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\"Web-based school collaboration has attracted the sustained attention of educators, policy-makers and governmental bodies around the world during the past decade. This book sheds new light on this topical but ever so complex issue. Drawing on a wealth of theoretical and empirical work, it presents the various models of available school twinning programs and explores the cultural, political and economic factors that surround the recent enthusiasm regarding collaborative initiatives. Moreover, the book critically examines teachers' and students' experiences of web-based school collaboration. In particular, it develops a realistic perspective of the range of challenges they face and identifies the host of technological and non-technological issues that can shape participation in collaborative programs\"-- Provided by publisher.

Preschool settings play a significant role in promoting physical activity for children under five years. Most of the time, however, is sedentary (50–94%) with only a small percentage devoted to light (5–27%) or moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (1–17%). While the experiences children have during childcare hours can impact theirphysical activity, educators are not the only movement influencers in preschoolers lives. Aside from school, children spend time with family members who develop lifestyle habits and serve as role models for physical activity. However, caretakers hold limited knowledge regarding physical activity recommendations for young children, creating a need for greater teacher-parent collaboration. SHAPE America’s Active Start Guidelines were developed to provide educators, parents, and caretakers guidance for increasing physical activity among the preschool population. Recommendations for how, when, and in what manner parents encourage and participate with their children to be physically active has great potential to positively influence the percentage of preschoolers who meet these guidelines. This article is grounded in the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child framework which states that caregivers, parents, and preschools should work together in a home, school and community approach that supports the health and well-being of young children. The purpose of this article is to address a call for improved physical activity implementation by outlining ways educators can facilitate physical activity within the preschool setting, bridge the knowledge gap with parents, and provide specific ideas to engage family-based physical activity to assist children in meeting Active Start Guidelines 1 and 2.

The advancing power and capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) have expanded the roles of AI in education and have created the possibility for teachers to collaborate with AI in classroom instruction. However, the potential types of teacher-AI collaboration (TAC) in classroom instruction and the benefits and challenges of implementing TAC are still elusive. This study, therefore, aimed to explore different types of TAC and the potential benefits and obstacles of TAC through Focus Group Interviews with 30 Chinese teachers. The study found that teachers anticipated six types of TAC, which are thematized as One Teach, One Observe; One Teach, One Assist; Co-teaching in Stations; Parallel Teaching in Online and Offline Classes; Differentiated Teaching; and Team Teaching. While teachers highlighted that TAC could support them in instructional design, teaching delivery, teacher professional development, and lowering grading load, they perceived a lack of explicit and consistent curriculum guidance, the dominance of commercial AI in schools, the absence of clear ethical guidelines, and teachers' negative attitude toward AI as obstacles to TAC. These findings enhance our understanding of how TAC could be structured at school levels and direct the implications for future development and practice to support TAC.

This two-year study examined the barriers and challenges encountered by refugee parents as they negotiate their children’s successful transition into a new school system. The researchers sought to determine what can be learned from parent and educator experiences of these obstacles in order to optimize parent–teacher collaboration for refugee families. Contextualized within a LEAD (Literacy, English and Academic Development) program in an urban centre in Western Canada, the study triangulated data from focus groups comprising Syrian and Iraqi Arabic-speaking families, teachers, and settlement workers. The data were qualitatively analyzed by incorporating Epstein’s six types of parental involvement, a culturally responsive model accounting for parental engagement within the context of home-school-community collaboration (Epstein & Sheldon, 2006). From this model, the researchers make recommendations that include province-wide initiatives to support leadership and teacher training, mandated programming to support refugee and immigrant youth, and the establishment and expansion of board and in-school settlement best practices province-wide.

This study examines how parents’ perceived value influences the parent-teacher relationship in Taiwanese preschools, with service quality and social media use serving as mediating factors. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted, and data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to test both the measurement and structural models. The results confirm the proposed hypotheses and show that perceived value significantly shapes the parent-teacher relationship. In addition, service quality and social media use were found to fully mediate the relationship between perceived value and parent-teacher interaction. This study presents a comprehensive model of the factors influencing parent-teacher relationship in Taiwanese preschools. By highlighting the role of service quality and social media as mediators, the findings highlight the importance of improving communication and service delivery to enhance parent-teacher collaboration and ultimately foster stronger preschool partnerships. This study explores parents’ consideration of how perceived value affects the parent-teacher relationship in Taiwanese preschools, including service quality and social media use as mediating factors. Using a robust analytical framework, particularly partial least squares, we rigorously tested the measurement and structural models in the questionnaire. Our results confirm the hypotheses and reveal complex dynamics in Taiwanese preschool education. Our findings highlight the role of perceived value in shaping parents’ views of the parent-teacher relationship. Supported by a multiple mediation model, service quality and social media use act as mediators, indicating that perceived value significantly influences the parent-teacher relationship through full mediation. The study provides a comprehensive model for understanding and improving parent-teacher interactions, highlighting the benefits of improving communication, service delivery, and overall satisfaction. Insights from this research aim to improve preschool partnerships, foster a more collaborative environment, and increase educational services for the benefit of both parents and preschool educators. Plain language summary Examining the influence of perceived value on the parent-teacher relationship among Taiwanese preschool parents: The multiple mediations of service quality and social media use This study explores parents’ consideration of how perceived value affects the parent-teacher relationship in Taiwanese preschools, including service quality and social media use as mediating factors. Using a robust analytical framework, particularly partial least squares, we rigorously tested the measurement and structural models in the questionnaire. Our results confirm the hypotheses and reveal complex dynamics in Taiwanese preschool education. Our findings highlight the role of perceived value in shaping parents’ views of the parent-teacher relationship. Supported by a multiple mediation model, service quality and social media use act as mediators, indicating that perceived value significantly influences the parent-teacher relationship through full mediation. The study provides a comprehensive model for understanding and improving parent-teacher interactions, highlighting the benefits of improving communication, service delivery, and overall satisfaction. Insights from this research aim to improve preschool partnerships, foster a more collaborative environment, and increase educational services for the benefit of both parents and preschool educators.

