment of schools to conditions. SAU consisted of supported referral to a nearby social service agency. Results Mixed effects regression models indicated significant positive effects of L2L on mental health service use, classroom observations of academic engagement, teacher report of academic competence and social skills, and parent report of social skills. Nonsignificant between-group effects were found on teacher and parent report of problem behaviors, daily hassles, and curriculum based measures. Effects were strongest for young children, girls, and children with fewer symptoms. Conclusions Community mental health services targeting empirical predictors of learning can improve school and home behavior for children living in high poverty urban communities. PMID:26302252

The IPS supported employment learning collaborative.

PubMed

Becker, Deborah R; Drake, Robert E; Bond, Gary R

2014-06-01

Learning collaboratives aim to improve the quality and outcomes of health care. This paper updates the Johnson & Johnson-Dartmouth Community Mental Health Program, a 12-year learning collaborative on supported employment for people with mental illness. We gathered data from quarterly employment reports, monthly Individual Placement and Support (IPS) meetings, and presentations at the 2013 annual meeting of the learning collaborative. The number of participant states or regions (and sites within these jurisdictions) was expanded to 16 jurisdictions in the United States and 3 in European countries. The quarterly rate of competitive employment has averaged 43% over 11 years in the U.S. sites. The collaborative has spawned numerous interactions, trainings, innovations, and research projects. Long-term learning collaboratives can produce high quality services, good outcomes, sustainability, and innovation.

Mobilizing Rural Community Resources for Support and Development of Local Learning Systems in Developing Countries.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Grady, Barbara, Ed.; Levenson, Ruth, Ed.

Focusing on how local village communities in developing countries might support part or all of their educational costs, this study describes methods used by developing countries to reduce education costs and offers a model incorporating several of the most successful components of such projects. First is a discussion of methods used by governments…

Distance Education Programs in Texas Community & Technical Colleges: Assessing Student Support Services in a Virtual Environment.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Luedtke, Cherry Beth

This project evaluates the status of distance learning at 54 public, two-year community, and technical colleges in Texas. Data was collected from the Web sites of each of the institutions. The Web site data indicted that 44 of the colleges refer specifically to distance education courses offered. To assess what student support services are…

The High-Quality Learning Conditions Needed To Support Students of Color and Immigrants at California Community Colleges. Policy Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

California Tomorrow, San Francisco.

California Tomorrow, a non-profit research organization that supports the development of a fair and inclusive multicultural society, conducted this study. The research sought to answer three questions: (1) What are the experiences of Latino, African American, Asian, Native American, white, and immigrant students in the community college system,…

Service-Based Learning for Residents: A Success for Communities and Medical Education.

PubMed

Gefter, Liana; Merrell, Sylvia Bereknyei; Rosas, Lisa G; Morioka-Douglas, Nancy; Rodriguez, Eunice

2015-01-01

Community-based service-learning opportunities could support residents' acquisition of Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) competencies, but this concept has not been tested, and such programs are difficult to find. The objective of this work was to assess the value and the ACGME competency relevance of a service-learning program for residents that could be easily replicated nationally. Forty-one family medicine residents from three training programs participated in the Stanford Youth Diabetes Coaches Program at six high schools in California and Georgia serving minority students of low socioeconomic status. Residents completed online surveys to provide qualitative feedback and assess the program's impact on their acquisition of residency program competencies and self-management support proficiencies, including prior use and planned use of action plans-a key self-management support strategy. Ninety-five percent of residents indicated that the program was a valuable experience that contributed to acquisition of residency program competencies, including interpersonal and communication skills and communication with teens. Compared with baseline, significantly more residents reported intention to use action plans with patients following participation. Themes from qualitative feedback included: valuing the overall experience, increasing opportunities to practice teaching, enhancing their ability to communicate with adolescents, contributing to the health of the community, recognizing the potential of action plans, and increasing intent to use action plans. This pilot demonstrated that a brief service-learning program can enhance standard residency curriculum by encouraging acquisition of ACGME competencies and promoting utilization of self-management support in clinical practice.

The effect of an enriched learning community on success and retention in chemistry courses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Willoughby, Lois Jane

Since the mid-1990s, the United States has experienced a shortage of scientists and engineers, declining numbers of students choosing these fields as majors, and low student success and retention rates in these disciplines. Learning theorists, educational researchers, and practitioners believe that learning environments can be created so that an improvement in the numbers of students who complete courses successfully could be attained (Astin, 1993; Magolda & Terenzini, n.d.; O'Banion, 1997). Learning communities do this by providing high expectations, academic and social support, feedback during the entire educational process, and involvement with faculty, other students, and the institution (Ketcheson & Levine, 1999). A program evaluation of an existing learning community of science, mathematics, and engineering majors was conducted to determine the extent to which the program met its goals and was effective from faculty and student perspectives. The program provided laptop computers, peer tutors, supplemental instruction with and without computer software, small class size, opportunities for contact with specialists in selected career fields, a resource library, and Peer-Led Team Learning. During the two years the project has existed, success, retention, and next-course continuation rates were higher than in traditional courses. Faculty and student interviews indicated there were many affective accomplishments as well. Success and retention rates for one learning community class ( n = 27) and one traditional class (n = 61) in chemistry were collected and compared using Pearson chi square procedures ( p = .05). No statistically significant difference was found between the two groups. Data from an open-ended student survey about how specific elements of their course experiences contributed to success and persistence were analyzed by coding the responses and comparing the learning community and traditional classes. Substantial differences were found in their perceptions about the lecture, the lab, other supports used for the course, contact with other students, helping them reach their potential, and their recommendation about the course to others. Because of the limitation of small sample size, these differences are reported in descriptive terms.

Research challenges and lessons learned from conducting community-based research with the Hmong community.

PubMed

Kue, Jennifer; Thorburn, Sheryl; Keon, Karen Levy

2015-05-01

Conducting research with underserved communities with little exposure to research presents a number of challenges and opportunities. Our study used a community-based approach to better understand factors that influence breast and cervical cancer screening among Hmong women. This article shares lessons learned during the process of developing and conducting qualitative research with a Hmong community with limited experience with research. We conducted 17 key informant and 84 in-depth interviews with Hmong women and men. Research team discussions, insights from Hmong research team members, input from our Community Advisory Committee, and project documents were sources of information about the process of conducting research in this community. Lessons learned concern including a cultural insider as an investigator; building community partnerships and support; establishing and working with a community advisory committee; hiring and training bilingual, bicultural staff; and using culturally appropriate materials and methods in a small, kinship-based community. We used multiple strategies to ensure that this study was conducted in a culturally appropriate manner. The lessons learned from our experiences can provide guidance to researchers on methodological and practical issues in conducting research with the Hmong and can inform future research with the Hmong and other similar underserved populations. © 2014 Society for Public Health Education.

NASA’s Universe of Learning: Engaging Subject Matter Experts to Support Museum Alliance Science Briefings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marcucci, Emma; Slivinski, Carolyn; Lawton, Brandon L.; Smith, Denise A.; Squires, Gordon K.; Biferno, Anya A.; Lestition, Kathleen; Cominsky, Lynn R.; Lee, Janice C.; Rivera, Thalia; Walker, Allyson; Spisak, Marilyn

2018-06-01

NASA's Universe of Learning creates and delivers science-driven, audience-driven resources and experiences designed to engage and immerse learners of all ages and backgrounds in exploring the universe for themselves. The project is a unique partnership between the Space Telescope Science Institute, Caltech/IPAC, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, and Sonoma State University and is part of the NASA SMD Science Activation Collective. The NASA’s Universe of Learning projects pull on the expertise of subject matter experts (scientist and engineers) from across the broad range of NASA Astrophysics themes and missions. One such project, which draws strongly on the expertise of the community, is the NASA’s Universe of Learning Science Briefings, which is done in collaboration with the NASA Museum Alliance. This collaboration presents a monthly hour-long discussion on relevant NASA astrophysics topics or events to an audience composed largely of informal educators from informal learning environments. These professional learning opportunities use experts and resources within the astronomical community to support increased interest and engagement of the informal learning community in NASA Astrophysics-related concepts and events. Briefings are designed to create a foundation for this audience using (1) broad science themes, (2) special events, or (3) breaking science news. The NASA’s Universe of Learning team engages subject matter experts to be speakers and present their science at these briefings to provide a direct connection to NASA Astrophysics science and provide the audience an opportunity to interact directly with scientists and engineers involved in NASA missions. To maximize the usefulness of the Museum Alliance Science Briefings, each briefing highlights resources related to the science theme to support informal educators in incorporating science content into their venues and/or interactions with the public. During this presentation, learn how you can help contribute to the NASA’s Universe of Learning and take part in Science Briefings.

Teen Advocates for Community and Environmental Sustainability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wunar, B.

2017-12-01

The Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago (MSI) is in the early stages of a NOAA supported Environmental Literacy Grant project that aims to engage high school age youth in the exploration of climate and Earth systems science. Participating youth are positioned as teen advocates for establishing resilient communities in the Midwest. The project utilizes a variety of resources, including NOAA Science On a Sphere® (SOS) technology and datasets, Great Lakes and local climate assets, and local municipal resiliency planning guides to develop museum-based youth programming. Teen participants in the project will share their learning through regular facilitated interactions with public visitors in the Museum and will bring learning experiences to Chicago Public Library sites throughout the city's neighborhoods. Project content will also be adapted for use in 100+ after-school science clubs to engage younger students from diverse communities across the Chicago area. Current strategies for supporting teen facilitation of public experiences, linkages to out of school time and summer learning programs, and connections to local resiliency planning agencies will be explored.

Knowledge Sourcing in IT Support Services

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Workman, Sue B.

2011-01-01

Indiana University (IU) provides great support for the technology the community needs to teach, learn, and conduct research. Rather than limiting support by defining a rigid support matrix, IU has chosen instead to utilize knowledge management technology to provide self-service for repetitive information technology (IT) questions, and focus…

Engaging Scientists in NASA Education and Public Outreach: K - 12 Formal Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bartolone, Lindsay; Smith, D. A.; Eisenhamer, B.; Lawton, B. L.; Universe Professional Development Collaborative, Multiwavelength; NASA Data Collaborative, Use of; SEPOF K-12 Formal Education Working Group; E/PO Community, SMD

2014-01-01

The NASA Science Education and Public Outreach Forums support the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD) and its education and public outreach (E/PO) community through a coordinated effort to enhance the coherence and efficiency of SMD-funded E/PO programs. The Forums foster collaboration between scientists with content expertise and educators with pedagogy expertise. We present opportunities for the astronomy community to participate in collaborations supporting the NASA SMD efforts in the K - 12 Formal Education community. Members of the K - 12 Formal Education community include classroom educators, homeschool educators, students, and curriculum developers. The Forums’ efforts for the K - 12 Formal Education community include a literature review, appraisal of educators’ needs, coordination of audience-based NASA resources and opportunities, professional development, and support with the Next Generation Science Standards. Learn how to join in our collaborative efforts to support the K - 12 Formal Education community based upon mutual needs and interests.

Developing a Community of Practice for HIV Care: Supporting Knowledge Translation in a Regional Training Initiative.

PubMed

Gallagher, Donna M; Hirschhorn, Lisa R; Lorenz, Laura S; Piya, Priyatam

2017-01-01

Ensuring knowledgeable, skilled HIV providers is challenged by rapid advances in the field, diversity of patients and providers, and the need to retain experienced providers while training new providers. These challenges highlight the need for education strategies, including training and clinical consultation to support translation of new knowledge to practice. New England AIDS Education and Training Center (NEAETC) provides a range of educational modalities including academic peer detailing and distance support to HIV providers in six states. We describe the interprofessional perspectives of HIV providers who participated in this regional program to understand success and areas for strengthening pedagogical modality, content, and impact on clinical practice. This 2013 to 2014 mixed-methods study analyzed quantitative programmatic data to understand changes in training participants and modalities and used semistructured interviews with 30 HIV providers and coded for preidentified and emerging themes. Since 2010, NEAETC evolved modalities to a greater focus on active learning (case discussion, clinical consultation), decreasing didactic training by half (18-9%). This shift was designed to move from knowledge transfer to translation, and qualitative findings supported the value of active learning approaches. Providers valued interactive trainings and presentation of cases supporting knowledge translation. On-site training encouraged peer networking and sharing of lessons learned. Diversity in learning priorities across providers and sites validated NEAETC's approach of tailoring topics to local needs and encouraging regional networking. Tailored approaches resulted in improved provider-reported capacity, peer learning, and support. Future evaluations should explore the impact of this multipronged approach on supporting a community of practice and empowerment of provider teams.

An exploration of experts' perceptions on the use of interprofessional education to support collaborative practice in the care of community-living older adults.

PubMed

Ploeg, Jenny; Markle-Reid, Maureen; Fisher, Anita; Bookey-Bassett, Sue; Chambers, Tracey; Kennedy, Laurie; Morsy, Mona; Dufour, Sinéad

2017-09-01

Globally, as older adults are living longer and with more chronic conditions, there is a need to support their ability to age optimally in their homes and communities. Community-based interprofessional teams working closely with these older adults, their families, and informal caregivers will be instrumental in achieving this goal. Interprofessional education (IPE) is the means through which these teams can develop expertise in collaboratively working together with older adults. However, most IPE occurs in academic settings, and acute and long-term care sectors and little is known about IPE in the context of home and community care of older adults. The purpose of this study was to describe perceptions of academic and practice experts related to the current state of IPE in home and community care of older adults and the changes that are necessary to meet the future needs of practitioners and older adults. Using a qualitative descriptive design, interviews were conducted with 32 national and international key informants representing practitioners, educators, researchers, and health system decision-makers in the field of IPE. Thematic analysis of the data identified six themes: (a) client and family-centred care at the core of IPE, (b) the community as a unique learning setting across the learning continuum; (c) an aging-relevant IPE curriculum; (d) faculty commitment and resources for IPE; (e) technological innovation to support IPE; and (f) comprehensive IPE programme evaluation and research. These findings are explored through the lens of an interprofessional learning continuum model. The article concludes with a discussion of the study implications for IPE practice and research specifically in the care of community-living older adults.

The Important Elements of LMS Design That Affect User Engagement with E-Learning Tools within LMSs in the Higher Education Sector

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zanjani, Nastaran; Edwards, Sylvia L.; Nykvist, Shaun; Geva, Shlomo

2017-01-01

In recent years, universities have been under increased pressure to adopt e-learning practices for teaching and learning. In particular, the emphasis has been on learning management systems (LMSs) and associated collaboration tools to provide opportunities for sharing knowledge, building a community of learners, and supporting higher order…

Making It Work: Embedding a Supported Employment Approach in Vocational Education and Training for People with Learning Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobsen, Yola

2010-01-01

The "Making it Work" book is for practitioners and managers working with people with learning difficulties in FE colleges, adult and community learning services, work-based learning and voluntary sector organisations. This book was produced as a result of a two-year project funded by the Department of Health. It provides information…

From leaky pipeline to irrigation system: minority education through the lens of community-based participatory research.

