Educational Developments, Practices and Effectiveness ─ Global Perspectives and Contexts

Educational initiatives are continually implemented in order to understand what works in education and why. This book explores a range of such initiatives in Australia, Canada and Switzerland in order to analyse their effectiveness in improving outcomes for learners and teachers as well as promoting specialised disciplines of knowledge. The first chapter distils a conceptual framework clustered around four elements of educational developments: the institutional focus; educators' professional development and reflective practice; research-based practice; and technological impact. Case studies presented in the remainder of the book include enhancing corporate learning; metacognition and co-regulation in online communities of inquiry; supporting university students with disabilities; educational evaluation of teachers' ICT knowledge; using language to achieve schoolwide pedagogical improvement; sustainable engineering education; mathematics education through digital technologies; and the mass media's educational value.

Jennifer Lock is an Associate Professor and the Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning) in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary, Canada. Researching educational innovation and technology, she has received university and provincial research grants and two outstanding conference paper awards, and also teaching and leadership awards.

Petrea Redmond is a Senior Lecturer and program coordinator in the School of Teacher Education and Early Childhood at the Toowoomba campus of the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. With research interests in technology and learning, she has published in a number of international peer-reviewed books, journals and conference proceedings.

Patrick Alan Danaher is Professor in Educational Research in the School of Linguistics, Adult and Specialist Education at the Toowoomba campus of the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. His published co-authored research books include Contemporary Capacity-Building in Educational Contexts and Educational Learning and Development: Building and Enhancing Capacity.