In this book, eCoaching pioneer Marcia Rock draws on best-practice research and decades of experience to offer a blueprint for professional development that maximizes teacher and student growth.The eCoaching Continuum for Educators provides teachers, administrators, and other school professionals a step-by-step guide to the four connected, coordinated components of technology-enabled professional development: (1) studying theory and practice to build knowledge of specific content and pedagogy; (2) observing theory and practice to aid in the transfer of new knowledge to classroom practice; (3) one-on-one coaching to give teachers the feedback they need to improve classroom practice; and (4) group coaching to build capacity for identifying and solving problems of professional practice. Rock offers a practical approach for putting professional development where it can do the most good-in the classroom. You'll learn: Why technology is so well suited for authentic, job-embedded professional development. How to cultivate a culture in which the eCoaching continuum can have the greatest impact. Which technologies are the most useful for carrying out eCoaching in a variety of settings. How to capture and evaluate the impact of eCoaching on teachers and students. The eCoaching Continuum for Educators integrates best practice in coaching for professional development with a detailed account of how teachers and other school professionals can use today's technologies to improve their practice and ensure their students are fully engaged and learning.

Capturing years of innovation within contemporary action research, Hilary Bradbury highlights where action research for transformations (ART) is directed: towards responding to climate change and achieving global sustainability goals. Paying particular attention to social justice, the book brings together the human and social sciences, exploring the impact action research can make. Chapters introduce a metamodel and quality choicepoints around which pioneering techniques are displayed. Illustrated with rich personal cases throughout, the book examines agents of change who are also subjects of change. With a strong relational focus, the book also utilizes these cases to show how a broad uptake of ART for policy, health and social care, education, and management looks in practice. This book will be a vital tool for social science researchers looking to better understand social science as a participatory practice, as well as the methods and importance of action research. Community organizers, policy makers and activists seeking to become more active in realizing a more sustainable world will also find this to be an invigorating read.

Building a better data culture can be the path to better results and greater equity in schools. But what do we mean by data? Your students are not just statistics. They aren't simply a set of numbers or faceless dots on a proficiency scale. They are vibrant collections of experiences, thoughts, perspectives, emotions, wants, and dreams. And taken collectively, all of that information is data-and should be valued as such. Equity in Data not only unpacks the problematic nature of current approaches to data but also helps educators demystify and democratize data. It shows how we can bake equity into our data work and illuminate the disparities, stories, and truths that make our schools safer and stronger-and that help our students grow and thrive. To this end, the authors introduce a four-part framework for how to create an equitable data culture (along with a complementary set of data principles). They demonstrate how we can rethink our approach to data in the interest of equity by making five shifts: Expand our understanding of data. Strengthen our knowledge of data principles. Break through our fear of data. Decolonize our data gathering processes. Turn data into meaningful, equitable action. We have an opportunity to realign school data with what students want out of their educational experiences. When we put equity first, we put students first.

Unlike ""fix-it"" strategies that targeted teachers are likely to resist, educator-centered instructional coaching-ECIC-offers respectful coaching for professionals within their schoolwide community. Evidence-based results across all content areas, authentic practices for data collection and analysis, along with nonevaluative, confidential collaboration offer a productive and promising path to teacher development. Coaches and teachers implement ECIC through a before-during-after-BDA-cycle that includes comprehensive planning between coach and teacher; classroom visitation and data collection; and debriefing and reflection. Drawing on their extensive experience with ECIC, authors Ellen B. Eisenberg, Bruce P. Eisenberg, Elliott A. Medrich, and Ivan Charner offer this detailed guidance for coaches and school leaders on how you and your school can: Create the conditions for an effective ECIC program. Get buy-in from teachers. Clearly define the role of coach. Roll out a coaching initiative. Ensure ongoing success with coaching. Filled with authentic advice from coaches, Instructional Coaching in Action provides valuable insight and demonstrates how educator-centered instructional coaching can make a difference in teacher learning, instructional practice, and student outcomes.