PubMed

James, Rosalina; Starks, Helene; Segrest, Valerie Ann; Burke, Wylie

2012-01-01

Higher education has long made efforts to increase underrepresented minority participation in biomedical research and health fields. However, relatively few minority trainees complete advanced degrees or proceed to independent research careers, a loss referred to as the "leaky pipeline." Minority trainees may take alternate pathways to climbing the academic ladder, exiting to pursue multiple disciplinary or community-serving roles. The authors propose a model for understanding minority departures from the education pipeline as a basis for supporting careers that align with community goals for health. Concepts of the traditional pipeline training model are compared with a model that aligns with community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles and practices. The article describes an irrigation model that incorporates informal learning from academic and community knowledge bases to prepare trainees for CBPR and interdisciplinary research. Students serve as agents that foster individual, institutional, and social change needed to address health problems while attending to root causes of disparities. Viewing minority students as agents for community engagement allows institutions to reassess the role training can play in diversifying participation in higher education and research. An irrigation model supports development of an infrastructure that optimizes success at all post-secondary levels, and enhances CBPR capacity wherever trainees live, work, and learn. Linking formal education to informal learning in context of CBPR experiences can also reduce community mistrust of research while nurturing productive research partnerships with communities to address health disparities.

From Leaky Pipeline to Irrigation System: Minority Education through the Lens of Community-Based Participatory Research

PubMed Central

James, Rosalina; Starks, Helene; Segrest, Valerie; Burke, Wylie

2014-01-01

Background Higher education has long made efforts to increase underrepresented minority participation in biomedical research and health fields. However, relatively few minority trainees complete advanced degrees or proceed to independent research careers, a loss referred to as the “leaky pipeline.” Minority trainees may take alternate pathways to climbing the academic ladder, exiting to pursue multiple disciplinary or community-serving roles. Objective The authors propose a model for understanding minority departures from the education pipeline as a basis for nurturing careers that support community goals for health. Methods Concepts of the traditional pipeline training model are compared with a model that aligns with CBPR principles and practices. The article describes an irrigation model that incorporates informal learning from academic and community knowledge bases to prepare trainees for CBPR and interdisciplinary research. Students serve as agents that foster individual, institutional and social change needed to address health problems while attending to root causes of disparities. Conclusions Viewing minority students as agents for community engagement allows institutions to reassess the role training can play in diversifying participation in higher education and research. An irrigation model supports development of an infrastructure that optimizes success at all post-secondary levels, and enhances CBPR capacity wherever trainees live, work, and learn. Linking formal education to informal learning in context of community-based participatory research experiences can also reduce community mistrust of research while nurturing productive research partnerships with communities to address health disparities. PMID:23221293

Mapping Pedagogy and Tools for Effective Learning Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conole, G.; Dyke, M.; Oliver, M.; Seale, J.

2004-01-01

A number of pedagogies and approaches are often quoted in the e-learning literature--constructivism, communities of practice, collaboration--but we suggest that much of what is described could more easily be explained in terms of didactic and behaviourist approaches to learning. In this paper we propose a model that supports the development of…

Three Years of the New Mexico Laptop Learning Initiative (NMLLI): Stumbling toward Innovation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rutledge, David; Duran, James; Carroll-Miranda, Joseph

2007-01-01

This article presents qualitative results of the first three years of the New Mexico Laptop Learning Initiative (NMLLI). Results suggest that teachers, students, and their communities support this initiative to improve student learning. Descriptive statistics were used during year two to further understand how the laptops were being used by…

A Dynamic Social Feedback System to Support Learning and Social Interaction in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thoms, Brian

2011-01-01

In this research, we examine the design, construction, and implementation of a dynamic, easy to use, feedback mechanism for social software. The tool was integrated into an existing university's online learning community (OLC). In line with constructivist learning models and practical information systems (IS) design, the feedback system provides…

Problem Solved: Middle School Math Instruction Gets a Boost from a Flexible Model for Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobs, Jennifer; Koellner, Karen; Funderburk, Joanie

2012-01-01

Education researchers frequently seek out districts, schools, and teachers as partners for professional learning projects. They share their ambitious vision--a new model of professional learning that will support an empowered community, instructional improvement, and student achievement. The authors, along with other members of their research…

It's Time for Summer: An Analysis of Recent Policy and Funding Opportunities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fairchild, Ron; Smink, Jeff; Stewart, Ashley B.

2009-01-01

The National Summer Learning Association is the only national organization that focuses exclusively on learning during the summer months. It works to ensure that children and youth in high-poverty communities have access to quality summer learning opportunities that support their academic performance and healthy development through hands-on…

Rethinking Reflection: Using Online Reflective Learning in Professional Practice for Indigenous Health Workers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rose, Miranda; Devonshire, Elizabeth

2004-01-01

This paper reports on an innovative use of online learning, within a distributed learning environment (DLE), to support students in an undergraduate programme in Indigenous health and community development to reflect on their experiences in professional placements. The professional practice curriculum at Yooroang Garang School of Indigenous Health…

Creating an Online Learning Community in a Flipped Classroom to Enhance EFL Learners' Oral Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wu, Wen-Chi Vivian; Hsieh, Jun Scott Chen; Yang, Jie Chi

2017-01-01

Since the advent of new technology for learning, innovative language instructors have been constantly seeking new pedagogy to match the potential of technology-enhanced instruction. While previous studies have supported the adoption of technologies to facilitate language teaching and learning, research into enhancing English as a foreign language…

New Trends in the Study of Social Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yaguchi, Etsuko

2009-01-01

Social education is seen as one important way of building a learning society, through supporting people in solving their daily problems. In a learning society, people could participate in a big project to develop their community as well as enjoying learning, without being excluded because of economic status, gender, age or ethnicity. Implementing…

The Next Step for Literacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Comings, John P.

2017-01-01

The world community committed to support universal access to basic education in 1990. Since then, schools have been built and teachers hired and trained. Twenty years later, many more students were in primary school, but learning assessments showed that most were not learning how to read well enough to use reading to learn. The world community…

Adapting Compassion Focused Therapy for an Adult with a Learning Disability--A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cooper, Rosalind; Frearson, Julia

2017-01-01

Background: Joe was referred to the Community Learning Disabilities Team (CLDT) for support around low mood and overeating. Initial formulation suggested compassion focused therapy (CFT) as an intervention. The evidence base for using CFT with people with learning disabilities is currently limited. Materials and Methods: Adaptations were made to…

Making It Social: Considering the Purpose of Literacy to Support Participation in Making and Engineering

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tucker-Raymond, Eli; Gravel, Brian E.; Wagh, Aditi; Wilson, Naeem; Manderino, Michael; Castek, Jill

2016-01-01

Digital literacies for disciplinary learning explores intersections of digital and disciplinary literacies across learning contexts such as community makerspaces and schools and examines learning across disciplines including the arts, engineering, science, social studies, language arts, and math. Columns will address work with both youth and…

Developing Preceptors through Virtual Communities and Networks: Experiences from a Pilot Project

PubMed Central

Ackman, Margaret L; Romanick, Marcel

2011-01-01

Background: Supporting preceptors is critical to the expansion of experiential learning opportunities for the pharmacy profession. Informal learning opportunities within communities of practitioners are important for hospital preceptors. However, such communities may be limited by geographic separation of preceptors from peers, faculty members, and supports within the pharmacy services department. Objective: To use computer-mediated conferencing to create a sense of community among preceptors, specifically by using this medium to provide initial development of and continuing support for preceptors, and to examine preceptors’ satisfaction with this approach. Methods: Thirty-nine preceptors who had completed a day-long face-to-face preceptor development workshop and who were supervising students in 1 of 2 specific rotation blocks were invited to participate in the study. The pharmacists used computer-mediated conferencing to meet for virtual networking about specific topics. They met once before the student rotation to receive instructions about the technology and to discuss student orientation and scheduling, and 3 times during the student rotation for open discussion of specific topics. Evaluation and feedback were solicited by means of an electronic survey and virtual (i.e., computer-based) feedback sessions with an independent facilitator. Results: The response rate was 66% (26/39) for the electronic survey, but only 15% (6/39) for the virtual feedback sessions. All of the respondents were experienced preceptors, but for 92% (22/24), this was their first experience with computer-mediated conferencing. Overall, the sessions had a positive reception, and participants found it useful to share information and experiences with other preceptors. The main challenges were related to the technology, perceived lack of support for their participation in the sessions, and inconvenience related to the timing of sessions. Conclusion: Computer-mediated conferencing allowed preceptors to learn from and to support each other despite geographic distance. The participants felt that these sessions encouraged them to serve as preceptors regularly. Such encouragement could contribute to the retention of preceptors, which is important to the expansion of experiential learning. PMID:22479095

Developing Preceptors through Virtual Communities and Networks: Experiences from a Pilot Project.

PubMed

Ackman, Margaret L; Romanick, Marcel

2011-11-01

Supporting preceptors is critical to the expansion of experiential learning opportunities for the pharmacy profession. Informal learning opportunities within communities of practitioners are important for hospital preceptors. However, such communities may be limited by geographic separation of preceptors from peers, faculty members, and supports within the pharmacy services department. To use computer-mediated conferencing to create a sense of community among preceptors, specifically by using this medium to provide initial development of and continuing support for preceptors, and to examine preceptors' satisfaction with this approach. Thirty-nine preceptors who had completed a day-long face-to-face preceptor development workshop and who were supervising students in 1 of 2 specific rotation blocks were invited to participate in the study. The pharmacists used computer-mediated conferencing to meet for virtual networking about specific topics. They met once before the student rotation to receive instructions about the technology and to discuss student orientation and scheduling, and 3 times during the student rotation for open discussion of specific topics. Evaluation and feedback were solicited by means of an electronic survey and virtual (i.e., computer-based) feedback sessions with an independent facilitator. The response rate was 66% (26/39) for the electronic survey, but only 15% (6/39) for the virtual feedback sessions. All of the respondents were experienced preceptors, but for 92% (22/24), this was their first experience with computer-mediated conferencing. Overall, the sessions had a positive reception, and participants found it useful to share information and experiences with other preceptors. The main challenges were related to the technology, perceived lack of support for their participation in the sessions, and inconvenience related to the timing of sessions. Computer-mediated conferencing allowed preceptors to learn from and to support each other despite geographic distance. The participants felt that these sessions encouraged them to serve as preceptors regularly. Such encouragement could contribute to the retention of preceptors, which is important to the expansion of experiential learning.

Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Parents and Community as Partners in Education. Part I: Building an Understanding of Family and Community Engagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Regional Educational Laboratory Pacific, 2014

2014-01-01

This toolkit is designed to guide school staff in strengthening partnerships with families and community members to support student learning. This toolkit offers an integrated approach to family and community engagement, bringing together research, promising practices, and a wide range of useful tools and resources with explanations and directions…

Into the Community and Not on the Shelf: Learning to Develop a Meaningful HIV/AIDS Curriculum for Multiple Communities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riley, Tasha

2014-01-01

This paper describes the process involved in creating a community-based training curriculum designed to build capacity and foster new knowledge in support of HIV/AIDS education. Highlighted are the challenges and triumphs incurred while working with community and academic partners to ensure the production of an adaptable curriculum designed to…

Central Practitioners' Developing Legitimate Peripheral Participation in a Community of Practice for Changing Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woo, David James

2015-01-01

As new technologies continue to shape society, there has been a greater need for communities of practice to facilitate changing teaching and learning practices through technology in schools. Legitimate peripheral participation through these communities of practice has become an essential means to spread and support this technology integration…

Mentoring Partnerships in a Community Technology Centre: A Constructionist Approach for Fostering Equitable Service Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kafai, Yasmin B.; Desai, Shiv; Peppler, Kylie A.; Chiu, Grace M.; Moya, Jesse

2008-01-01

Mentoring programmes have gained increasing popularity in institutions of higher education to support undergraduates in community service or outreach efforts. Many of these programmes partner mentors with inner-city youth, providing assistance in underserved communities while mentors gain experiences that connect theory and practice. Here we…

A View from the Outside In: Community Colleges as Entrepreneurial Community Learning Centers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tarence, Zane

2002-01-01

According to this article, community colleges are seeking ways to increase revenue and become less dependent on traditional state revenue resources. Increasingly, college presidents and trustees are finding empty pockets and depleted state coffers, despite the effort and hours spent lobbying legislatures for funding to support strategic plans.…

Learning through Making and Maker Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hsu, Yu-Chang; Baldwin, Sally; Ching, Yu-Hui

2017-01-01

In this paper, we provide an overview of the current efforts in maker education, supported by a review of empirical studies. Our synthesis will inform the community about learning outcomes, potential and common issues, challenges, resources, and future research direction regarding maker education.

Meaningful Engagement in Scientific Practices: How Classroom Communities Develop Authentic Epistemologies for Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Krist, Christina Rae

Recent reforms in science education, based on decades of learning research, emphasize engaging students in science and engineering practices as the means to develop and refine disciplinary ideas. These reforms advocate an epistemic shift in how school science is done: from students learning about science ideas to students figuring out core science ideas. This shift is challenging to implement: how do we bring the goals and practices of a discipline into classroom communities in meaningful ways that go beyond simply following rote scientific procedures? In this dissertation, I investigate how classroom communities learn to engage meaningfully in scientific practices, characterizing their engagement as a process of epistemic learning. I take a situated perspective that defines learning as shifts in how members engage in communities of practice. I examine students' epistemic learning as a function of their participation in a classroom community of scientific practice along two dimensions: what they do, or the practical epistemic heuristics they use to guide how they build knowledge; and who they are, or how ownership and authorship of ideas is negotiated and affectively marked through interaction. I focus on a cohort of students as they move from 6th to 8 th grade. I analyze three science units, one from each grade level, to look at the epistemic heuristics implicit in student and teacher talk and how the use of those heuristics shifts over time. In addition, I examine one anomalous 8th grade class to look at how students and the teacher position themselves and each other with respect to the ideas in their classroom and how that positioning supports epistemic learning. Taken together, these analyses demonstrate how students' engagement in scientific practices evolves in terms of what they do and who they are in relation to the knowledge and ideas in their classroom over time. I propose a model for epistemic learning that articulates how classroom communities develop practical epistemologies that guide their knowledge building work and how the development of these epistemologies is identity-laden. I find that for engagement in science practices to be meaningful, classroom communities' engagement is motivated by the unknowns in students' knowledge, or what they still need to figure out and explain. In contexts where knowledge is uncertain, practical epistemic heuristics become authentically useful for students' knowledge building work. However, using unknowns to motivate learning can be distressing for students. The anomalous case study suggests that students' meaningful engagement in science knowledge building requires particular affective supports from the teacher that allow students to take on and embrace new identities with respect to ideas in their classroom. Taken together, the model of epistemic learning that I propose suggests that both conceptual and affective supports are necessary to shift science classrooms in ways that engage students in meaningful science knowledge building.

Motivating learning, performance, and persistence: the synergistic effects of intrinsic goal contents and autonomy-supportive contexts.

