Group work in education

The current study explores what characterizes the relationship between the pedagogical
processes within a school culture of creativity in a Reggio Emilia-inspired school in the
Southeastern United States. The questions which frame the study are:
1. How is a culture of creativity fostered within a Reggio Emilia-inspired
school?
2. Within a culture of creativity, what characterizes the relationship between the
pedagogical processes of curriculum and assessment?
The research was designed as ethnography and incorporates multiple data sets which
provide layers of rich and descriptive information that reveal how to foster a culture of
creativity in a school for young children. These data sets were generated by the
researcher and the study participants over 18 weeks of ethnographic fieldwork and
participant observation. These data sets include class group observations, professional development observations, interviews, focus groups, and audio-photo vignettes of the life
of the Reggio Emilia-inspired school which served as the research site for the
ethnography. Through ongoing, iterative, and eclectic processes of qualitative data
analysis, the researcher identified four emergent themes in the combined data generated
during fieldwork. These themes represent the four findings of the study and are presented
in the work in terms of answers to research questions, as well as how they support study
conclusions, implications, and suggestions for future research in early childhood
education. The four thematic findings that emerged in the ethnographic data generated for
this study are: The Protagonists, The Daily Life, Research and Analysis, and Languages
of Expression.

This study explored the impact of peer reputations for academic ability and school-related affect upon fourth- through eighth-graders' academic outcomes. In light of the prevailing stereotypes regarding the differential academic abilities of girls and boys (favoring girls in English, and boys in math and science), it was hypothesized that peer reputations in English would be more predictive of outcomes for girls than for boys, while math and science reputations would be most predictive of boys' outcomes. Peer reputations were found to be predictive of school grades, but not of standardized test scores. Although ability reputations in most areas were predictive of grades for both sexes, modest gender differences were observed which were consistent with hypotheses. Results suggest that children's peer reputations may play an important role in their academic achievement, especially within domains most central to their gender identities. Implications and suggestions for future directions are discussed.

This study explored the extent and nature of academic peer reputation upon children's academic self-concept. Peer and self-perceptions of academic ability and affect were assessed for the subject domains of English, math, and science in order to investigate the generality of peer reputation influences across academic subject areas, and determine the extent to which gender differences might be evident. Gender differences were hypothesized, and peer reputation was expected to have the most influence on academic self-concept in school domains viewed as gender-normative and thus central to self-concept. MR analyses provided some support for this gender-congruency hypothesis, as it was primarily children's academic ability reputation in gender-congruent areas that was predictive of ability self-concept, and, influential with respect to perceived ability in normative domains. Contrary to expectations, peer affective reputation was more predictive with respect to gender-incongruent domains. Results were interpreted to suggest the dominance of gender-schema consistency concerns in relation to ability perceptions, but contrast effects in relation to school affect.

The purpose of this study was to assess the goal intent and achievement of university students, during the Fall 2011 semester, at Blue Wave University, a high research activity public institution in the southeast United States. This study merged theories of motivation to measure goal setting and goal attainment to examine if students who chose to participate in a learning community program set goals at different levels than the students who chose not to join a learning community program. This study investigated if there was a difference in motivation, by studying goal intent and goal achievement of Freshman Learning Community participants, Living- Learning community participants, or non-learning community participants at Blue Wave University. . Moderation analyses concluded that none the seven contextual variables (choice of college, ethnicity, gender, high school grade point average, living on-campus, SAT score, and ACT score) moderated the difference in the level of change from goal intent to goal achievement in this study.

The demand for virtual education is rapidly increasing due to the proliferation of legislation demanding class size limitations, funding cuts, and school choice across the United States. Virtual education leaders are discovering new ways to enhance and develop teachers to become more efficient and increase quality of learning online. Learning teams are one tool implemented by professional development departments in order to obtain a community of shared best practices and increase professional learning for teachers. ... The purpose of this exploratory case study was to investigate teachers' perceptions of the contribution of virtual learning teams to their professional development in a completely online K-12 environment. ... Five major themes emerged from the interviews, which were teacher professional development as it relates to student success, collaboration, balance, knowledge gained from being part of a virtual learning team, and teachers' perception of student success.

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the implementation of a structured professional learning community model referred to as Learning Team Meetings (LTMs) on teacher practice and student achievement from the perspective of teachers and instructional leaders at high-need schools. To accomplish this purpose, a multi-site case study was conducted at three school sites (an elementary, middle, and high school) all within the same region of one of the largest urban school districts in South Florida. Qualitative research methods, including one-on-one observations, interviews, focus groups, and review of documents were utilized to analyze, contrast, and compare perceptions,beliefs, and assumptions of the participants in the study. The participants included teachers, principals, assistant principals, instructional coaches, and Learning Team Facilitators (LTFs). A total of 20 participants were involved in the study. The conceptual framework for this study is rooted in the guiding principles of organizational learning and effective professional development practices. Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) offer formal structures to provide teachers with learning enriched, ongoing, job-embedded staff development (Hord & Sommers, 2008). This study focused on one trajectory or type of PLC, and sought to better understand the implementation of an organizational systemic knowledge transfer structure and the impact on teacher practice from the participants' perception. The research design profided thick, rich data, which offered in-depth understandings of the participants' perception, beliefs, and assumption about the LTMs' impact on teacher practice and student achievement. Through the research it was determined that participants among all three of the schools sites believed that LTMs were changing teacher practice.

Growing out of the college retention research of Alexander Astin (1993) and Vincent Tinto (1975), this study examined differences in academic achievement and persistence of first-semester college freshmen who participated in Freshman Learning Communities (FLC), including a Living-Learning Community (LLC), and students who did not participate in a university-sponsored learning community. This study also explored variables that may moderate the relationship of learning community participation with academic achievement and persistence. Variables explored included: entry-level readiness for self-directed learning, gender, ethnicity, high school GPA, and SAT or equivalent ACT scores. Data was collected from 544 students at XYZ University using a pre/post university-developed instrument, the College Assessment of Readiness for Entering Students Intended (CARES-I), College Assessment of Readiness for Entering Students- Actual (CARES-A) and the Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale/Learning Preference Assessment. Demographic and academic data were collected through the institution's Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Analysis. There was a statistically significant difference in academic achievement for students enrolled in either a Freshman Learning Community or a Living Learning Community (df = 424, t = 2.32, p < .05) as compared to students not part of a freshman learning community. The learning community students had higher end-of-semester grades. Multiple regression analysis was used to explore the moderating variables that may influence the learning community effect on academic achievement. Only the pre-academic characteristic of students' entering high school GPA moderated the relationship of learning community participation and academic achievement (p < .05).