Teacher collaborative learning is key in teacher professional development. Yet, how teachers learn in cross-cultural professional development settings remains largely unexplored. This paper examines the case of a Chinese mathematics teacher who learned through addressing various challenges when teaching in an English school in a China-UK exchange program. A praxeological perspective was used to analyze the data, including lesson plans, classroom observation notes, and post-lesson meetings. Results showed that collaboration and adaptation helped the teacher address the obstacles generated by cultural differences. The analysis revealed the difficulties the teacher encountered and how the mathematical and didactic praxeologies implemented evolved and helped overcome these challenges, broadening her mathematics knowledge for teaching. Finally, the implications of the case study on teacher collaborative learning in cross-cultural settings are discussed.

This study concerns teaching and learning development in science through collaboration between science teachers and researchers. At the core was the ambition to integrate research outcomes of science education-here 'didactic models'-with teaching practice, aligned with professional development. The phase where the collaboration moves from initial establishment towards a stable practice is investigated. The study aims to identifying features of formation and exploring consequences for the character of contact between research and teaching. Specific questions are \"What may be identified as actions and arrangements impacting the quality and continuation of the emerging practice?\" and \"What and in what ways may support teacher growth?\" The analysis draws on practice architectures as a theoretical framework and specifically investigates the initial meetings as a practice-node for a new practice, empirically drawing on documented reflections on science teaching, primarily from meetings and communication. The results take the form of an analytical-narrative account of meetings that focused planning, enactment and reflection on teaching regarding the human body. We identify enabling actions such as collaborative work with concrete material from the classroom and arrangements such as the regular meetings and that the collaborative group had a core of shared competence-in science teaching and learning. Constraining were actions such as introducing research results with weak connection to practical action in the school practice and arrangements such as differences between school and university practice architectures and the general 'oppression' of teachers' classroom practice. The discussion includes reflections on researchers' roles and on a research and practice base for school development.

PurposeThis study examined the impact of school leadership on teacher professional collaboration, with collective teacher innovativeness and teacher self-efficacy (TSE) playing the mediating role. Two most commonly used leadership styles, instructional leadership (IL) and distributed leadership (DL), were analyzed using a multilevel design, i.e. teachers are nested within schools.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed model was validated using data of Taiwan TALIS 2018 collected from both teachers and principals and analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling.FindingsResults showed that IL and DL influence teacher professional collaboration through different paths. IL had a significant direct impact on teacher professional collaboration alone, while DL had a significant direct impact on both teachers' collective innovativeness and their professional collaboration. While TSE had a direct effect on collective teacher innovativeness, TSE and collective teacher innovativeness had a direct effect on teacher professional collaboration.Originality/valueThis study highlights the significant impact of principal leadership as both principals and teachers work in the same environment and culture co-shaped through the interaction and collaboration. Research evidence regarding the effects of IL and DL on teacher professional collaboration is limited; this is even less evidential when the indirect effects of variables mediating between school leadership and teacher outcomes, including teacher collective innovativeness and TSE, are added to the total effects. The present findings provide useful references for principals and teachers when promoting professional collaboration to achieve desired outcomes in school and student improvement.

Several studies have highlighted the importance of parent-teacher collaboration (PTC) in special education (SE). In Lebanon, there is a widespread perception among practitioners that out of many educational challenges facing SE organizations, there is the need to consolidate successful parent-teacher partnerships. We contribute to research on PTC by applying a conceptual framework from complexity science to investigate the interaction between teachers and parents in one SE organization in Lebanon. The interaction between teachers (internal agents) and parents (external agents) constitute an important dimension of the information flow between the school and its surrounding environment. We follow a narrative approach aiming at grasping the temporal dimension of teachers' experience related to interacting with parents. Findings from this study indicate that teachers play an important role in sensing educational challenges and reaching out for a collaboration. However, although they gain access to valuable information regarding students' background and social environment, several organizational factors restrain internal knowledge-sharing and communication about innovative practices. Teachers' narratives depict learning on an individual level, but organizational barriers in the form of negative feedback loops for knowledge-sharing at the organizational level. This study recommends facilitating adaptive processes deriving from PTC. This demands positive feedback loops that facilitate behavioral variation, open communication, and thereby the exploration of innovative practices.

Positive parent-professional collaboration is critical for the educational success of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, little is known about teacher perceptions of parent-professional collaboration. Thirty-four teachers participated in a qualitative study to gain a better understanding of teachers' perceptions of helpful parental involvement and advocacy strategies to ensure the success of students with ASD educated in inclusive settings. Through focus groups and interviews, teachers reported perceptions of parents ranging from too much involvement to not enough involvement, the importance of parental and student advocacy, and shared examples of positive parental advocacy. Implications for practice and directions for future research are discussed.