PubMed

Vansteenkiste, Maarten; Simons, Joke; Lens, Willy; Sheldon, Kennon M; Deci, Edward L

2004-08-01

Three field experiments with high school and college students tested the self-determination theory hypotheses that intrinsic (vs. extrinsic) goals and autonomy-supportive (vs. controlling) learning climates would improve students' learning, performance, and persistence. The learning of text material or physical exercises was framed in terms of intrinsic (community, personal growth, health) versus extrinsic (money, image) goals, which were presented in an autonomy-supportive versus controlling manner. Analyses of variance confirmed that both experimentally manipulated variables yielded main effects on depth of processing, test performance, and persistence (all ps <.001), and an interaction resulted in synergistically high deep processing and test performance (but not persistence) when both intrinsic goals and autonomy support were present. Effects were significantly mediated by autonomous motivation.

Designing and Implementing Service Learning Projects in an Introductory Oceanography Course Using the ``8-Block Model''

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Laine, E. P.; Field, C.

2010-12-01

The Campus Compact for New Hampshire (Gordon, 2003) introduced a practical model for designing service-learning exercises or components for new or existing courses. They divided the design and implementation process into eight concrete areas, the “8-Block Model”. Their goal was to demystify the design process of service learning courses by breaking it down into interconnected components. These components include: project design, community partner relations, the problem statement, building community in the classroom, building student capacity, project management, assessment of learning, and reflection and connections. The project design component of the “8-Block Model” asks that the service performed be consistent with the learning goals of the course. For science courses students carry out their work as a way of learning science and the process of science, not solely for the sake of service. Their work supports the goals of a community partner and the community partner poses research problems for the class in a letter on their letterhead. Linking student work to important problems in the community effectively engages students and encourages them to work at more sophisticated levels than usually seen in introductory science classes. Using team-building techniques, the classroom becomes a safe, secure learning environment that encourages sharing and experimentation. Targeted lectures, labs, and demonstrations build the capacity of students to do their research. Behind the scenes project management ensures student success. Learning is assessed using a variety of tools, including graded classroom presentations, poster sessions, and presentations and reports to community partners. Finally, students reflect upon their work and make connections between their research and its importance to the well being of the community. Over the past 10 years, we have used this approach to design and continually modify an introductory oceanography course for majors and non-majors. The goal was to provide students with an opportunity to do authentic research on water quality and marine resource issues in local coastal embayments. Student research supported several community organizations, most notably the Friends of Casco Bay, an NGO interested in improving the water quality in Casco Bay. This research helped the students to reach some of the learning goals for the course including an understanding of tides, currents, phytoplankton, water quality parameters, dissolved nutrients, and analysis and presentation of quantitative data. Using this pedagogical model allowed the basic structure of the course to remain the same over the years, while enabling us to flexibly respond to changes in the needs and interests of community partners. Gordon, R, Ed. (2003) Problem Based Service Learning: A Field Guide for Making a Difference in Higher Education, 2nd edition. Campus Compact for New Hampshire, Bedford, NH

CosmoQuest Collaborative: Galvanizing a Dynamic Professional Learning Network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cobb, Whitney; Bracey, Georgia; Buxner, Sanlyn; Gay, Pamela L.; Noel-Storr, Jacob; CosmoQuest Team

2016-10-01

The CosmoQuest Collaboration offers in-depth experiences to diverse audiences around the nation and the world through pioneering citizen science in a virtual research facility. An endeavor between universities, research institutes, and NASA centers, CosmoQuest brings together scientists, educators, researchers, programmers—and citizens of all ages—to explore and make sense of our solar system and beyond. Leveraging human networks to expand NASA science, scaffolded by an educational framework that inspires lifelong learners, CosmoQuest engages citizens in analyzing and interpreting real NASA data, inspiring questions and defining problems.The QuestionLinda Darling-Hammond calls for professional development to be: "focused on the learning and teaching of specific curriculum content [i.e. NGSS disciplinary core ideas]; organized around real problems of practice [i.e. NGSS science and engineering practices] … [and] connected to teachers' collaborative work in professional learning community...." (2012) In light of that, what is the unique role CosmoQuest's virtual research facility can offer NASA STEM education?A Few AnswersThe CosmoQuest Collaboration actively engages scientists in education, and educators (and learners) in science. CosmoQuest uses social channels to empower and expand NASA's learning community through a variety of media, including science and education-focused hangouts, virtual star parties, and social media. In addition to creating its own supportive, standards-aligned materials, CosmoQuest offers a hub for excellent resources and materials throughout NASA and the larger astronomy community.In support of CosmoQuest citizen science opportunities, CQ initiatives (Learning Space, S-ROSES, IDEASS, Educator Zone) will be leveraged and shared through the CQPLN. CosmoQuest can be present and alive in the awareness its growing learning community.Finally, to make the CosmoQuest PLN truly relevant, it aims to encourage partnerships between scientists and educators, and offer "just-in-time" opportunities to support constituents exploring emerging NASA STEM education, from diverse educators to the curious learner of any age.

Out-of-School Time Programs in Rural Areas. Highlights from the Out-of-School Time Database. Research Update, No. 6

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harris, Erin; Malone, Helen; Sunnanon, Tai

2011-01-01

Out-of-school time (OST) programming can be a crucial asset to families in rural areas where resources to support children's learning and development are often insufficient to meet the community's needs. OST programs that offer youth in rural communities a safe and supportive adult-supervised environment--along with various growth-enhancing…

Exploring the Therapeutic Affordances of Self-Harm Online Support Communities: An Online Survey of Members

PubMed Central

Bullock, Emma

2017-01-01

Background A growing number of online communities have been established to support those who self-harm. However, little is known about the therapeutic affordances arising from engagement with these communities and resulting outcomes. Objective The aim of this study was to explore the presence of therapeutic affordances as reported by members of self-harm online support communities. Methods In total, 94 respondents (aged 13-63 years, mean=23.5 years; 94% female) completed an online survey exploring their experiences of engaging with a self-harm online support community. Respondents varied in terms of how long they had been accessing an online community, with 22% (21/94) accessing less than 1 year, 39% (37/94) 1 to 2 years, 14% (13/94) 2 to 3 years, and 24.5% (23/94) more than 3 years. Responses were analyzed using deductive thematic analysis. Results The results of our analysis describe each of the five therapeutic affordances that were present in the data, namely (1) connection, the ability to make contact with others who self-harm for the purposes of mutual support and in so doing reduce feelings of loneliness and isolation; (2) adaptation, that is, how use of online support varies in relation to the personal circumstances of the individual user; (3) exploration, that is, the ability to learn about self-harm and learn about strategies to reduce or stop self-harming behavior; (4) narration, that is, the ability to share experiences, as well as read about the experiences of others; and (5) self-presentation, that is, how and what users present about themselves to others in the online community. Conclusions Our findings suggest that engagement with self-harm online support communities may confer a range of therapeutic benefits for some users, which may serve to minimize the psychosocial burden of self-harm and promote positive coping strategies. In addition, the online nature of the support available may be helpful to those who are unable to access face-to-face support. PMID:29030324

Exploring the Therapeutic Affordances of Self-Harm Online Support Communities: An Online Survey of Members.

PubMed

Coulson, Neil S; Bullock, Emma; Rodham, Karen

2017-10-13

A growing number of online communities have been established to support those who self-harm. However, little is known about the therapeutic affordances arising from engagement with these communities and resulting outcomes. The aim of this study was to explore the presence of therapeutic affordances as reported by members of self-harm online support communities. In total, 94 respondents (aged 13-63 years, mean=23.5 years; 94% female) completed an online survey exploring their experiences of engaging with a self-harm online support community. Respondents varied in terms of how long they had been accessing an online community, with 22% (21/94) accessing less than 1 year, 39% (37/94) 1 to 2 years, 14% (13/94) 2 to 3 years, and 24.5% (23/94) more than 3 years. Responses were analyzed using deductive thematic analysis. The results of our analysis describe each of the five therapeutic affordances that were present in the data, namely (1) connection, the ability to make contact with others who self-harm for the purposes of mutual support and in so doing reduce feelings of loneliness and isolation; (2) adaptation, that is, how use of online support varies in relation to the personal circumstances of the individual user; (3) exploration, that is, the ability to learn about self-harm and learn about strategies to reduce or stop self-harming behavior; (4) narration, that is, the ability to share experiences, as well as read about the experiences of others; and (5) self-presentation, that is, how and what users present about themselves to others in the online community. Our findings suggest that engagement with self-harm online support communities may confer a range of therapeutic benefits for some users, which may serve to minimize the psychosocial burden of self-harm and promote positive coping strategies. In addition, the online nature of the support available may be helpful to those who are unable to access face-to-face support. ©Neil S Coulson, Emma Bullock, Karen Rodham. Originally published in JMIR Mental Health (http://mental.jmir.org), 13.10.2017.

Student nurse dyads create a community of learning: proposing a holistic clinical education theory.

PubMed

Ruth-Sahd, Lisa A

2011-11-01

This paper is a report of a qualitative study of students' experiences of cooperative learning in the clinical setting. Although cooperative learning is often used successfully in the classroom, it has not been documented in the clinical setting with sophomore nursing students being paired with other sophomore nursing students. Using a grounded theory methodology a sample of 64 participants (32 student nurse dyads, eight clinical groups, in two different acute care institutions) were observed on their first day in the clinical setting while working as cooperative partners. Interviews were also conducted with students, patients and staff preceptors. Data were collected in the fall of 2008, spring and fall of 2009 and the spring of 2010 using semi-structured interviews and reflective surveys. Data were analysed using the constant comparative method. A holistic clinical education theory for student nurses was identified from the data. This theory includes a reciprocal relationship among five categories relevant to a community of learning: supportive clinical experience; improved transition into practice; enhanced socialization into the profession; increased accountability and responsibility; and emergence of self-confidence as a beginning student nurse. The use of student dyads creates a supportive learning environment while students were able to meet the clinical learning objectives. Cooperative learning in the clinical setting creates a community of learning while instilling very early in the education process the importance of teamwork. This approach to clinical instruction eases the transition from the classroom to the clinical learning environment, and improves patient outcomes. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Ad hoc supervision of general practice registrars as a 'community of practice': analysis, interpretation and re-presentation.

PubMed

Clement, T; Brown, J; Morrison, J; Nestel, D

2016-05-01

General practice registrars in Australia undertake most of their vocational training in accredited general practices. They typically see patients alone from the start of their community-based training and are expected to seek timely ad hoc support from their supervisor. Such ad hoc encounters are a mechanism for ensuring patient safety, but also provide an opportunity for learning and teaching. Wenger's (Communities of practice: learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge University Press, New York, 1998) social theory of learning ('communities of practice') guided a secondary analysis of audio-recordings of ad hoc encounters. Data from one encounter is re-presented as an extended sequence to maintain congruence with the theoretical perspective and enhance vicariousness. An interpretive commentary communicates key features of Wenger's theory and highlights the researchers' interpretations. We argue that one encounter can reveal universal understandings of clinical supervision and that the process of naturalistic generalisation allows readers to transfer others' experiences to their own contexts. The paper raises significant analytic, interpretive, and representational issues. We highlight that report writing is an important, but infrequently discussed, part of research design. We discuss the challenges of supporting the learning and teaching that arises from adopting a socio-cultural lens and argue that such a perspective importantly captures the complex range of issues that work-based practitioners have to grapple with. This offers a challenge to how we research and seek to influence work-based learning and teaching in health care settings.

Medicine as a Community of Practice: Implications for Medical Education.

PubMed

Cruess, Richard L; Cruess, Sylvia R; Steinert, Yvonne

2018-02-01

The presence of a variety of independent learning theories makes it difficult for medical educators to construct a comprehensive theoretical framework for medical education, resulting in numerous and often unrelated curricular, instructional, and assessment practices. Linked with an understanding of identity formation, the concept of communities of practice could provide such a framework, emphasizing the social nature of learning. Individuals wish to join the community, moving from legitimate peripheral to full participation, acquiring the identity of community members and accepting the community's norms.Having communities of practice as the theoretical basis of medical education does not diminish the value of other learning theories. Communities of practice can serve as the foundational theory, and other theories can provide a theoretical basis for the multiple educational activities that take place within the community, thus helping create an integrated theoretical approach.Communities of practice can guide the development of interventions to make medical education more effective and can help both learners and educators better cope with medical education's complexity. An initial step is to acknowledge the potential of communities of practice as the foundational theory. Educational initiatives that could result from this approach include adding communities of practice to the cognitive base; actively engaging students in joining the community; creating a welcoming community; expanding the emphasis on explicitly addressing role modeling, mentoring, experiential learning, and reflection; providing faculty development to support the program; and recognizing the necessity to chart progress toward membership in the community.

Conceptualisation of knowledge construction in community service-learning programmes in nursing education.

PubMed

Mthembu, Sindi Z; Mtshali, Fikile G

2013-01-01

Practices in higher education have been criticised for not developing and preparing students for the expertise required in real environments. Literature reports that educational programmes tend to favour knowledge conformation rather than knowledge construction; however, community service learning (CSL) is a powerful pedagogical strategy that encourages students to make meaningful connections between the content in the classroom and real-life experiences as manifested by the communities. Through CSL, learning is achieved by the active construction of knowledge supported by multiple perspectives within meaningful real contexts, and the social interactions amongst students are seen to play a critical role in the processes of learning and cognition. This article reflects facilitators’ perspective of the knowledge construction process as used with students doing community service learning in basic nursing programmes. The aim of this article was to conceptualise the phenomenon of knowledge construction and thereby provide educators with a shared meaning and common understanding, and to analyse the interaction strategies utilised by nurse educators in the process of knowledge construction in community service-learning programmes in basic nursing education. A qualitative research approach based on a grounded theory research design was used in this article. Two nursing education institutions were purposively selected. Structured interviews were conducted with 16 participants. The results revealed that the knowledge construction in community service-learning programmes is conceptualised as having specific determinants, including the use of authentic health-related problems, academic coaching through scaffolding, academic discourse-dialogue, interactive learning in communities of learners, active learning, continuous reflection as well as collaborative and inquiry-based learning. Upon completion of an experience, students create and test generated knowledge in different contextual health settings. It was concluded that knowledge is constructed by students as a result of their interaction with the communities in their socio-cultural context and is mediated by their prior concrete experiences. The implication of this is that students construct knowledge that can be applied in their future work places.

Environmental Learning Centers: A Template.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vozick, Eric

1999-01-01

Provides a working model, or template, for community-based environmental learning centers (ELCs). The template presents a philosophy as well as a plan for staff and administration operations, educational programming, and financial support. The template also addresses "green" construction and maintenance of buildings and grounds and…

An exploration of the factors that contribute to learning satisfaction of first-year anatomy and physiology students.