A groundbreaking, flexible approach to computer science anddata science The Deitels' Introduction to Python for ComputerScience and Data Science: Learning to Program with AI, Big Data and the Cloudoffers a unique approach to teaching introductory Python programming,appropriate for both computer-science and data-science audiences. Providing themost current coverage of topics and applications, the book is paired withextensive traditional supplements as well as Jupyter Notebooks supplements.Real-world datasets and artificial-intelligence technologies allow students towork on projects making a difference in business, industry, government andacademia. Hundreds of examples, exercises, projects (EEPs) and implementationcase studies give students an engaging, challenging and entertainingintroduction to Python programming and hands-on data science. The book's modular architecture enables instructors toconveniently adapt the text to a wide range of computer-science anddata-science courses offered to audiences drawn from many majors.Computer-science instructors can integrate as much or as little data-scienceand artificial-intelligence topics as they'd like, and data-science instructorscan integrate as much or as little Python as they'd like. The book aligns withthe latest ACM/IEEE CS-and-related computing curriculum initiatives and withthe Data Science Undergraduate Curriculum Proposal sponsored by the NationalScience Foundation.

22 out of the 26 Chapters are available Open Access on Elgaronline under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License. The complete Handbook containing all 26 chapters is available on Google Play (guide price GBP10) see link in 'More Information' below. The Handbook of Sociological Science offers a refreshing, integrated perspective on research programs and ongoing developments in sociological science. It highlights key shared theoretical and methodological features, thereby contributing to progress and cumulative growth of sociological knowledge. Reflecting 'unity in diversity', chapters explore a wide variety of research fields, ranging from cultural capital, migration, social networks, gender inequality, historical sociology and ethnography to the intersection of sociology and the life sciences. Examining basic methodological standards for theory construction and empirical research, the Handbook exemplifies commonalities between research programmes within these fields. The contributors also explore rigorous sociology related to theory construction, empirical research, and methods, including statistical modelling and the integration of theoretical and empirical research. Forward-thinking and original, the Handbook concludes by illustrating the common core of rigorous sociology, how it can contribute to understanding societal problems and to policy making, and how research into sociological science can continue to thrive in the future. Accessible and engaging, this Handbook will be invaluable for scholars and researchers of sociology and sociological theory, research methods in sociology and social policy, and comparative social policy. Exploring new developments and applications, it will also act as a useful reference guide for policy makers. The Handbook will likewise be an important resource for teaching advanced courses and training graduate students.

Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful introductions to major fields in the social sciences, business and law, expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject areas. This Advanced Introduction provides a critical review and discussion of research concerning spatial statistics, differentiating between it and spatial econometrics, to answer a set of core questions covering the geographic-tagging-of-data origins of the concept and its theoretical underpinnings, conceptual advances, and challenges for future scholarly work. It offers a vital tool for understanding spatial statistics and surveys how concerns about violating the independent observations assumption of statistical analysis developed into this discipline. Key Features: A concise overview of spatial statistics theory and methods, looking at parallel developments in geostatistics and spatial econometrics, highlighting the eclipsing of centography and point pattern analysis by geostatistics and spatial autoregression, and the emergence of local analysis Contemporary descriptions of popular geospatial random variables, emphasizing one- and two-parameter spatial autoregression specifications, and Moran eigenvector spatial filtering coupled with a broad coverage of statistical estimation techniques A detailed articulation of a spatial statistical workflow conceptualization The helpful insights from empirical applications of spatial statistics in agronomy, criminology, demography, economics, epidemiology, geography, remotely sensed data, urban studies, and zoology/botany, will make this book a useful tool for upper-level students in these disciplines.

Approaches to Ethnography illustrates the various modes of representation and analysis that typify participant observation research. In contrast to the multitude of ethnographic textbooks, handbooks, and readers on the market, this book is neither a "how-to" guide nor a catalogue of substantive themes such as race, community, or space; it also avoids re-hashing epistemological debates, such as grounded theory versus the extended case method. Instead, this volume concisely lays out the predominant analytic lenses that ethnographers use to explain social action-for instance, whether they privilege micro-interaction or social structure, people and places or social processes, internal dispositions or situational contingencies. Each chapter features a prominent ethnographer delineating a distinct approach to the study of everyday life and reflecting on how their approach shapes the way they analyze and represent the field. Taken together, the collection is a practical guide that spells out how different styles of ethnography illuminate different dimensions of everyday social life. As such, Approaches to Ethnography complements and augments-but not duplicate-existing ethnographic methods and logic of inquiry texts for undergraduate and graduate courses on qualitative research methods.

