Although self-regulated learning is considered as a characteristic of individual students, the question may be raised as to whether a community of learners with its emphasis on inquiry learning in teams of students provides an appropriate environment to acquire and develop active and dynamic self-regulation strategies. Two cases of communities of…

This paper investigates self-regulated learning (SRL) in a virtual learning community of adults interacting through asynchronous textual communication. The investigation method chosen is interaction analysis, a qualitative/quantitative approach allowing a systematic study of the contents of the messages exchanged within online communities. The…

The various political and technological drivers that are currently prevalent within many educational institutions increasingly encourage educationalists to experiment with tools that promote e-learning. Many then engage in this activity in the belief that this will help in the development of more autonomous, responsible learners. Strategies for…

Using a case study research strategy of data collection, the empirical component of the study presented in this paper is aimed at exploring the interplay between content knowledge and pedagogy when information and communication technologies (ICT) are used by a number of secondary school mathematics teachers. An orienting framework advanced as a…

In this paper the authors utilise findings from the Economic and Social Research Council-funded InterActive Education project to present a characterisation of the sub-culture of school music with Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in England. They consider the opportunities and challenges ICT presents to the teaching of primary (ages…

Online professional development is multidimensional. It encompasses: a) an online, web-based format; b) professional development; and most likely c) specific objectives tailored to and created for the respective online professional development course. Evaluating online professional development is therefore also multidimensional and as such both…

An information literacy (IL) framework has been proposed for Hong Kong students to adapt to the emergence of the knowledge-based society, digital culture and globalisation. The aims of the study reported herein were to validate the proposed IL model and collect the views of practitioners and representative stakeholders on the possibility of its…

This paper reports a comparative analysis of case studies of seven prospective secondary mathematics teachers. The individual case studies described the participants' experiences in an undergraduate preparation program during the implementation of a portfolio-based credentialing process. The researchers studied how the participants' electronic…

In order to evaluate the potential of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) or handheld computers to support initial teacher training (ITT), 14 science teacher trainees at the Graduate School of Education in the University of Bristol were given PDAs with mobile phone connectivity to use throughout the academic year. The following areas were…

A distance learning educational program for in-service teachers from disperse islands was implemented in Greece. The program was designed to create and sustain a learning community within which learning would be achieved in both a formal manner (by implementing electronically supported courses) and an informal manner (through interaction and…

This article provides six case studies situated in an online community of practice relating to a module in a university Master of Arts in Education programme. During the module the online community allowed students to immerse themselves in problems brought to the community by their tutor. Students continued to participate in the online community…

This paper describes the construction and testing of a model designed to inform contributors to online collaborative dialogues about the nature of their contribution, and to guide the input from tutors who facilitate these dialogues. In particular, the model was designed to assist reflection on learning behaviours in online dialogues by…

According to Barab "et al." (2004), the ideal community of practice (CoP) is a "persistent, sustained social network of individuals, who share and develop an overlapping knowledge base, set of beliefs, values, history, and experiences focused on a common practice and/or mutual enterprise" (p. 55). Thus, a CoP has a social purpose of supporting…

The purpose of this study is to understand how beginning teachers actually utilize online resources in their everyday teaching contexts. Using a qualitative interview study design, the researchers investigated beginning teachers' use of online resources in three dimensions: professional tasks, emotional/personal support, and teaching practice. The…

This paper comments on strengths and weaknesses of the papers on communities of practice in this special issue of "Technology, Pedagogy and Education." First it discusses the character of communities of practice and the question of whether schools are environments that are conducive to the development of teacher communities of practice. It then…