PubMed

Eagleton, Saramarie

2015-09-01

Lecturers have reverted to using a "blended" approach when teaching anatomy and physiology. Student responses as to how this contributes to their learning satisfaction were investigated using a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of closed- and open-ended questions that were based on three determinants of learning satisfaction: perceived course learnability, learning community support, and perceived learning effectiveness. Regarding course learnability, students responded positively on questions regarding the relevance of the subject for their future careers. However, students identified a number of distractions that prevented them from paying full attention to their studies. As far as learning community support was concerned, respondents indicated that they were more comfortable asking a peer for support if they were unsure of concepts than approaching the lecturing staff. Most of the students study in their second language, and this was identified as a stumbling block for success. There was a difference in opinion among students regarding the use of technology for teaching and learning of anatomy and physiology. From students' perceptions regarding learning effectiveness, it became clear that students' expectations of anatomy and physiology were unrealistic; they did not expect the module to be so comprehensive. Many of the students were also "grade oriented" rather than "learning oriented" as they indicated that they were more concerned about results than "owning" the content of the module. Asking students to evaluate aspects of the teaching and learning process have provided valuable information to improve future offerings of anatomy and physiology. Copyright © 2015 The American Physiological Society.

Nursing Living-Learning Communities and Student Retention: A Qualitative Study.

PubMed

Bauer, Renee N; Kiger, Susan

Living-learning communities have been known to promote student performance and a sense of collegiality. Most studies on this topic have utilized quantitative methods. This qualitative comparison case study examined personal experiences associated with residing in a living-learning community. The study was conducted to explore findings associated with promoting student retention. A secondary goal was to explore student experiences with mentoring. Data were collected using taped recordings of live interviews at two universities that have nursing-themed housing. The targeted sample size was 14. Themes that emerged from the data were mutual support, importance of the resident assistant, and self-determination. Nursing students enjoy themed housing and especially desire the resident assistant to be a nursing student.

Distance Learning as a Tool for Poverty Reduction and Economic Development: A Focus on China and Mexico

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Larson, Richard C.; Murray, M. Elizabeth

2008-04-01

This paper uses case studies to focus on distance learning in developing countries as an enabler for economic development and poverty reduction. To provide perspective, we first review the history of telecottages, local technology-equipped facilities to foster community-based learning, which have evolved into "telecenters" or "Community Learning Centers" (CLCs). Second, we describe extensive site visits to CLCs in impoverished portions of China and Mexico, the centers operated by premier universities in each respective country. These CLCs constitute the core of new emerging systems of distance education, and their newness poses challenges and opportunities, which are discussed. Finally, we offer 12 points to develop further the concept and reality of distance learning in support of economic development.

Leadership Magazine. Volume 34, Number 1

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leadership, 2004

2004-01-01

Every month, "Leadership" features articles written in an informal, conversational style that provide practical information for school administrators. This issue of "Leadership" contains the following titles: (1) "Building Communities of Practice: Creating Small Learning Communities of School Leaders that Support Teacher Development Has a…

Advancing STEM Career and Learning through Civic Engagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Xie, Yichun

2014-01-01

The Mayor's Youth Technology Corps (MYTC)--Creating Safe Communities through Information Technology Training in Homeland Security Applications (2008-2012)--offered a collaboration of resources, supports, and opportunities for strengthening science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education efforts in an underserved community, the…

Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Parents and Community as Partners in Education. Part 3: Building Trusting Relationships with Families & Community through Effective Communication

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Regional Educational Laboratory Pacific, 2015

2015-01-01

This toolkit is designed to guide school staff in strengthening partnerships with families and community members to support student learning. This toolkit offers an integrated approach to family and community engagement, bringing together research, promising practices, and a wide range of useful tools and resources with explanations and directions…

The Use of Electronic Question and Answer Forums in Mathematics Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schuck, Sandra

2003-01-01

Many mathematics educators share a view of mathematics as a social and cultural phenomenon and believe that the learning of mathematics concepts is developed and enhanced through the use of learning communities. Electronic discussion boards provide one avenue for supporting such social learning. This paper discusses the use of a Question and…

Learning to Apply Algebra in the Community for Adults with Intellectual Developmental Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rodriguez, Anthony M.

2016-01-01

Students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are routinely excluded from algebra and other high-level mathematics courses. High school students with IDD take courses in arithmetic and life skills rather than having an opportunity to learn algebra. Yet algebra skills can support the learning of money and budgeting skills. This…

Developing Communities of Practice around e-Learning and Project Management

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Laxton, Ruth; Applebee, Andrelyn Cheryl

2010-01-01

In 2007-8 the Australian Catholic University (ACU National), undertook a project to develop new resources to provide training and support in eLearning for staff and students. The project was undertaken by a multidisciplinary team drawn from all six campuses and was led by an externally contracted Project Manager/eLearning specialist. This…

The College STAR Faculty Learning Community: Promoting Learning for All Students through Faculty Collaboration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hutson, Bryant; Downs, Holly

2015-01-01

This study describes the impact of the College Supporting Transition, Access and Retention (College STAR) project at a public university in the southeastern United States, which sought to develop faculty knowledge, skills and competencies to better meet the needs of diverse student populations, especially those with learning differences. A focus…

Enhancing Fourth Grade Students' Writing Achievement through Purposeful Experiential Learning: An Action Research Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McManus, Michael S.; Thiamwong, Ladda

2015-01-01

This study focuses on the effects of involving fourth grade students in an experiential learning task that improves the school and requires the students to call on community agency, area business, and high school student support. Data related to students' learning were collected by using evaluative writing surveys, student and parent conferences,…

Constructing an Inquiry Orientation from a Learning Theory Perspective: Democratizing Access through Task Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Buell, Catherine A.; Greenstein, Steven; Wilstein, Zahava

2017-01-01

It is widely accepted in the mathematics education community that pedagogies oriented toward inquiry are aligned with a constructivist theory of learning, and that these pedagogies effectively support students' learning of mathematics. In order to promote such an orientation, we first separate the idea of inquiry from its conception as a…

Open Educational Resources in Support of Science Learning: Tools for Inquiry and Observation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scanlon, Eileen

2012-01-01

This article focuses on the potential of free tools, particularly inquiry tools for influencing participation in twenty-first-century learning in science, as well as influencing the development of communities around tools. Two examples are presented: one on the development of an open source tool for structured inquiry learning that can bridge the…

An Analysis of Factors Affecting Community College Students' Expectations on E-Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kilic-Cakmak, Ebru; Karatas, Sercin; Ocak, Mehmet Akif

2009-01-01

There are many factors that affect the e-learning process. Instructor, assessment and evaluation, communication, and technical support are among the leading factors. It is obvious that these factors influence the effectiveness of e-learning and may be related to different expectations of e-learners. Therefore, this study focuses on examining the…

Conditions for building a community of practice in an advanced physics laboratory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Irving, Paul W.; Sayre, Eleanor C.

2014-06-01

We use the theory of communities of practice and the concept of accountable disciplinary knowledge to describe how a learning community develops in the context of an upper-division physics laboratory course. The change in accountable disciplinary knowledge motivates students' enculturation into a community of practice. The enculturation process is facilitated by four specific structural features of the course and supported by a primary instructional choice. The four structural features are "paucity of instructor time," "all in a room together," "long and difficult experiments," and "same experiments at different times." The instructional choice is the encouragement of the sharing and development of knowledge and understanding by the instructor. The combination of the instructional choice and structural features promotes the development of the learning community in which students engage in authentic practices of a physicist. This results in a classroom community that can provide students with the opportunity to have an accelerated trajectory towards being a more central participant of the community of a practice of physicists. We support our claims with video-based observations of laboratory classroom interactions and individual, semistructured interviews with students about their laboratory experiences and physics identity.

Aboriginal health learning in the forest and cultivated gardens: building a nutritious and sustainable food system.

PubMed

Stroink, Mirella L; Nelson, Connie H

2009-01-01

Sustainable food systems are those in which diverse foods are produced in close proximity to a market. A dynamic, adaptive knowledge base that is grounded in local culture and geography and connected to outside knowledge resources is essential for such food systems to thrive. Sustainable food systems are particularly important to remote and Aboriginal communities, where extensive transportation makes food expensive and of poorer nutritional value. The Learning Garden program was developed and run with two First Nation communities in northwestern Ontario. With this program, the team adopted a holistic and experiential model of learning to begin rebuilding a knowledge base that would support a sustainable local food system. The program involved a series of workshops held in each community and facilitated by a community-based coordinator. Topics included cultivated gardening and forest foods. Results of survey data collected from 20 Aboriginal workshop participants are presented, revealing a moderate to low level of baseline knowledge of the traditional food system, and a reliance on the mainstream food system that is supported by food values that place convenience, ease, and price above the localness or cultural connectedness of the food. Preliminary findings from qualitative data are also presented on the process of learning that occurred in the program and some of the insights we have gained that are relevant to future adaptations of this program.

Strong School-Community Partnerships in Inclusive Schools Are "Part of the Fabric of the School... We Count on Them"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gross, Judith M. S.; Haines, Shana J.; Hill, Cokethea; Francis, Grace L.; Blue-Banning, Martha; Turnbull, Ann P.

2015-01-01

School-community partnerships play an essential role in successful schools, often providing supports and resources to meet staff, family, and student needs that go beyond what is typically available through school. Reciprocally, community partners benefit from their relationships with schools, including learning about schools' inclusive culture.…

Collaborative Inquiry and Distributed Agency in Educational Change: A Case Study of a Multi-Level Community of Inquiry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Butler, Deborah L.; Schnellert, Leyton; MacNeil, Kimberley

2015-01-01

Teacher professional development has been identified as essential to educational reform. Moreover, research suggests the power of inquiry communities in spurring teacher professional learning and shifts in classroom practice. However, not enough is known about what conditions within a community of inquiry might be necessary to inspire, support,…

Emotional Intelligence and Deans: Exploring the Nature of the Emotional Intelligence of Community College Deans in the Southeastern Region of the United States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maundu, Irene Kasungwa

2013-01-01

Leadership is an essential aspect of community college administration. Community colleges are currently facing numerous challenges such as: above average retirement rates for administrators, funding and limited government support, diverse student populations, changes in technology, shift in teaching to student-centered learning, and steep…

An Investigation of Knowledge-Building Activities in an Online Community of Practice at Subaru of America

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Land, Susan M.; Draper, Darryl C.; Ma, Ziyan; Hsieh, Hsiu-Wei; Smith, Brian K.; Jordan, Robert

2009-01-01

Current approaches to workplace learning emphasize designing communities of practice that are intended to support both formal and informal knowledge acquisition. This article presents the design and research of a knowledge-based community of practice for Subaru, based on principles outlined by Scardamalia (2002) and Zhang, Scardamalia, Lamon,…

Caring communities as collective learning process: findings and lessons learned from a participatory research project in Austria.

PubMed

Wegleitner, Klaus; Schuchter, Patrick

2018-04-01

By now, the public health end-of-life care approach is well established and has induced diverse initiatives-subsumed under the concept of compassionate or caring communities-to engage the community in supporting vulnerable, dying people and their beloved ones. In the light of a participatory research project our paper examines the question: what are the deeper ideas behind caring communities and what constitutes a caring community? A multi-level analysis based on (I) qualitative research with focus groups and interviews with community members within the project; (II) the reflection of the role of participatory research in caring community initiatives, and (III) the meta-analysis of an international expert workshop, which allowed to discuss our experiences and insights in the light of international caring community models and expertise. Our analysis of qualities ("ingredients") of a caring community, from the perspective of community members, highlighted the importance of the co-creation of supportive care relationships in the local care web, through everyday life solidarity in the neighbourhood, appreciating and exchanging the wisdom of care, and also marked the role of professionals as enablers. Participatory research in caring community developments has the potential to engage and empower citizens, and to interlink existential care-stories with questions about the structural and political environments of appropriate end-of-life care. The caring community movement and public health end-of-life care has to maintain their critical potential against the commercialization and fragmentation of care (services), but also without "romanticizing" communities. Prospective caring community progresses need (I) an ecological health-promotion framework for action and (II) social learning processes along the existential experiences and the wisdom of community members, complementing each other. Organizing existential-political care dialogues can contribute to an ethic of caring in practice on a community level.

Gamification: An Innovative Teaching-Learning Strategy for the Digital Nursing Students in a Community Health Nursing Course.

PubMed

Day-Black, Crystal; Merrill, Earline B; Konzelman, Lois; Williams, Tammie T; Hart, Natalie

2015-01-01

Serious games have "re-emerged" as innovative teaching-learning strategies that researchers have shown to be effective in improving student learning outcomes. "Serious games" refer to games that are driven by educational goals, not entertainment. The use of serious games as part of the teaching-learning experience in nursing education fits into the philosophy and strategies of active learning. The "digital" nursing student needs engagement, stimulation, realism, and entertainment not more readings and Powerpoint supplements in the classroom to support learning. Nursing faculty at a mid-Atlantic Historical Black College and University introduced "serious gaming" technology into a Community Health Nursing course by using two web-based gamed simulations, Outbreak at WatersEdge: A Public Health Discovery Game, and EnviroRisk. This innovation proved to be effective in reinforcing learning and improving student learning outcomes.

Supportive group action for women: a self-help strategy.

PubMed

Stewart, M

1983-09-01

A major goal of the demonstration project described was to test a model of self-help and voluntary support in developing groups for female single parents. Community meetings, study programs, and related experiential strategies were used to promote coping skills and strategies; access to resources; decision-making learning and responsibility; social contacts and networking; work skills and employment opportunities. The effectiveness of the model, which emphasized self-help, consumer power, and accessibility, was reflected in increased membership, self-awareness and confidence, leadership, employment and development of community resources. Initial individual contact, informal contracting, and community support were seen as important factors in the project's success.

Creating an Integrated Community-Wide Effort to Enhance Diversity in the Geosciences

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manduca, C. A.; Weingroff, M.

2001-05-01

Supporting the development and sustenance of a diverse geoscience workforce and improving Earth system education for the full diversity of students are important goals for our community. There are numerous established programs and many new efforts beginning. However, these efforts can become more powerful if dissemination of opportunities, effective practices, and web-based resources enable synergies to develop throughout our community. The Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE; www.dlese.org) has developed a working group and a website to support these goals. The DLESE Diversity Working Group provides an open, virtual community for those interested in enhancing diversity in the geosciences. The working group has focused its initial effort on 1) creating a geoscience community engaged in supporting increased diversity that builds on and is integrated with work taking place in other venues; 2) developing a web resource designed to engage and support members of underrepresented groups in learning about the Earth; and 3) assisting in enhancing DLESE collections and services to better support learning experiences of students from underrepresented groups. You are invited to join the working group and participate in these efforts. The DLESE diversity website provides a mechanism for sharing information and resources. Serving as a community database, the website provides a structure in which community members can post announcements of opportunities, information on programs, and links to resources and services. Information currently available on the site includes links to professional society activities; mentoring opportunities; grant, fellowship, employment, and internship opportunities for students and educators; information on teaching students from underrepresented groups; and professional development opportunities of high interest to members of underrepresented groups. These tools provide a starting point for developing a community wide effort to enhance diversity in the geosciences that builds on our collective experiences, knowledge and resources and the work that is taking place in communities around us.

