"Taking your school from great to greater—this compelling book gives you tools to use with staff for reflecting on and refining professional practices. You and your team will find tools for taking learners to the next level of improvement!" —Lynn A. Kaszynski, Principal Harrison Street Elementary School, Sunbury, OH Networked learning communities: A powerful school improvement strategy for school leaders! Ideal for school leaders and superintendents leading change efforts, this book describes how separate professional learning communities can be linked across schools by common instructional and learning issues to create dynamic networked learning communities (NLCs). Drawing on their work with schools throughout North America and England, Steven Katz, Lorna M. Earl, and Sonia Ben Jaafar show how participants in NLCs can share professional knowledge that ultimately improves performance at the school and district level. Through a sample school narrative, the book illustrates how NLCs can significantly enhance instruction, increase student performance, and empower local professional learning communities. This resource examines: Collaborative inquiry as a process that challenges teachers′ thinking, generates new learning, and fosters trusting relationships The development of formal and informal leadership roles in NLCs How NLCs support systematic data analysis and accountability Demonstrating how NLCs—small or large, local or statewide—can promote critical reforms while strengthening the work of individual professional learning communities, this invaluable resource reveals how educators can join forces across school and district boundaries to generate deep, meaningful, and sustainable change.

Networked learning communities: A powerful school improvement strategy for school leaders! Drawing on their work with schools in North America and England, the authors demonstrate how linking professional learning communities across school or district boundaries creates networked learning communities (NLCs) that can share professional knowledge. Through a sample school narrative, the book illustrates how NLCs can significantly improve instruction, increase student performance, and promote deep and sustained change. This resource examines: Collaborative inquiry as a process that challenges teachers’ thinking, generates new learning, and fosters trusting relationships Formal and informal leadership roles in NLCs How NLCs support systematic data analysis and accountability

"Revitalize the spirit of your school community and strengthen your common vision and purpose! Many of today's schools suffer from stress fractures as they struggle with challenges of achievement gaps, class sizes, differentiating instruction for diverse students, and responding to ever greater demands for accountability. Longtime facilitator R. Bruce Williams gets to the heart of the matter, emphasizing that change is not just external but also comes from within through revitalized individuals and strong culture. Williams provides administrators with essential tools to nurture the spirits of hard-working professionals and raise morale in their school communities. Each chapter ends with step-by-step activities that build on featured concepts and speed the transition from theory to practice, from struggle to success. The book focuses on seven important aspects of underlying structure that can leverage new patterns of confidence and achievement. Participative processes such as mentoring Visible achievements Common understandings Guided reflections Inspiring success stories Community-building rituals Powerful symbols In powerful, well-formed cultures, common spirit is strong. This book provides everything educators need to work together to transform their learning community into a culture of vitality, energy, vision, and purpose."--pub. desc.

Building Online Learning Communities further explores the development of virtual classroom environments that foster a sense of community and empower students to take charge of their learning to successfully achieve learning outcomes. This is the second edition of the groundbreaking book by Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt and has been completely updated and expanded to include the most current information on effective online course development and delivery. A practical, hands-on guide, this resource is filled with illustrative case studies, vignettes, and examples from a wide variety of successful online courses. The authors offer proven strategies for handling challenges that include: Engaging students in the formation of an online learning community. Establishing a sense of presence online. Maximizing participation. Developing effective courses that include collaboration and reflection. Assessing student performance. Written for faculty in any distance learning environment, this revised edition is based on the authors many years of work in faculty development for online teaching as well as their extensive personal experience as faculty in online distance education. Rena M. Palloff and Keith Pratt share insights designed to guide readers through the steps of online course design and delivery.

Building Communities and Making Connections explores areas of academic and community engagement, through various studies that include community service learning, and the development and implementation of university programs that contain a community dimension. Academic endeavors have long been seen as separate from the realities of local and regional communities. This book closes the gap by looking at ways in which both academia and the communities its serves can collaborate to create authentic and applied learning environments.

