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This study explored teachers' perceptions of a specific, collaborative peer observation structure, collegial visits, and collegial visits' connection to collective teacher efficacy (CTE). The research question was: how do teachers perceive collegial visits, particularly with respect to their influence on CTE?

Within this qualitative descriptive study, 13 K-12 educators from three northeastern USA schools (one urban high school and a suburban middle and elementary school) were interviewed individually and/or in a focus group.

Utilizing social cognitive theory as a framework for analysis, the authors found a theme of a shift from uninformed to informed perceptions of the collective. Results demonstrated that collegial visits foster positive CTE beliefs.

Since collegial visits were found to increase participants' CTE, a construct others have associated with increased student achievement, school leaders should consider implementing collegial visits as a professional learning structure in their schools after considering their specific context.

Though there has been recent scholarship connecting peer observations and CTE, there has been no research, to date, to examine the effect of the specific structure of collegial visits on CTE.

This study looks at the influence of normalisation on the practice of teachers in adult training centres (ATCs) in Greece and more specifically at the curricula used in ATCs in Greece for young adults with learning disabilities. It examines whether the centre curriculum emphasises the teaching of social and life skills through activities outside the learning environment, and the kinds of difficulty that teachers face during the teaching of these skills. Data were gathered through interview and questionnaire, and are presented by content analysis, for the interviews, and analysed by descriptive quantitative methods wherever possible. A total of 44 Greek teachers from ATCs were interviewed. Results suggest that teachers avoid teaching life and social skills that relate to activities outside the ATC. Students visit mainly local shops and far fewer theatres, cinemas and public buildings. Additionally, in most of the visits students remain passive attendants without learning much in the way of life skills. Teachers' obstacles to teaching life and social skills outside ATCs are mainly lack of assistants, lack of time and lack of parents' co‐operation. Generally, it is difficult for teachers to reduce teaching time in the classroom and give the students the opportunity to apply their knowledge outside the classroom.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how peer coaching was introduced in one school in Egypt and to identify barriers and opportunities for successful implementation.

The methodology included semi-structured interviews with eight teachers, participant observation of their classes and meetings, and three focus group meetings with teachers and school administrators.

Ladyshewsky’s (2017) five key aspects of peer coaching are considered in the findings: establishing peer partners, building trust between the partners, identifying specific areas to target for learning, training on non-evaluative questions and feedback, and supporting each other as new ideas are attempted. Each aspect of these is reviewed in light of the implementation process in the school.

The study provides practical suggestions for teachers and school administrators that include considerations for implementation. Numerous connections are made to research on peer coaching that is relevant to the implementation of peer coaching in schools in Egypt and other countries in the Global South.

The study provides an examination of the implementation of peer coaching in a school in Egypt. Thus, it contributes to the limited literature on peer coaching in the Global South. The discussion and conclusion sections consider further questions and research opportunities for effective practices in peer coaching in international contexts.

Museum visits provide opportunities for students to learn content in engaging and interactive ways. In social studies, museums may be spaces where students can increase their historical and civic understanding through exposure to artifacts and narratives unavailable in classrooms. Yet, research suggests teachers are insufficiently prepared to integrate museum visits into classroom curriculum effectively. In this project, the instructors of the two secondary social studies methods course sections organized a visit to a natural history museum. The instructors modeled pre- and post-visit lesson activities during class and provided a guide for pre-service teachers to complete during their museum visit. While pre-service teachers reported they better understood the importance of connecting museum visits to classroom curriculum, they also raised questions about how methods course faculty might introduce pre-service teachers to museum visits. This article discusses what was learned during the project, as well as approaches social studies methods course instructors might reflect upon when considering museum visits as a component of social studies teacher education.

This study describes and explains the ways in which three urban cultural institutions/museums provide opportunities to students for learning in the social studies. Through interviews, observations, and a content analysis of museum-produced materials, I examine the opportunities for various audiences (elementary, middle, and high school students) to engage with, and utilize, museum resources to facilitate meaningful social studies learning. This article includes a discussion of state standards, field trips, and use of technology to engage social studies learners. This study has implications for both classroom and museum-based educators.

The purpose of this paper is to offer an overview of students’ and teachers’ perceptions of school libraries’ impact on academic performance in secondary education in Greece, using sociological analysis to assess the data and contextualise it in the particular case and social context of Greece after the crisis.

This paper developed structured questionnaires for the key categories of users visiting school libraries, teachers and students, trying to explore a set of questions which would give us a better image of their behaviour. The results from our empirical study, following the creation and distribution of a purpose made questionnaire in secondary schools in the area of Athens, was then evaluated in the context of sociological analysis. This paper argued that social factors may explain discrepancy in opinions regarding school libraries’ (SLs) role.

The data which the paper present elucidates, not only the frequency and ways in which pupils of an age up to 14 years use SLs but also their own and their teachers’ assumptions as to the degree in which SLs affect their performance. In this way, the data documents currently dominant perceptions of key categories of users in the Greek context but also reveals, via its critical assessment, the kinds of social factors that enhanced or hindered its impact on learning and academic performance in secondary education in Greece.

The paper consists of a study based on a limited sample of users from Greek schools in Athens; hence, its results are indicative.