Social learning as a key factor in sustainability transitions: The case of Okayama City

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Didham, Robert J.; Ofei-Manu, Paul; Nagareo, Masaaki

2017-12-01

The Okayama Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Project is an ongoing initiative in Okayama City, Japan, established in 2005 by the Regional Centre of Expertise (RCE) Okayama and the Okayama Municipal Government with the aim "to create a community where people learn, think and act together towards realising a sustainable society". With a diverse participant base of over 240 organisations - including community learning centres ( kominkans), schools, universities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) - this initiative has administered numerous programmes. It has engaged a large and diverse group of citizens from Okayama City in exploring sustainability issues through collective discussion, envisioning and practice with the aim of living more sustainable lives. The decade-long experience of the Okayama ESD Project has gained international attention, and the "Okayama Model" is considered an inspiring example of community-based ESD due to the positive changes it has supported. In this article, the Okayama ESD Project is presented as a case study on effective social learning for sustainability. In particular, the practical efforts made are examined to provide insights into how various elements of a social learning process were strengthened and linked to create active learning cycles among community members. In addition, the conditions for creating an effective learning community are investigated, while the practical actions taken are examined in relation to creating an effective social learning process. Finally, this article presents the important role which social learning has played in Okayama City's transition to sustainability and identifies the key efforts made to address and link each of these elements of social learning into a dynamic cycle.

"I Know I've Made a Difference"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harriman, Jenny

2011-01-01

This author retired this summer after 23 years leading one of the country's most creative and enterprising adult learning services. She departs convinced that adult and community learning needs not only tenacity, passion, and imagination but also professional management and support if it is to thrive.

Management and Leadership: A Dual Role in Nursing Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Calpin-Davies, Philomena J.

2003-01-01

Caring is the end purpose of nursing. The management and leadership of education for empowered caring requires teaching and learning that develop creative, flexible, interdependent nurses. Key issues are investing in technology, supporting lifelong learning, and creating a community workplace. (Contains 68 references.) (SK)

Fund-raising aficionados: measuring out a recipe for success.

PubMed

2007-01-01

A five-year capital campaign comes to a close with positive results and lessons learned. Having held dozens of annual fund-raising events throughout the year, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta has learned how to put on an effective event with full community support.

Support for High-Impact Practices: A New Tool for Administrators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kezar, Adrianna; Holcombe, Elizabeth

2017-01-01

Certain widely tested educational practices have been shown to have a significantly beneficial impact on student learning and success in college. These "high-impact practices" include first-year experiences, common intellectual experiences, learning communities, writing-intensive courses, collaborative assignments and projects,…

Modeling the Delivery Physiology of Distributed Learning Systems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paquette, Gilbert; Rosca, Ioan

2003-01-01

Discusses instructional delivery models and their physiology in distributed learning systems. Highlights include building delivery models; types of delivery models, including distributed classroom, self-training on the Web, online training, communities of practice, and performance support systems; and actors (users) involved, including experts,…

Writing-to-learn in undergraduate science education: a community-based, conceptually driven approach.

PubMed

Reynolds, Julie A; Thaiss, Christopher; Katkin, Wendy; Thompson, Robert J

2012-01-01

Despite substantial evidence that writing can be an effective tool to promote student learning and engagement, writing-to-learn (WTL) practices are still not widely implemented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, particularly at research universities. Two major deterrents to progress are the lack of a community of science faculty committed to undertaking and applying the necessary pedagogical research, and the absence of a conceptual framework to systematically guide study designs and integrate findings. To address these issues, we undertook an initiative, supported by the National Science Foundation and sponsored by the Reinvention Center, to build a community of WTL/STEM educators who would undertake a heuristic review of the literature and formulate a conceptual framework. In addition to generating a searchable database of empirically validated and promising WTL practices, our work lays the foundation for multi-university empirical studies of the effectiveness of WTL practices in advancing student learning and engagement.

A collaboration among health sciences schools to enhance faculty development in teaching.

PubMed

Sicat, Brigitte L; O'Kane Kreutzer, Kathy; Gary, Judy; Ivey, Carole K; Marlowe, Elizabeth P; Pellegrini, Joan M; Shuford, Veronica P; Simons, Dianne F

2014-06-17

Those involved in providing faculty development may be among only a few individuals for whom faculty development is an interest and priority within their work setting. Furthermore, funding to support faculty development is limited. In 2010, an interprofessional, self-formed, faculty learning community on faculty development in teaching was established to promote collaboration on faculty development initiatives that have transference to faculty members across disciplines and to share expertise and resources for wider impact. The organic structure and processes of the faculty learning community created an environment that has not only resulted in an increased offering of faculty development opportunities and resources across the health science campus, but has created a rich environment that combines the knowledge, innovation, and experience to promote collaborative efforts that benefit all. The background, structure, processes, successes, and lessons learned of the interprofessional faculty learning community on faculty development in teaching are described.

PBL and CDIO: complementary models for engineering education development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Edström, Kristina; Kolmos, Anette

2014-09-01

This paper compares two models for reforming engineering education, problem/project-based learning (PBL), and conceive-design-implement-operate (CDIO), identifying and explaining similarities and differences. PBL and CDIO are defined and contrasted in terms of their history, community, definitions, curriculum design, relation to disciplines, engineering projects, and change strategy. The structured comparison is intended as an introduction for learning about any of these models. It also invites reflection to support the understanding and evolution of PBL and CDIO, and indicates specifically what the communities can learn from each other. It is noted that while the two approaches share many underlying values, they only partially overlap as strategies for educational reform. The conclusions are that practitioners have much to learn from each other's experiences through a dialogue between the communities, and that PBL and CDIO can play compatible and mutually reinforcing roles, and thus can be fruitfully combined to reform engineering education.

NASA and Public Libraries: Enhancing STEM Literacy in Underserved Communities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dusenbery, P.; LaConte, K.; Harold, J. B.; Randall, C.

2016-12-01

NASA research programs are helping humanity understand the origin and evolution of galaxies, stars, and planets, and defining the conditions necessary to support life beyond Earth. The Space Science Institute's (SSI) National Center for Interactive Learning (NCIL) was recently funded by NASA`s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) to develop and implement a project called NASA@ My Library: A National Earth and Space Science Initiative That Connects NASA, Public Libraries and Their Communities. As places that offer their services for free, public libraries have become the "public square" by providing a place where members of a community can gather for information, educational programming, and policy discussions. Libraries are developing new ways to engage their patrons in STEM learning, and NCIL's STAR Library Education Network (STAR_Net) has been supporting their efforts for the last eight years, including through a vibrant community of practice that serves both librarians and STEM professionals. Project stakeholders include public library staff, state libraries, the earth and space science education community at NASA, subject matter experts, and informal science educators. The project will leverage high-impact SMD and library events to catalyze partnerships through dissemination of SMD assets and professional development. It will also develop frameworks for public libraries to increase STEM interest pathways in their communities (with supports for reaching underserved audiences). This presentation will summarize the key activities and expected outcomes of the 5-year project.

Using adapted quality-improvement approaches to strengthen community-based health systems and improve care in high HIV-burden sub-Saharan African countries.

PubMed

Horwood, Christiane M; Youngleson, Michele S; Moses, Edward; Stern, Amy F; Barker, Pierre M

2015-07-01

Achieving long-term retention in HIV care is an important challenge for HIV management and achieving elimination of mother-to-child transmission. Sustainable, affordable strategies are required to achieve this, including strengthening of community-based interventions. Deployment of community-based health workers (CHWs) can improve health outcomes but there is a need to identify systems to support and maintain high-quality performance. Quality-improvement strategies have been successfully implemented to improve quality and coverage of healthcare in facilities and could provide a framework to support community-based interventions. Four community-based quality-improvement projects from South Africa, Malawi and Mozambique are described. Community-based improvement teams linked to the facility-based health system participated in learning networks (modified Breakthrough Series), and used quality-improvement methods to improve process performance. Teams were guided by trained quality mentors who used local data to help nurses and CHWs identify gaps in service provision and test solutions. Learning network participants gathered at intervals to share progress and identify successful strategies for improvement. CHWs demonstrated understanding of quality-improvement concepts, tools and methods, and implemented quality-improvement projects successfully. Challenges of using quality-improvement approaches in community settings included adapting processes, particularly data reporting, to the education level and first language of community members. Quality-improvement techniques can be implemented by CHWs to improve outcomes in community settings but these approaches require adaptation and additional mentoring support to be successful. More research is required to establish the effectiveness of this approach on processes and outcomes of care.

Using Computational Modeling to Assess the Impact of Clinical Decision Support on Cancer Screening within Community Health Centers

PubMed Central

Carney, Timothy Jay; Morgan, Geoffrey P.; Jones, Josette; McDaniel, Anna M.; Weaver, Michael; Weiner, Bryan; Haggstrom, David A.

2014-01-01

Our conceptual model demonstrates our goal to investigate the impact of clinical decision support (CDS) utilization on cancer screening improvement strategies in the community health care (CHC) setting. We employed a dual modeling technique using both statistical and computational modeling to evaluate impact. Our statistical model used the Spearman’s Rho test to evaluate the strength of relationship between our proximal outcome measures (CDS utilization) against our distal outcome measure (provider self-reported cancer screening improvement). Our computational model relied on network evolution theory and made use of a tool called Construct-TM to model the use of CDS measured by the rate of organizational learning. We employed the use of previously collected survey data from community health centers Cancer Health Disparities Collaborative (HDCC). Our intent is to demonstrate the added valued gained by using a computational modeling tool in conjunction with a statistical analysis when evaluating the impact a health information technology, in the form of CDS, on health care quality process outcomes such as facility-level screening improvement. Significant simulated disparities in organizational learning over time were observed between community health centers beginning the simulation with high and low clinical decision support capability. PMID:24953241

Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Families and the Community as Partners in Education. Part 1: Building an Understanding of Family and Community Engagement. REL 2016-148

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garcia, Maria Elena; Frunzi, Kay; Dean, Ceri B.; Flores, Nieves; Miller, Kirsten B.

2016-01-01

The Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Families and the Community as Partners in Education is a four-part resource that brings together research, promising practices, and useful tools and resources to guide educators in strengthening partnerships with families and community members to support student learning. The toolkit defines family and…

Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Families and the Community as Partners in Education: Part 3: Building Trusting Relationships with Families and the Community through Effective Communication. REL 2016-152

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garcia, Maria Elena; Frunzi, Kay; Dean, Ceri B.; Flores, Nieves; Miller, Kirsten B.

2016-01-01

The Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Families and the Community as Partners in Education is a four-part resource that brings together research, promising practices, and useful tools and resources to guide educators in strengthening partnerships with families and community members to support student learning. The toolkit defines family and…

Negotiating Competing Goals in the Development of an Urban Ecology Practitioner Inquiry Community

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Piazza, Peter; McNeill, Katherine L.

2013-11-01

Teacher learning communities are hailed by many as vehicles for reforming and elevating the professional status of teaching. While much research explores teacher community as a venue for measurable gains, our research examines the orientation of practitioner inquiry toward critical debate about effective instruction. Specifically, our study focuses on a group of middle and high school teachers who worked with a nonprofit organization to engage students in urban environmental field investigations. Teachers met regularly as a community with the common goal of teaching urban ecology in an outdoor setting. We collected interview data from members of the teacher community, and we observed teacher interaction during a meeting of the practitioner inquiry group. Interview results indicated that while the nonprofit aimed to support collaborative dialogue and self-critique, participants saw the community mainly as a venue for pursuing short-term goals, such as receiving new resources or socializing with colleagues. Observation data, however, suggested that the community was taking early steps toward building an environment oriented toward critical discussion. Juxtaposing results from our interviews and observations, we discuss the challenges communities face when they seek to develop shared beliefs and deal openly with conflict. Ultimately, we suggest that organizers of collaborative learning environments should work to actively develop structures for building the organizational trust necessary to support civil critique.

Building and strengthening infrastructure for data exchange: lessons from the beacon communities.

PubMed

Torres, Gretchen W; Swietek, Karen; Ubri, Petry S; Singer, Rachel F; Lowell, Kristina H; Miller, Wilhelmine

2014-01-01

The Beacon Community Cooperative Agreement Program supports interventions, including care-delivery innovations, provider performance measurement and feedback initiatives, and tools for providers and consumers to enhance care. Using a learning health system framework, we examine the Beacon Communities' processes in building and strengthening health IT (HIT) infrastructures, specifically successes and challenges in sharing patient information to improve clinical care. In 2010, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) launched the three-year program, which provided $250 million to 17 Beacon Communities to invest in HIT and health information exchange (HIE) infrastructure. Beacon Communities used this funding to develop and disseminate HIT-enabled quality improvement practices found effective in particular community and practice environments. NORC conducted 7 site visits, November 2012-March 2013, selecting Communities to represent diverse program features. From August-October 2013, NORC held discussions with the remaining 10 Communities. Following each visit or discussion, NORC summarized the information gathered, including transcripts, team observations, and other documents the Community provided, to facilitate a within-Community analysis of context and stakeholders, intervention strategies, enabling factors, and challenges. Although each Community designed and implemented data-sharing strategies in a unique environment, similar challenges and enabling factors emerged across the Beacons. From a learning health system perspective, their strategies to build and strengthen data-sharing infrastructures address the following crosscutting priorities: promoting technical advances and innovations by helping providers adapt EHRs for data exchange and performance measurement with customizable IT and offering technical support to smaller, independent providers; engaging key stakeholders; and fostering transparent governance and stewardship of the infrastructure with neutral conveners. While all the Communities developed or strengthened data-exchange infrastructure, each did this in a unique environment of existing health care market and legal factors. The Communities, however, encountered similar challenges and enabling factors. Organizations undertaking collaborative data sharing, performance measurement and clinical transformation can learn from the Beacon Communities' experience.

Go-along interviewing with LGBTQ youth in Canada and the United States.

PubMed

Porta, Carolyn M; Corliss, Heather L; Wolowic, Jennifer M; Johnson, Abigail Z; Fogel, Katie Fritz; Gower, Amy L; Saewyc, Elizabeth M; Eisenberg, Marla E

2017-01-01

Go-along interviews, which are interviews conducted whilst being in and moving within participant selected spaces, were conducted with 66 LGBTQ adolescents (14-19 years old) in their self-identified communities to explore perceived community attributes, including safe spaces, resources, and supports; this paper highlights methodological lessons learned. Successful recruitment in two countries and varied community settings required partnership with local LGBTQ supporting agencies, including school-based Gay Straight Alliances. Youth chose to walk, use public transportation, and drive to community locations, identifying numerous formal and informal resources in their communities. Participant reflections highlighted that go-along interviews can be conducted in safe ways that encourage LGBTQ youth to express themselves about communities in which they live, study, work, play, and relax.