This book discusses distinctive features of the professional learning community concept, practices and processes across six different education systems in the Asia-Pacific region, namely Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, and the United States. It provides a platform for an exchange of different perspectives and offers alternative possibilities of theorizing professional learning communities across different socio-cultural contexts. Contributors provide valuable insights for policy makers, education researchers and educators in the Asia-Pacific region and elsewhere to deal with critical questions about the improvement of teaching and learning and school improvement in a globalizing world. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Asia Pacific Journal of Education.

This book offers a roadmap for developing, growing, and sustaining living-learning communities (LLCs) that promote student success and enhance the undergraduate experience. Drawing on the Best Practices Model presented in Living-Learning Communities That Work, as well as updated research and rich, real-life examples from LLC administrators, the authors offer a revised and improved model for effective LLC practice. Nuanced typologies guide stakeholders in developing and growing their own programs, from the foundational, to the intermediate, and to the advanced level. This text features an extended section on the assessment of LLCs, complete with a logic model for integrating program assessment with student learning outcomes, and concludes with lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and a look into the future of LLCs in higher education. At a time when colleges and universities struggle to create community for students, this book will be a valuable resource to practitioners, researchers, and institutional leaders to more effectively allocate resources to create and sustain LLCs and to realize the potential of these communities to improve undergraduate education. For more information about ACUHO-I membership, events, and resources, please visit acuho-i.org.

In today's rapidly changing and highly competitive business landscape, organizations face numerous challenges and opportunities as they strive to innovate, collaborate effectively, and foster a culture of continuous improvement. The quest for success in this dynamic environment requires leaders and teams to navigate complexities, embrace change, and harness the power of collaboration and innovation. This book is a curated collection of literature that explores the essential themes of collaboration, innovation, leadership, and organizational culture. Drawing from a diverse range of authors and thought leaders, these pages offer valuable insights, practical strategies, and inspiring stories to guide individuals and organizations on their journey towards excellence. The chapters within this book delve into various aspects of collaboration, innovation, and leadership, providing readers with a comprehensive understanding of the principles, practices, and challenges involved in fostering a culture of collaboration and driving innovation within organizations. From the importance of fostering collaboration and innovation to the role of leadership in shaping organizational culture, each chapter offers actionable insights and thought-provoking perspectives to inspire readers to create positive change in their organizations. As editors, our goal is to provide readers with a resource that informs, inspires, and empowers them to embrace collaboration, drive innovation, and cultivate a culture of excellence within their organizations. Whether you are a seasoned leader, an aspiring entrepreneur, or a curious individual eager to learn more about collaboration and innovation, we hope that this book serves as a valuable companion on your journey towards success. We extend our gratitude to the authors whose contributions have enriched this collection and to the readers who seek to expand their knowledge and expertise in the fields of collaboration, innovation, leadership, and organizational culture. May this book inspire you to embrace new ideas, cultivate meaningful connections, and unleash your full potential as you strive to create a brighter future for yourself and your organization.

A high-performing school is described as one where student achievement is high and student and teacher absenteeism is low. Student behavior is such that teachers seldom have to control them or tell them what to do. This results in greater time on task, higher teacher morale, low teacher absenteeism, and improved parental support. One other distinctive feature of a high-performing school is that the student peer group is a positive force and not a negative force. The end result is a school culture where faculty and students trust and care about each other, and there is a cooperative attitude.

This multidisciplinary book represents an initial attempt to connect adult learning and knowledge management in theory and practice. It provides educators, learners and organizational development professionals with new strategies and resources for developing active and effective pedagogies, which in turn prepare learners and practitioners to manage knowledge in organizations and higher education. To do so, it gathers contributions and case studies from a diverse, global team of authors and provides a theoretical and practical outline of new strategies and methods for facilitating adult teaching and learning. It also provides a fresh reading of active learning methods, by adopting a knowledge management viewpoint that is broadly applicable, whether helping students master content in university courses, or helping organizations learn and change. The book is divided into three main sections: a) methods and theories for adult teaching and learning; b) knowledge management in education; and c) case studies and best practices that consider classroom learning, higher education change, and organization development.