Search results

The overarching goal of the research is to understand strategies that can support utility and access to high-quality teacher professional development (PD). This study aims to examine the design and delivery of an online asynchronous course for science teachers using the edX massively online open course (MOOC) platform. The conceptual framework considers three areas of research: high-quality PD characteristics for K12 teachers, the development of social capital and known challenges in MOOC and computer-supported collaborative learning and participation.

This is an empirical mixed-methods study that details the design of the PD course and implementation strategies that instantiate the conceptual framework. The authors collected three data sources from 41 teachers who completed the course. These included post course satisfaction surveys, teacher semi structured interviews and discussion board contributions.

Survey findings revealed high satisfaction among teachers in the areas of overall course design, module construction and delivery and usability of materials in teaching. Interview findings showed positive perceptions of the social capital framing in developing tie quality, trust, depth of interactions and access to expertise. Analyses of discussion board contributions also demonstrated high degrees of information exchange resulting from prompts intentionally constructed to foster collaboration.

This study offers a set of strategies to build networked teacher PD communities in asynchronous online PD platforms and shows promising evidence of addressing quality and access issues.

Designing experiences to build teachers’ social capital shows promising potential to support high quality PD that may, in turn, raise the quality of science education for students and classrooms both locally in the US and globally.

The conceptual framework provides a novel approach to theorizing and operationalizing best practices for teacher PD and online participation.

This is the eighth article on science, technology and medicine (STM) databases in a continuing series of articles summarising and commenting on new database products. Two companion articles will appear in the next two issues of this journal, one covering social sciences, humanities, news and general (SSH) (Online & CDROM Review, vol. 20, no. 5) and the other covering business and law (BSL) (Online & CDROM Review, vol. 20, no. 6). These articles are based on the newly appearing database products in the Gale Directory of Databases. The Gale Directory of Databases (GDD) was created in January 1993 by merging Computer‐Readable Databases: A Directory and Data Sourcebook (CRD) together with the Directory of Online Databases (DOD) and the Directory of Portable Databases (DPD).

Increased worker autonomy and participation are being proclaimed as the foundation for economic competitiveness in the 1990s (Reich, 1991). Management has been generally favorable towards such strategies and surveys of workers also indicate widespread support (Hackman, 1990). However, trade unionists fear that these new organizations of work are, at least in part, being sponsored by management in an attempt to undermine unions and manipulate workers (Grenier, 1988; Parker, 1985). More cautious forms of this argument propose that participation schemes are initiated to extract from workers the important “working knowledge” (Kusterer, 1978) and “tricks of the trade” (Thomas, 1991; Hodson, 1991) that are often workers' resource in bargaining with management over wages and conditions. Participation schemes may also lead to the unraveling of “informal agreements” between workers and front line supervisors concerning work effort and work procedures that both labor and management would prefer to keep hidden (Thomas, 1991:8).

This is the seventh article on social science, humanities, news and general databases in a continuing series of articles summarising and commenting on new database products. It has two companion articles: one covering science, technology and medicine (STM) appeared in Online & CDROM Review vol. 20, no. 1 and the other, covering business and law (BSL), will appear in Online & CDROM Review vol. 20, no. 3. The articles are based on the newly appearing database products in the Gale Directory of Databases. The Gale Directory of Databases (GDD) was created in January 1993 by merging Computer‐Readable Databases: A Directory and Data Sourcebook (CRD) together with the Directory of Online Databases (DOD) and the Directory of Portable Databases (DPD).

This is the sixth article on science, technology and medicine (STM) databases in a continuing series of articles summarising and commenting on new database products. Two companion articles, one covering social science, humanities, news and general (SSH) (Online & CDROM Review, vol. 19, no. 5), and the other covering business and law (BSL) (Online & CDROM Review, vol. 19, no. 6) will appear in the next two issues of this journal. The articles are based on the newly appearing database products in the Gale Directory of Databases. The Gale Directory of Databases (GDD) was created in January 1993 by merging Computer‐Readable Databases: A Directory and Data Sourcebook (CRD) together with the Directory of Online Databases (DOD) and the Directory of Portable Databases (DPD).

Purpose – The mingling of economic transactions with sexual intimacy, friendship, and kinship sometimes causes trouble in workplaces, but prevailing analyses misrepresent how and why that trouble occurs. Analyses of the impact of intimate relations on organizational effectiveness range from claims of disruption to claims of sociable satisfaction. Such relations often coexist with organizational effectiveness, and sometimes contribute to it.

Methodology – A review and synthesis of available literature identifies theoretical and empirical obstacles to recognition of how intimacy operates within organizations.

Findings – This analysis draws attention to relations between intimate pairs and third parties as crucial to intimacy's impact.

This is the seventh article on business and law (BSL) databases in a continuing series of articles summarising and commenting on new database products. It has two companion articles: one covering science, technology and medicine (STM) appeared in Online & CDROM Review vol. 20, no. 1 and the other covering social science, humanities, news and general (SSH) appeared in Online & CDROM Review vol. 20, no. 2. The articles are based on the newly appearing database products in the Gale Directory of Databases. The Gale Directory of Databases (GDD) was created in January 1993 by merging Computer‐Readable Databases: A Directory and Data Sourcebook (CRD) together with the Directory of Online Databases (DOD) and the Directory of Portable Databases (DPD).

This is the eighth article on business and law (BSL) databases in a continuing series of articles summarising and commenting on new database products. Two companion articles have appeared: one covering science, technology and medicine (STM) in Online & CDROM Review vol. 20, no. 4 and the other covering social science, humanities, news and general (SSH) in Online & CDROM Review vol. 20, no. 5. The articles are based on the newly appearing database products in the Gale Directory of Databases. The Gale Directory of Databases (GDD) was created in January 1993 by merging Computer‐Readable Databases: A Directory and Data Sourcebook (CRD) together with the Directory of Online Databases (DOD) and the Directory of Portable Databases (DPD).

This is the seventh article on science, technology and medicine databases in a continuing series of articles summarising and commenting on new database products. Two companion articles, one covering social sciences and humanities, news and general (SSH) (Online & CDROMReview, vol. 20, no. 2) and the other covering business and law (BSL) (Online & CDROM Review, vol. 20, no. 3) will appear in the next two issues of this journal. The articles are based on the newly appearing database products in the Gale Directory of Databases. The Gale Directory of Databases (GDD) was created in January 1993 by merging Computer‐Readable Databases: A Directory and Data Sourcebook (CRD) together with the Directory of Online Databases (DOD) and the Directory of Portable Databases (DPD).

This is the fifth article on Social Science, Humanities, News and General (SSH) databases in a continuing series of articles summarising and commenting on new database products. Two companion articles, one covering science, technology and medicine (STM) (Online & CDROM Review, vol. 19 issue 1) appeared in the February 1995 issue, and the other covering business and law (BSL) (Online & CDROM Review, vol. 19 issue 3) will appear in the June issue of this journal. The articles are based on the newly appearing database products in the Gale Directory of Databases. The Gale Directory of Databases (GDD) was created in January 1993 by merging Computer‐Readable Databases: A Directory and Data Sourcebook (CRD) together with the Directory of Online Databases (DOD) and the Directory of Portable Databases (DPD).