Creating an Online Library To Support a Virtual Learning Community.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sandelands, Eric

1998-01-01

International Management Centres (IMC), an independent business school, and Anbar Electronic Intelligence (AEI), a database publisher, have created a virtual library for IMC's virtual business school. Topics discussed include action learning; IMC's partnership with AEI; the virtual university model; designing virtual library resources; and…

Practice Architectures and Sustainable Curriculum Renewal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodyear, Victoria A.; Casey, Ashley; Kirk, David

2017-01-01

While there are numerous pedagogical innovations and varying forms of professional learning to support change, teachers rarely move beyond the initial implementation of new ideas and policies and few innovations reach the institutionalized stage. Building on both site ontologies and situated learning in communities of practice perspectives, this…

What Size Is Your Digital Footprint?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hewson, Kurtis

2013-01-01

The Professional Learning Network (PLN) is gaining momentum in the education lexicon. It records and reflects the personal development of a community of learners--primarily online through a variety of platforms and social networks--in which educators share resources, provide support, introduce and debate ideas and celebrate learning. These…

Learning to Be a Programmer in a Complex Organization: A Case Study on Practice-Based Learning during the Onboarding Process at Google

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Maggie; Senges, Max

2010-01-01

Purpose: This paper seeks to analyse the effectiveness and impact of how Google currently trains its new software engineers ("Nooglers") to become productive in the software engineering community. The research focuses on the institutions and support for practice-based learning and cognitive apprenticeship in the Google environment.…

Learning as a shared responsibility: Insights from a series of dialogic workshops with practitioners, leaders, and researchers (Abstract)

Treesearch

Anne Black; Dave Thomas; Jennifer Ziegler; Jim Saveland

2012-01-01

For some time now, the wildland fire community has been interested in 'organizational learning' as a way to improve safety and overall performance. For instance, in the US, federal agencies have established and continue to support the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center, sponsored several national conferences and are currently considering how incident...

An Independent Investigation of the Utility of the Learning Disability Screening Questionnaire (LDSQ) within a Community Learning Disability Team

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stirk, Steven; Field, Bryony; Black, Jessica

2018-01-01

Background: The Learning Disability Screening Questionnaire (LDSQ) has been shown to have high sensitivity and specificity to identify those who are likely to meet intellectual disability diagnostic criteria (McKenzie, et al. [McKenzie K., 2015]). However, there is no independent research to date to support these findings. Materials and Methods:…

Introducing a Twitter Discussion Board to Support Learning in Online and Blended Learning Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thoms, Brian; Eryilmaz, Evren

2015-01-01

In this research we present a new design component for online learning communities (OLC); one that integrates Twitter with an online discussion board (ODB). We introduce our design across two sections of upper-division information systems courses at a university located within the U.S. The first section consisted of full-time online learners,…

"Planning Live": Using a Person-Centred Intervention to Reduce Admissions to and Length of Stay in Learning Disability Inpatient Facilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bartle, Janet; Crossland, Tom; Hewitt, Olivia

2016-01-01

Background: Recent government policy has focused on reducing the number of people with a learning disability receiving treatment for challenging behaviour or mental health difficulties in hospitals (including in assessment and treatment units; ATU). People with a learning disability should be supported to remain in their community when receiving…

An Assessment of the Effectiveness of Computer-based Training for Newly Commissioned Surface Warfare Division Officers

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-10-23

a supportive learning community are related to higher satisfaction and achievement, but interviews with SWOs showed that they did not find the CBT...still want human contact. It is particularly noteworthy that no studies were found that describe the effects of a distance learning course like the...officers in the surface navy. To the extent this is true, it is in the best interest of the community to investigate in more depth why training

The Impact of Freshman Year Learning Community Participation on Students' Self-Reported Sense of Meaning in Life, Academic Self-Efficacy and Commitment to Academic Major at the Beginning of the Second Academic Year

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pruett, Karen Ann

2011-01-01

Student retention is one of the most studied areas in higher education. Much of the focus has been on providing services to aid in retention efforts from the first to the second academic year. Freshman seminar classes as well as learning community programs have become common on college campuses to provide students with the resources and support to…

Design Patterns for Learning and Assessment: Facilitating the Introduction of a Complex Simulation-Based Learning Environment into a Community of Instructors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frezzo, Dennis C.; Behrens, John T.; Mislevy, Robert J.

2010-04-01

Simulation environments make it possible for science and engineering students to learn to interact with complex systems. Putting these capabilities to effective use for learning, and assessing learning, requires more than a simulation environment alone. It requires a conceptual framework for the knowledge, skills, and ways of thinking that are meant to be developed, in order to design activities that target these capabilities. The challenges of using simulation environments effectively are especially daunting in dispersed social systems. This article describes how these challenges were addressed in the context of the Cisco Networking Academies with a simulation tool for computer networks called Packet Tracer. The focus is on a conceptual support framework for instructors in over 9,000 institutions around the world for using Packet Tracer in instruction and assessment, by learning to create problem-solving scenarios that are at once tuned to the local needs of their students and consistent with the epistemic frame of "thinking like a network engineer." We describe a layered framework of tools and interfaces above the network simulator that supports the use of Packet Tracer in the distributed community of instructors and students.

Science Highlights and Lessons Learned from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Pagano, Thomas S.; Fetzer, Eric J.; Suda, Jarrod; Licata, Steve

2011-01-01

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and companion instrument, the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) on the NASA Earth Observing System Aqua spacecraft are facility instruments designed to support measurements of atmospheric temperature, water vapor and a wide range of atmospheric constituents in support of weather forecasting and scientific research in climate and atmospheric chemistry. This paper is an update to the science highlights from a paper by the authors released last year and also looks back at the lessons learned and future needs of the scientific community. These lessons not only include requirements on the measurements, but scientific shortfalls as well. Results from the NASA Science Community Workshop in IR and MW Sounders relating to AIRS and AMSU requirements and concerns are covered and reflect much of what has been learned and what is needed for future atmospheric sounding from Low Earth Orbit.

Improved Student Learning through a Faculty Learning Community: How Faculty Collaboration Transformed a Large-Enrollment Course from Lecture to Student Centered.

PubMed

Elliott, Emily R; Reason, Robert D; Coffman, Clark R; Gangloff, Eric J; Raker, Jeffrey R; Powell-Coffman, Jo Anne; Ogilvie, Craig A

2016-01-01

Undergraduate introductory biology courses are changing based on our growing understanding of how students learn and rapid scientific advancement in the biological sciences. At Iowa State University, faculty instructors are transforming a second-semester large-enrollment introductory biology course to include active learning within the lecture setting. To support this change, we set up a faculty learning community (FLC) in which instructors develop new pedagogies, adapt active-learning strategies to large courses, discuss challenges and progress, critique and revise classroom interventions, and share materials. We present data on how the collaborative work of the FLC led to increased implementation of active-learning strategies and a concurrent improvement in student learning. Interestingly, student learning gains correlate with the percentage of classroom time spent in active-learning modes. Furthermore, student attitudes toward learning biology are weakly positively correlated with these learning gains. At our institution, the FLC framework serves as an agent of iterative emergent change, resulting in the creation of a more student-centered course that better supports learning. © 2016 E. R. Elliott et al. CBE—Life Sciences Education © 2016 The American Society for Cell Biology. This article is distributed by The American Society for Cell Biology under license from the author(s). It is available to the public under an Attribution–Noncommercial–Share Alike 3.0 Unported Creative Commons License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0).

Basic life support and cardiopulmonary resuscitation training for pharmacy students and the community by a pharmacy student committee.

PubMed

Goddard, Kara B; Eppert, Heather D; Underwood, Elizabeth L; McLean, Katie Maxwell; Finks, Shannon W; Rogers, Kelly C

2010-08-10

To create a self-sufficient, innovative method for providing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) education within a college of pharmacy using a student-driven committee, and disseminating CPR education into the community through a service learning experience. A CPR committee comprised of doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students at the University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy provided CPR certification to all pharmacy students. The committee developed a service learning project by providing CPR training courses in the community. Participants in the course were required to complete an evaluation form at the conclusion of each training course. The CPR committee successfully certified more than 1,950 PharmD students and 240 community members from 1996 to 2009. Evaluations completed by participants were favorable, with 99% of all respondents (n = 351) rating the training course as either "excellent" or "good" in each of the categories evaluated. A PharmD student-directed committee successfully provided CPR training to other students and community members as a service learning experience.

Measuring the Impact of a Science Center on Its Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Falk, John H.; Needham, Mark D.

2011-01-01

A range of sources support science learning, including the formal education system, libraries, museums, nature and Science Centers, aquariums and zoos, botanical gardens and arboretums, television programs, film and video, newspapers, radio, books and magazines, the Internet, community and health organizations, environmental organizations, and…

The Power of Thinking Big

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Celeste, Eric

2016-01-01

Communities of practice have become important tools for districts striving to improve teacher quality in a way that improves student outcomes, but scaling the benefits of these communities requires a more rigorous, intentional approach. That's why Learning Forward, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, created the Redesign PD…

Community College Academic Integrity Lessons That Put Research into Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bealle, Penny

2017-01-01

Academic integrity is an educational issue requiring an educational response from all stakeholders, including faculty, students, librarians, learning support staff, and administrators. This article posits that an educational response at Suffolk County Community College (SCCC) advances progress toward an integrated academic integrity strategy at…

The impact of a faculty learning community on professional and personal development: the facilitator training program of the American Academy on Communication in Healthcare.

PubMed

Chou, Calvin L; Hirschmann, Krista; Fortin, Auguste H; Lichstein, Peter R

2014-07-01

Relationship-centered care attends to the entire network of human relationships essential to patient care. Few faculty development programs prepare faculty to teach principles and skills in relationship-centered care. One exception is the Facilitator Training Program (FTP), a 25-year-old training program of the American Academy on Communication in Healthcare. The authors surveyed FTP graduates to determine the efficacy of its curriculum and the most important elements for participants' learning. In 2007, surveys containing quantitative and narrative elements were distributed to 51 FTP graduates. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The authors analyzed narratives using Burke's dramatistic pentad as a qualitative framework to delineate how interrelated themes interacted in the FTP. Forty-seven respondents (92%) identified two essential acts that happened in the program: an iterative learning process, leading to heightened personal awareness and group facilitation skills; and longevity of learning and effect on career. The structure of the program's learning community provided the scene, and the agents were the participants, who provided support and contributed to mutual success. Methods of developing skills in personal awareness, group facilitation, teaching, and feedback constituted agency. The purpose was to learn skills and to join a community to share common values. The FTP is a learning community that provided faculty with skills in principles of relationship-centered care. Four further features that describe elements of this successful faculty-based learning community are achievement of self-identified goals, distance learning modalities, opportunities to safely discuss workplace issues outside the workplace, and self-renewing membership.

A learning collaborative of CMHCs and CHCs to support integration of behavioral health and general medical care.

PubMed

Vannoy, Steven D; Mauer, Barbara; Kern, John; Girn, Kamaljeet; Ingoglia, Charles; Campbell, Jeannie; Galbreath, Laura; Unützer, Jürgen

2011-07-01

Integration of general medical and mental health services is a growing priority for safety-net providers. The authors describe a project that established a one-year learning collaborative focused on integration of services between community health centers (CHCs) and community mental health centers (CMHCs). Specific targets were treatment for general medical and psychiatric symptoms related to depression, bipolar disorder, alcohol use disorders, and metabolic syndrome. This observational study used mixed methods. Quantitative measures included 15 patient-level health indicators, practice self-assessment of resources and support for chronic disease self-management, and participant satisfaction. Sixteen CHC-CMHC pairs were selected for the learning collaborative series. One pair dropped out because of personnel turnover. All teams increased capacity on one or more patient health indicators. CHCs scored higher than CMHCs on support for chronic disease self-management. Participation in the learning collaborative increased self-assessment scores for CHCs and CMHCs. Participant satisfaction was high. Observations by faculty indicate that quality improvement challenges included tracking patient-level outcomes, workforce issues, and cross-agency communication. Even though numerous systemic barriers were encountered, the findings support existing literature indicating that the learning collaborative is a viable quality improvement approach for enhancing integration of general medical and mental health services between CHCs and CMHCs. Real-world implementation of evidence-based guidelines presents challenges often absent in research. Technical resources and support, a stable workforce with adequate training, and adequate opportunities for collaborator communications are particular challenges for integrating behavioral and general medical services across CHCs and CMHCs.

An Evaluation of a Behavioural Support Team for Adults with a Learning Disability and Behaviours That Challenge from a Multi-Agency Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Christopher, Rose; Horsley, Sarah

2016-01-01

The Dudley Behavioural Support Team (BST) was set up based on Positive Behavioural Support (PBS) principles to support individuals with behaviours that challenge. The Winterbourne Review emphasises the importance of developing high-quality specialist community services and the Ensuring Quality Services (Local Government Association & NHS…

"I Never Feel Alone in My Classroom": Teacher Professional Growth within a Blended Community of Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Trust, Torrey; Horrocks, Brian

2017-01-01

Well-designed face-to-face and virtual communities of practice provide opportunities for teachers to learn, grow as professionals and make changes to their practice with the support of peers. However, as more K-12 teachers become Connected Educators and act as conduits between online spaces and communities in their schools, the boundaries between…

Sustaining 21st Century Community Learning Centers: What Works for Programs and How Policymakers Can Help. Strategy Brief

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Szekely, Amanda; Padgette, Heather Clapp

2006-01-01

This tool is part of a series of technical assistance resources on financing and sustaining out-of-school time and community school initiative. These tools and resources are intended to assist policymakers, program developers and community leaders in developing financing and sustainability strategies to support effective initiatives. For nearly a…

Disaster Mental Health and Community-Based Psychological First Aid: Concepts and Education/Training.

PubMed

Jacobs, Gerard A; Gray, Brandon L; Erickson, Sara E; Gonzalez, Elvira D; Quevillon, Randal P

2016-12-01

Any community can experience a disaster, and many traumatic events occur without warning. Psychologists can be an important resource assisting in psychological support for individuals and communities, in preparation for and in response to traumatic events. Disaster mental health and the community-based model of psychological first aid are described. The National Preparedness and Response Science Board has recommended that all mental health professionals be trained in disaster mental health, and that first responders, civic officials, emergency managers, and the general public be trained in community-based psychological first aid. Education and training resources in these two fields are described to assist psychologists and others in preparing themselves to assist their communities in difficult times and to help their communities learn to support one another. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Development of the volunteer peer educator role in a community Cardiovascular Health Awareness Program (CHAP): a process evaluation in two communities.

PubMed

Karwalajtys, Tina; McDonough, Beatrice; Hall, Heather; Guirguis-Younger, Manal; Chambers, Larry W; Kaczorowski, Janusz; Lohfeld, Lynne; Hutchison, Brian

2009-08-01

Volunteers can support the delivery and sustainability of programs promoting chronic disease awareness to improve health at the community level. This paper describes the development of the peer education component of the Cardiovascular Health Awareness Program (CHAP) and assessment of the volunteer peer educator role in a community-wide demonstration project in two mid-sized Ontario communities. A case study approach was used incorporating process learning, a volunteer survey and debriefing discussions with volunteers. A post-program questionnaire was administered to 48 volunteers. Five debriefing discussions were conducted with 27 volunteers using a semi-structured interview guide. Discussions were audio-recorded and transcribed. Analysis used an editing approach to identify themes, taking into account the community-specific context. Volunteers reported an overall positive experience and identified rewarding aspects of their involvement. They felt well prepared but appreciated ongoing training and support and requested more refresher training. Understanding of program objectives increased volunteer satisfaction. Volunteers continued to develop their role during the program; however, organizational and logistical factors sometimes limited skill acquisition and contributions. The prospect of greater involvement in providing tailored health education resources addressing modifiable risk factors was acceptable to most volunteers. Continued refinement of strategies to recruit, train, retain and support volunteers strengthened the peer education component of CHAP. The experience and contributions of volunteers were influenced by the wider context of program delivery. Process evaluation allowed program planners to anticipate challenges, strengthen support for volunteer activities, and expand the peer educator role. This learning can inform similar peer-led health promotion initiatives.