The paper considers possibilities in which educational and cultural policies in relation to SLs should shift attention following the findings and their interpretation.

The paper provides policy implications regarding Greek education. The paper provides some recommendations as to ways in which SLs and research in their users may provide a fresh way of implementing strategies as to their role in Greek education in the period of recession.

This study focuses exclusively on the Greek context, taking into consideration, for the analysis of the data derived from the empirical survey undertaken in Greek schools, sociological parameters tied to the Greek context after the crisis.

What does it take to successfully implement new educational innovation in schools, and what roles does lesson study play there? In order to answer this question, this study investigated the implementation of Sesame Street's Dream–Save–Do (DSD) curriculum that was designed to help children in a Japanese elementary school learn to pursue their own dreams.

The authors first reviewed available documents on the DSD curriculum in the district, and then conducted DSD class observations. The authors also interviewed the students, teachers, the principal, the lead teacher at the school, the school district staff in charge of the operation as well as the Sesame Japan staff in order to collect the data for the study.

The study found that students were highly engaged in open-ended discussions about their future dreams and how to achieve them in observed DSD classes. The implementation of the new curriculum benefited from utilizing lesson study as the main arena for curricular innovation. A further analysis of the data suggests that the success of the curricular innovation owed much to an inside-out implementation process that situated the iterative lesson study cycle of the teachers as the key driver of change while external actors supported the lesson study process in an inside-out fashion.

The study implies that guiding an educational innovation to success requires not only institutionalized lesson study, but also cross-institutional collaborative dialogues to support the lesson study process with mutually established trust among key players of the innovation. Further studies are needed to investigate how this model sustains as principals and how this model works (or do not work) in other pilot schools and beyond.

This study implies that what matters most is that the school embodies a vision shared among teachers, school leaders and external curriculum developers, all working together across institutions in a spirit of collaboration. This type of inside-out implementation would be a path to ensure and sustain the success for those who plan any new educational innovation.

What matters most was found to be that the school embodies a vision shared among educators, school leaders and external curriculum developers working together across institutions in a spirit of collaboration.

Guiding an educational innovation to success requires not only new ideas and effective curriculum plans but also a social structure that allows teachers to engage in effective implementations of the desired curriculum. Lesson study is often considered to be a within-school or school-to-school collaborative process. It is rarely connected to outside agents that bring in new ideas for educational innovation. This study found how inside- and outside-school actors can work together to actualize educational innovation, and what roles lesson study play there.

This paper aims to discuss current issues and provide suggestions for solutions. Today’s classrooms across schools in the USA are increasingly diverse. This diversity encompasses students from a myriad of cultural and linguistic and backgrounds’ academic performance levels. Teacher training programs and schools are making efforts to enhance teacher knowledge in regards to this cultural and functional diversity. Problems continue to exist because it is challenging to clearly perceive the connections between the two and identify cultural basis for school performance.

This article provides suggestions for teachers to enhance their own understanding of how cultural and ethnic diversity affects student performance and improve classroom practice in inclusive settings.

The author argues there is a need for a systemic effort that encourages an ongoing debate over cultural and functional diversity, improves teacher knowledge in the area of best practices in teaching children from diverse cultural and functional backgrounds and fosters collaboration among schools and families.

This article is an original look at teacher training for cultural and functional classroom diversity in the USA.

Much has been written about the theory and practice of work experience, but mostly in academic terms and aimed specifically at the “world of education”. What follows is presented in practical terms, and is intended to be of help to industrial colleagues. It has been written by an experienced practitioner who has worked at both the chalk‐face and Local Education Authority (LEA) level providing work experience for thousands of students. Basically, work experience is examined briefly in terms of its origins in the 1960s. The mechanics of its delivery are looked at and an indication of the current picture and the anticipated future expectations is given: a practical approach therefore to a very important curricular development area.

The purpose of this theoretical paper is to propose that museums can be useful sites in intervening the theory–practice divide in teacher education. The authors draw from their visit to the Center for Civil and Human Rights (CCHR or Center hereafter) to explore the potential of a local museum as a powerful intervention in the preservice teacher education theory/practice divide.

The authors’ theoretical framework draws off of “thinking with theory,” a method of using concepts to make sense of data by “plugging” a concept “into” data (Jackson and Mazzei, 2011). The authors believe that everyone, even their preservice teachers think with theories in an attempt to make sense of information and events. In their social studies methods courses, the authors offer readings, texts, videos and experiences that present ideas and concepts that are new to their preservice teachers in order to expose underlying theories that frame worldviews.

The authors provide four “snapshots” or findings. These include: heroification and villainification, White–Black binary and messianic meta-narratives, empathy and simulation and critical Black patriotism. Each of these snapshots is grounded in theories from scholars in the field of social studies, demonstrating one way to put theory to work.

As the aforementioned snapshots show, the authors found a place like CCHR that can serve as important space to think with theory and deconstruct presented narratives. The authors “plugged” concepts from social studies scholarship “into” the narratives presented at the CCHR. Specifically, the authors used villainification (van Kessel and Crowley, 2017), AsianCrit (Chang, 1993), Black Patriotism (Busey and Walker, 2017) and messianic narratives and martyrdom (Alridge, 2006).