Inquiry in interaction: How local adaptations of curricula shape classroom communities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Enyedy, Noel; Goldberg, Jennifer

2004-11-01

In this study, we seek a better understanding of how individuals and their daily interactions shape and reshape social structures that constitute a classroom community. Moreover, we provide insight into how discourse and classroom interactions shape the nature of a learning community, as well as which aspects of the classroom culture may be consequential for learning. The participants in this study include two teachers who are implementing a new environmental science program, Global Learning through Observation to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE), and interacting with 54 children in an urban middle school. Both qualitative and quantitative data are analyzed and presented. To gain a better understanding of the inquiry teaching within classroom communities, we compare and contrast the discourse and interactions of the two teachers during three parallel environmental science lessons. The focus of our analysis includes (1) how the community identifies the object or goal of its activity; and (2) how the rights, rules, and roles for members are established and inhabited in interaction. Quantitative analyses of student pre- and posttests suggest greater learning for students in one classroom over the other, providing support for the influence of the classroom community and interactional choices of the teacher on student learning. Implications of the findings from this study are discussed in the context of curricular design, professional development, and educational reform. ? 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 905-935, 2004.

TOPILOT: An Application of New Technology for Distance Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marks, Ken

1997-01-01

A European Community project is using telematics to serve the educational needs of children whose families are occupational travelers. Portable multimedia materials and a telecommunications system are intended to enable tutors to manage students' learning at a distance. Tutors are concerned about frustration, isolation, and lack of support. (SK)

Computer-Based Interaction Analysis with DEGREE Revisited

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barros, B.; Verdejo, M. F.

2016-01-01

We review our research with "DEGREE" and analyse how our work has impacted the collaborative learning community since 2000. Our research is framed within the context of computer-based interaction analysis and the development of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) tools. We identify some aspects of our work which have been…

Perceptions of Culturally Diverse Head Start Families: A Focus Group Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riley, Jeanetta G.; Gichuru, Margaret; Robertson, Jo

2012-01-01

Teachers who embrace culturally relevant practices support children's learning by infusing "cultural referents" into the curriculum to provide children with learning opportunities that are related to their experiences outside of the classroom. They strive to establish congruency between home, community, and school and to use knowledge of…

Collaboration Creation: Lessons Learned from Establishing an Online Professional Learning Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gray, Colin; Smyth, Keith

2012-01-01

This paper describes the design, implementation, evaluation and further refinement of an ELGG-based social networking site to support professional development activity, project group and special interest groups, and the discussion and sharing of educational experiences and resources across Edinburgh Napier University in the United Kingdom.…

Networked Environments that Create Hybrid Spaces for Learning Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Otrel-Cass, Kathrin; Khoo, Elaine; Cowie, Bronwen

2014-01-01

Networked learning environments that embed the essence of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework utilise pedagogies that encourage dialogic practices. This can be of significance for classroom teaching across all curriculum areas. In science education, networked environments are thought to support student investigations of scientific problems,…

Early Childhood Directors as Socializers of Emotional Climate

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zinsser, Katherine M.; Denham, Susanne A.; Curby, Timothy W.; Chazan-Cohen, Rachel

2016-01-01

Early childhood centres are vibrant social communities where child and adult emotions are integral to learning. Previous research has focused on teaching practices that support children's social-emotional learning; fewer studies have attended to relevant centre-level factors, such as the emotional leadership practices of the centre director. The…

Collaborative Recommendation of E-Learning Resources: An Experimental Investigation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Manouselis, N.; Vuorikari, R.; Van Assche, F.

2010-01-01

Repositories with educational resources can support the formation of online learning communities by providing a platform for collaboration. Users (e.g. teachers, tutors and learners) access repositories, search for interesting resources to access and use, and in many cases, also exchange experiences and opinions. A particular class of online…

A Practice-Oriented Review of Learning Objects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sinclair, J.; Joy, M.; Yau, J. Y.-K.; Hagan, S.

2013-01-01

Reusable learning objects support packaging of educational materials allowing their discovery and reuse. Open educational resources emphasize the need for open licensing and promote sharing and community involvement. For both teachers and learners, finding appropriate tried and tested resources on a topic of interest and being able to incorporate…

Learning to Roar

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cowhey, Mary

2009-01-01

In the author's school district, teachers and parents found a way to change the question. "How can their community support the grassroots leadership development and organizing efforts of low income parents and guardians to close the "opportunity gap"?" Together they learned to roar. In 2007, the author and her colleague created Families with…

Learning Lives and Alumni Voices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobs, Andrea; Leach, Camilla; Spencer, Stephanie

2010-01-01

Changes in governmental financial support are causing many would-be students to question the value of higher education or to consider attending a local university. Oral history testimonies provide a source for understanding the role that living, as well as working, within an academic community plays in the learning lives of its alumni. An…

The Impact of Service-Learning in Supporting Family Empowerment and Welfare Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Natadjaja, Listia; Cahyono, Yohanes Budi

2009-01-01

Background: Facilitated by Community Outreach Centre, the Packaging Design class of Visual Communication Design major at Petra Christian University implements Service-Learning Program to assist micro-industries that have joined in the Family Empowerment and Welfare Program in Kabupaten Kediri. Students, in cooperation with lecturer assist…

Developing a Culture of Collaboration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lamb, Janeen; Visnovska, Jana

2012-01-01

This paper explores the role of professional learning community and collegial discussion as important supports for developing teacher expertise in the teaching and learning of mathematics in rural and remote regions of Queensland, Australia. The research reported in this paper is from the first year of a longitudinal research and development…

After School in a Colonia.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Castillo, Yolanda; Winchester, Martin

2001-01-01

In 1999, two schools in an impoverished border town in Texas received 3-year federal grants from the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program to support varied after-hours activities: academic tutoring, computer literacy, "ballet folklorico," arts and crafts, guitar instruction, and service learning. Students and parents now have a safe…

Creative Inclusion in Community Theatre: A Journey with Odyssey Theatre

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wooster, Roger

2009-01-01

What does "inclusion" mean in practice? This article considers the work of Odyssey Theatre, a group of learning-disabled and non-learning-disabled performers as they put together a production with the support of professional theatre workers. Working processes are examined and the balance of empowerment and professional leadership…

Role development of nurses for technology-dependent children attending mainstream schools in Japan.

PubMed

Shimizu, Fumie; Suzuki, Machiko

2015-04-01

To describe the role development of nurses caring for medical technology-dependent children attending Japanese mainstream schools. Semi-structured interviews with 21 nurses caring for technology-dependent children were conducted and analyzed using the modified grounded theory approach. Nurses developed roles centered on maintaining technology-dependent children's physical health to support children's learning with each other, through building relationships, learning how to interact with children, understanding the children and the school community, and realizing the meaning of supporting technology-dependent children. These findings support nurses to build relationships of mutual trust with teachers and children, and learn on the job in mainstream schools. © 2015, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Challenging Inquiry and Building Community: Analyzing ESL and Bilingual Teachers' Narratives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Musanti, Sandra I.

2017-01-01

The study explores English as a second language (ESL) and bilingual teachers' narratives within a learning community as they collectively engage in reflecting on practices to more effectively support English learners. This longitudinal qualitative study integrates narrative inquiry approach and critical incident methodology. Participants were…

Creating Community through Mentoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erickson, Deborah E.; Travick-Jackson, Cecelia

2006-01-01

This research studies a doctoral program that includes a cohort component. Candidates engage in active learning and in the skill of mentoring. Research on peer mentoring has shown to support graduate students as they progress in their study (Luna & Cullen, 1998). Analysis of the data found themes relating to mentoring and community: candidates…

Navigating the Complex Practices of Specialized Literacy Professionals in Formalized Teacher Leadership Positions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yurkewecz, Thea A.

2017-01-01

This dissertation reports on how one school community engaged in a professional development grant initiative that incorporated teacher leadership. Teacher leaders may have numerous roles and responsibilities that support the professional learning and instructional practices of school communities. This study examined the experiences of three…

When You Can't Get out: "Strategies for Supporting Community-Based Instruction"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Steere, Daniel E.; DiPipi-Hoy, Caroline

2012-01-01

Although community-based instruction (CBI) is an essential component of an effective educational program for students with severe disabilities, teachers frequently struggle to implement such instruction on a frequent and consistent enough basis for students to learn functional skills quickly and efficiently. This article describes evidence-based…

Beyond Involvement and Engagement: The Role of the Family in School-Community Partnerships

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stefanski, Amanda; Valli, Linda; Jacobson, Reuben

2016-01-01

Research indicates that partnerships between schools and neighborhood communities support student learning, improve schools, and strengthen families and neighborhoods. These partnerships expand the traditional educational mission of the school to include health and social services for children and their families and to involve the broader…

Oral Storytelling: Building Community through Dialogue, Engagement, and Problem Solving

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berkowitz, Doriet

2011-01-01

Oral storytelling supports young children's learning and development differently than stories read aloud from picture books. It gives children an opportunity to exercise their imagination, communicate effectively, enhance their social literacy, and build community in a different way. Oral storytelling encourages a heightened and more sophisticated…

Prior Learning Assessment Redesign: Using Evidence to Support Change

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McKay, Heather; Cohn, Bitsy; Kuang, Li

2016-01-01

In November 2014, the Colorado Community College System (CCCS) received a round three Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College Career Training (TAACCCT) grant from the United States Department of Labor. This grant, from the Colorado Helps Advanced Manufacturing Program (CHAMP), had two primary goals. The first was to facilitate the redesign…

Cool Tools for Back to School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, Carrie

2013-01-01

When school leaders engage with their communities, they develop trusting relationships that support student, staff, and family learning. Digital and social media tools open doors and create opportunities to connect with families and communities in ways that have never been seen before. This article provides three simple ideas that can easily be…

Social controversy belongs in the climate science classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Walsh, Elizabeth M.; Tsurusaki, Blakely K.

2014-04-01

Scientists, educators and stakeholders are grappling with how to best approach climate change education for diverse audiences, a task made difficult due to persistent social controversy. This Perspective examines how sociocultural learning theories can inform the design and implementation of climate change education experiences for learners with varied understandings of and attitudes towards climate change. The literature demonstrates that explicitly addressing learners' social and community experiences, values and knowledge supports understandings of and increased concern about climate change. Science learning environments that situate climate change in its social context can support conceptual understandings, shift attitudes and increase the participation of diverse communities in responding to climate change. Examples are provided of successful programmes that attend to social dimensions and learners' previous experiences, including experiences of social controversy.

Establishing community partnerships to support late-life anxiety research: lessons learned from the Calmer Life project.

PubMed

Jameson, John Paul; Shrestha, Srijana; Escamilla, Monica; Clark, Sharonda; Wilson, Nancy; Kunik, Mark; Zeno, Darrell; Harris, Toi B; Peters, Alice; Varner, Ivory L; Scantlebury, Carolyn; Scott-Gurnell, Kathy; Stanley, Melinda

2012-01-01

This article outlines the development of the Calmer Life project, a partnership established between researchers and faith-based and social service organizations to examine the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) incorporating religious/spiritual components for older African Americans in low-income communities. The program was designed to bypass several barriers to delivery of CBT within the specified community; it allows multimodal delivery (in person or by telephone) that occurs outside traditional mental health settings through faith-based organizations and neighborhood community centers. It includes religion/spirituality as an element, dependent upon the preference of the participant, and is modular, so that people can select the skills they wish to learn. Established relationships within the community were built upon, and initial meetings were held in community settings, allowing feedback from community organizations. This ongoing program is functioning successfully and has strengthened relationships with community partners and facilitated increased availability of education and services in the community. The lessons learned in establishing these partnerships are outlined. The growth of effectiveness research for late-life anxiety treatments in underserved minority populations requires development of functional partnerships between academic institutions and community stakeholders, along with treatment modifications to effectively address barriers faced by these consumers. The Calmer Life project may serve as a model.

An exploratory study of knowledge brokering in hospital settings: facilitating knowledge sharing and learning for patient safety?

PubMed

Waring, Justin; Currie, Graeme; Crompton, Amanda; Bishop, Simon

2013-12-01

This paper reports on an exploratory study of intra-organisational knowledge brokers working within three large acute hospitals in the English National Health Services. Knowledge brokering is promoted as a strategy for supporting knowledge sharing and learning in healthcare, especially in the diffusion of research evidence into practice. Less attention has been given to brokers who support knowledge sharing and learning within healthcare organisations. With specific reference to the need for learning around patient safety, this paper focuses on the structural position and role of four types of intra-organisational brokers. Through ethnographic research it examines how variations in formal role, location and relationships shape how they share and support the use of knowledge across organisational and occupational boundaries. It suggests those occupying hybrid organisational roles, such as clinical-managers, are often best positioned to support knowledge sharing and learning because of their 'ambassadorial' type position and legitimacy to participate in multiple communities through dual-directed relationships. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Translating evidence-based interventions for implementation: Experiences from Project HEAL in African American churches.

PubMed

Holt, Cheryl L; Tagai, Erin K; Scheirer, Mary Ann; Santos, Sherie Lou Z; Bowie, Janice; Haider, Muhiuddin; Slade, Jimmie L; Wang, Min Qi; Whitehead, Tony

2014-05-31

Community-based approaches have been increasing in the effort to raise awareness and early detection for cancer and other chronic disease. However, many times, such interventions are tested in randomized trials, become evidence-based, and then fail to reach further use in the community. Project HEAL (Health through Early Awareness and Learning) is an implementation trial that aims to compare two strategies of implementing evidence-based cancer communication interventions in African American faith-based organizations. This article describes the community-engaged process of transforming three evidence-based cancer communication interventions into a coherent, branded strategy for training community health advisors with two delivery mechanisms. Peer community health advisors receive training through either a traditional classroom approach (with high technical assistance/support) or a web-based training portal (with low technical assistance/support). We describe the process, outline the intervention components, report on the pilot test, and conclude with lessons learned from each of these phases. Though the pilot phase showed feasibility, it resulted in modifications to data collection protocols and team and community member roles and expectations. Project HEAL offers a promising strategy to implement evidence-based interventions in community settings through the use of technology. There could be wider implications for chronic disease prevention and control.

Building and Strengthening Infrastructure for Data Exchange: Lessons from the Beacon Communities

PubMed Central

Torres, Gretchen W.; Swietek, Karen; Ubri, Petry S.; Singer, Rachel F.; Lowell, Kristina H.; Miller, Wilhelmine

2014-01-01

Introduction: The Beacon Community Cooperative Agreement Program supports interventions, including care-delivery innovations, provider performance measurement and feedback initiatives, and tools for providers and consumers to enhance care. Using a learning health system framework, we examine the Beacon Communities’ processes in building and strengthening health IT (HIT) infrastructures, specifically successes and challenges in sharing patient information to improve clinical care. Background: In 2010, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) launched the three-year program, which provided $250 million to 17 Beacon Communities to invest in HIT and health information exchange (HIE) infrastructure. Beacon Communities used this funding to develop and disseminate HIT-enabled quality improvement practices found effective in particular community and practice environments. Methods: NORC conducted 7 site visits, November 2012–March 2013, selecting Communities to represent diverse program features. From August–October 2013, NORC held discussions with the remaining 10 Communities. Following each visit or discussion, NORC summarized the information gathered, including transcripts, team observations, and other documents the Community provided, to facilitate a within-Community analysis of context and stakeholders, intervention strategies, enabling factors, and challenges. Results: Although each Community designed and implemented data-sharing strategies in a unique environment, similar challenges and enabling factors emerged across the Beacons. From a learning health system perspective, their strategies to build and strengthen data-sharing infrastructures address the following crosscutting priorities: promoting technical advances and innovations by helping providers adapt EHRs for data exchange and performance measurement with customizable IT and offering technical support to smaller, independent providers; engaging key stakeholders; and fostering transparent governance and stewardship of the infrastructure with neutral conveners. Conclusion: While all the Communities developed or strengthened data-exchange infrastructure, each did this in a unique environment of existing health care market and legal factors. The Communities, however, encountered similar challenges and enabling factors. Organizations undertaking collaborative data sharing, performance measurement and clinical transformation can learn from the Beacon Communities’ experience. PMID:25848619

Secondary students in professional laboratories: Discoveries about science learning in a community of practitioners

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, Mary Elizabeth

This study explores what educators may learn from the experiences of secondary students working in professional scientific laboratories. My investigation is guided by the methodology of phenomenological; I depend primarily on interviews conducted with students and professional researchers. This material is supported primarily by on-site observations, and by informal conversations between me and the study participants. My dissertation has three goals: (one) to use the work of secondary students in scientific research laboratories to consider how they know the discipline; (two) to distinguish the students' professional accomplishments from science learning at school; and, (three) to engage readers in a reflection about authority within the scientific community, and the possibility that by accomplishing research, students take their legitimate place among those who construct scientific knowledge. My methods and focus have allowed me to capture qualities of the student narratives that support the emergence of three major themes: the importance of doing "real work" in learning situations; the inapplicability of "school learning" to professional research arenas; and the inclusive nature of the scientific community. At the same time, the study is confined by the narrow pool of participants I interviewed over a short period of time. These talented students were all academically successful, articulate, "well-rounded" and in this sense, mature. They typically had strong family support, and they talked about ideas with their parents. Indeed, the students were all capable story-tellers who were anxious to share their experiences publicly. Yet they themselves remind the reader of their struggles to overcome naivete in the lab. By doing so they suggested to me that their experiences might be accessible to a broad range of young men and women; thus this study is a good beginning for further research.

The Future of Service-Learning and Community Engagement: Asset-Based Approaches and Student Learning in First-Year Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bauer, Tamara; Kniffin, Lori E.; Priest, Kerry L.

2015-01-01

In the 20 years since Zlotkowski (1995) called for curricular integration of service-learning (SL) across the academy, the authors have observed an increasing adoption of and support for the pedagogy in students' first-year experience. In another article, Gardner (2002) suggests that SL in the first year is particularly important because it can…

A Resource Manual for Community College Faculty to Support Students with Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheng, Laura

2013-01-01

According to the 23rd Annual Report to Congress, U.S. Department of Education, one out of every five people in the United States has a learning disability (LD). The dropout rate among these students is high, and students with learning disabilities are also less likely to attend 4-year colleges and universities. Although a majority of students with…

Design for Safety - The Ares Launch Vehicles Paradigm Change

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Safie, Fayssal M.; Maggio, Gaspare

2010-01-01

The lessons learned from the S&MA early involvement in the Ares I launch vehicle design phases proved that performing an in-line function jointly with engineering is critical for S&MA to have an effective role in supporting the system, element, and component design. These lessons learned were used to effectively support the Ares V conceptual design phase and planning for post conceptual design phases. The Top level Conceptual LOM assessment for Ares V performed by the S&MA community jointly with the engineering Advanced Concept Office (ACO) was influential in the final selection of the Ares V system configuration. Post conceptual phase, extensive reliability effort should be planned to support future Heavy Lift Launch Vehicles (HLLV) design. In-depth reliability analysis involving the design, manufacturing, and system engineering communities is critical to understand design and process uncertainties and system integrated failures.

An Application of Double-Loop Learning to Community College Remedial Education: A New Model of Integrated Supports for Ongoing Student Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doren, Andrew T.

2013-01-01

Community colleges have multiple missions and one of them is to provide open access services to those seeking to further their education. Community colleges provide remedial courses in math, reading, and writing because many of their students do not meet entrance requirements in these core subjects. However, the usual developmental education track…

Schools as Centers of Community: Remarks as Prepared for Delivery by U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riley, Richard W.

The Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education provides his viewpoints on maintaining strong public support for public education by reaching out to every part of the community. The Secretary urges Congress to act on school modernization. He discusses the emerging focus of architecture that now creates schools as community learning centers and…

A Guide for Dropout Prevention. Creating an Integrated Learning Environment in Secondary Schools. Dropout Prevention Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fennimore, Todd F.

This guide explores ways that schools can put the idea of integrating educational and community support for dropout prevention to work in the school and community. Part 1, "Implementing a Plan for Restructuring the School," recommends the formation of a task force to involve the community and school staff from the start. It also describes the…

Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Families and the Community as Partners in Education: Part 2: Building a Cultural Bridge. REL 2016-151

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garcia, Maria Elena; Frunzi, Kay; Dean, Ceri B.; Flores, Nieves; Miller, Kirsten B.

2016-01-01

The Toolkit of Resources for Engaging Families and the Community as Partners in Education is a four-part resource that brings together research, promising practices, and useful tools and resources to guide educators in strengthening partnerships with families and community members to support student learning. The toolkit defines family and…

Go-along interviewing with LGBTQ youth in Canada and the United States

PubMed Central

Porta, Carolyn M.; Corliss, Heather L.; Wolowic, Jennifer M.; Johnson, Abigail Z.; Fogel, Katie Fritz; Gower, Amy L.; Saewyc, Elizabeth M.; Eisenberg, Marla E.

2017-01-01

Go-along interviews, which are interviews conducted whilst being in and moving within participant selected spaces, were conducted with 66 LGBTQ adolescents (14-19 years old) in their self-identified communities to explore perceived community attributes, including safe spaces, resources, and supports; this paper highlights methodological lessons learned. Successful recruitment in two countries and varied community settings required partnership with local LGBTQ supporting agencies, including school-based Gay Straight Alliances. Youth chose to walk, use public transportation, and drive to community locations, identifying numerous formal and informal resources in their communities. Participant reflections highlighted that go-along interviews can be conducted in safe ways that encourage LGBTQ youth to express themselves about communities in which they live, study, work, play, and relax. PMID:28943992

Mobilizing women for minority health and social justice in california.

PubMed

Littlefield, Diane; Robison, Connie Chan; Engelbrecht, Luz; González, Belma; Hutcheson, Heather

2002-04-01

Women's Health Leadership is building the leadership capacity of diverse community leaders in California committed to promoting health and social justice in their communities. This program provides opportunities for cross-cultural exchanges of ideas, resources, and expertise. Graduates continue to receive technical support and to engage in peer learning via an alumnae network. The network is dedicated to advancing social justice issues and to addressing health disparities. It is also a way to mobilize trained grassroots leaders to provide expertise to influence policy decisions, to provide technical support and resources to local communities, and to foster new partnerships across the state.

Renewable Energy for Rural Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jimenez, Antonio C.; Lawand, Tom

Although education in rural communities is an important priority, in many cases, electricity is not available to support rural educational activities. Renewable energy systems present a reasonable solution to support activities such as lighting, computers, telecommunications, and distance learning. There are certain factors and criteria that need…

Rehabilitation Prevocational Support Services. Program Outline.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Musgrove, Ann

This outline decribes the Rehabilitation Prevocational Support Service program at Northwest Community College (Alabama), designed to help prepare selected students for occupational training programs or job placement and to enhance their academic level. Students are assigned to individualized learning modules based on pretesting by a variety of…

Sustaining Change: The Answers Are Blowing in the Wind.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moffett, Cerylle A.

2000-01-01

Sustaining reform requires district leaders to develop a supportive infrastructure, nurture professional communities, reduce turnover, and use facilitators to build capacity. Bringing educators up to speed means providing abundant staff development, balancing pressure with support, providing adult learning time, and reducing fragmentation and…

Lessons learned from community-based participatory research: establishing a partnership to support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender ageing in place.

PubMed

Wright, Leslie A; King, Diane K; Retrum, Jessica H; Helander, Kenneth; Wilkins, Shari; Boggs, Jennifer M; Portz, Jennifer Dickman; Nearing, Kathryn; Gozansky, Wendolyn S

2017-06-01

Due to a history of oppression and lack of culturally competent services, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) seniors experience barriers to accessing social services. Tailoring an evidence-based ageing in place intervention to address the unique needs of LGBT seniors may decrease the isolation often faced by this population. To describe practices used in the formation of a community-based participatory research (CBPR), partnership involving social workers, health services providers, researchers and community members who engaged to establish a LGBT ageing in place model called Seniors Using Supports To Age In Neighborhoods (SUSTAIN). A case study approach was employed to describe the partnership development process by reflecting on past meeting minutes, progress reports and interviews with SUSTAIN's partners. Key partnering practices utilized by SUSTAIN included (i) development of a shared commitment and vision; (ii) identifying partners with intersecting spheres of influence in multiple communities of identity (ageing services, LGBT, health research); (iii) attending to power dynamics (e.g. equitable sharing of funds); and (iv) building community capacity through reciprocal learning. Although the partnership dissolved after 4 years, it served as a successful catalyst to establish community programming to support ageing in place for LGBT seniors. Multi-sector stakeholder involvement with capacity to connect communities and use frameworks that formalize equity was key to establishing a high-trust CBPR partnership. However, lack of focus on external forces impacting each partner (e.g. individual organizational strategic planning, community funding agency perspectives) ultimately led to dissolution of the SUSTAIN partnership even though implementation of community programming was realized. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

We Are All Teachers: Modeling Democratic Engagement in Faculty Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Studer, Morgan; Rogers, Christian; Benton, Melissa; Quirke, Michelle

2017-01-01

As service-learning and community engagement (SLCE) have become increasingly legitimized in higher education as scholarly pedagogical practice, resources to support faculty in learning about and undertaking this engaged work have grown. As Zlotkowski (2015) points out in his framing essay for the SLCE Future Directions Project (FDP), the movement…

Equity-Minded Faculty Development: An Intersectional Identity-Conscious Community of Practice Model for Faculty Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Costino, Kimberly A.

2018-01-01

Equity-minded institutional transformation requires robust faculty learning. Research has shown that the single most important factor in student success is faculty interaction. Positive, supportive, and empowering faculty interaction is particularly important to the success of female students, poor and working class students, and students of…

Literacy and Women's Empowerment: Stories of Success and Inspiration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eldred, Janine

2013-01-01

This paper explores how literacy learning can support women's empowerment and the development of greater equality, benefitting not only individual women, but families, communities and economies too. It describes and reflects upon some of the most promising approaches to developing literacy and learning for women, who form the majority of the…

Contextual Language Learning: Educational Potential and Use of Social Networking Technology in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Chung-Kai; Lin, Chun-Yu; Villarreal, Daniel Steve

2014-01-01

This study investigates the potential and use of social networking technology, specifically Facebook, to support a community of practice in an undergraduate-level classroom setting. Facebook is used as a tool with which to provide supplementary language learning materials to develop learners' English writing skills. We adopted the technology…

Using the Community of Inquiry Framework to Scaffold Online Tutoring

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Feng, Xiaoying; Xie, Jingjing; Liu, Yue

2017-01-01

Tutoring involves providing learners with a suitable level of structure and guidance to support their learning. This study reports on an exploration of how to design such structure and guidance (i.e., learning scaffolds) in the Chinese online educational context, and in so doing, answer the following two questions: (a) What scaffolding strategies…

Blending Communities and Team-Based Learning in a Programming Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cabrera, Ignacio; Villalon, Jorge; Chavez, Jorge

2017-01-01

In recent years, engineering education teachers have needed to incorporate technology-supported collaboration to enhance learning. Implementing these activities requires course redesign, which must be meticulous for their full potential to be reached. This can require a lot of work for first time users, which can be a barrier to implementation.…

Designerly Talk in Non-Pedagogical Social Spaces

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gray, Colin M.; Howard, Craig D.

2014-01-01

Students live and work in worlds where virtual communities, such as those created via social network sites (e.g. Facebook) may interplay with their formal learning, but scholars of design pedagogy know little about how these spaces can support design learning. In this study, we describe how a set of informal communications, encapsulated in five…

Exploring Blended Learning in a Postsecondary Spanish Language Program: Observations, Perceptions, and Proficiency Ratings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Romeo, Kenneth; Bernhardt, Elizabeth B.; Miano, Alice; Leffell, Cici Malik

2017-01-01

Despite the foreign language community's historical interest in employing technology to support language learning, few research studies have linked its use to instructional outcomes and most have failed to address whether technology enhancements lead to increased proficiency gains. This article examines the relationship between technology use and…

The Energy to Lead

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sieveke-Pearson, Starla

2010-01-01

Being an assistant principal can be difficult, but using a professional learning community (PLC) to explore and capitalize on the aspects of the job that give one energy can help. The author shares her experience in serving as an assistant principal in a suburban school district in Colorado that supports the professional learning and growth of…

The Language of Collaboration: Dialogue and Identity in Teacher Professional Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crafton, Linda; Kaiser, Eileen

2011-01-01

This article explores several professional development models currently being used in the US and in other countries to support teacher learning, including coaching, mentoring and communities of practice. While in some contexts the activities of the participants are informed by social constructivist views of learning, the authors argue that…

The Student Support Team as a Professional Learning Community.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DuFour, Richard; Guidice, Aida; Magee, Deborah; Martin, Patricia; Zivkovic, Barbara

This chapter discusses three emerging national trends that could serve as catalysts for fundamental change in student services programs. First is the concept of the learning organization, which offers a superior model for enhancing the effectiveness of institutions and the people within them. Second is the movement away from standardization and…

Transforming the Undergraduate Research Experience through Sustained Mentoring: Creating a Strong Support Network and a Collaborative Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Camacho, Erika T.; Holmes, Raquell M.; Wirkus, Stephen A.

2015-01-01

This chapter describes how sustained mentoring together with rigorous collaborative learning and community building contributed to successful mathematical research and individual growth in the Applied Mathematical Sciences Summer Institute (AMSSI), a program that focused on women, underrepresented minorities, and individuals from small teaching…