Introducing the idea of conversational storytelling interviewing (CSI) as an 'indirect' method of interviewing, David Boje and Grace Ann Rosile explore this innovative methodological framework as a way for respondents to tell their own story, without resorting to structured or semi-structured interviews. Bringing together theory, method and praxis of storytelling in an iterative process of self-correcting induction, How to Use Conversational Storytelling Interviews for Your Dissertation offers researchers ways to move beyond the bystander role, urging them to be co-creators of their findings. Complete with exercises to train practitioners in new methods of inquiry and in-depth discussions of an array of philosophical issues, this illuminating book illustrates how rigorous self-correcting methods move inquiry from conversation to storytelling science. Pioneering in both method and framework, this book is a crucial guide for using CSI in qualitative research for PhD students and researchers in management and organizational studies. Scholars of feminist and indigenous studies and other critical studies fields will benefit from alternative interviewing methods as these disciplines undergo an ontological turn.

SIMSOC: Participant's Manual

SIMSOC (which is pronounced sim-sock and stands for simulated society) is a dynamic group simulation game that forces participants to cope with the daily problems of governing society. Assuming a variety of roles, the players grapple with issues like abuse of power, justice, diversity, trust, and leadership as they negotiate their way through labor-management strife, political turmoil, and natural disasters. SIMSOC imposes few rules and restrictions upon its participants. There is no programmed outcome. Success or failure is dependent upon decisions made by players and the creativity of the group. To be successful, players must utilize every basic social process from cooperation and reward to threat and punishment. SIMSOC will make participants ask questions about social control, and bring everyday experience and deeper understanding to even the most arcane social and organizational theory.

Included in this Fifth Edition of SIMSOC's Participant's Manual are instructions for playing, materials for play, study questions based on participation, and selected readings about simulation games, leadership, and social processes. New to the Fifth Edition are additional size levels to accommodate larger groups, simplified rules, and readings by authors from Nicholas Lemann to Robert Putnam.

Each SIMSOC participant should have a copy of the Participant's Manual and the instructor a copy of SIMSOC's Coordinator's Manual, which contains additional materials needed for play and directions on how to set up and run SIMSOC. One Coordinator's Manual will be needed for each SIMSOC exercise of up to ninety participants. It can be obtained, for a $5.00 fee, by writing, on letterhead, to:

The Free Press
A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Faculty Service Desk
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

This Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of current developments, issues and good practices regarding assessment in social science research. It pays particular attention to the challenges in evaluation policies in the social sciences, as well as to the specificities of publishing in the area. The Handbook discusses the current societal challenges facing researchers, from digital societies, to climate change and sustainability, to trust in democratic societies. Chapters provide ways to strengthen research assessment in the social sciences for the better, by offering a diverse range of experiences and views of experts from all continents. The Handbook also outlines major data sources that can be used to assess social sciences research, as well as looking at key dimensions of research quality in the social sciences including journal peer review, the issue of identifying research quality, and gender disparities in social science research. This book will be an essential read for scholars interested in research assessment in the social sciences. It will also be useful to policy makers looking to understand the key position of the social sciences in science and society and provide appropriate frameworks for key societal challenges.

A practical guide on fundamental statistics including a selection of techniques commonly described in nursing literature. This guide has been designed to provide the average nurse with a foundation or background to enable them to effectively follow statistical textbooks and to apply basic descriptive and inferential statistical techniques to problems in their field. Learning objectives are included in each chapter, new terms and symbols are highlighted, and techniques are presented on a conceptual basis and illustrated by a presentation of computational methods with examples relevant to nursing. Learning activities provide an opportunity to apply concepts discussed; answers to these exercises are included. The guide contains supplementary reading material. Contents include the following: A review of fundamentals of arithmetic and algebra; introductory concepts; grouping of data; visual presentation of data; measures of central tendencies; measures of variation or dispersion; the normal distribution curve and standard scores; correlation; elementary probability; sampling and estimations; hypothesis testing; reliability and validity; Uses and misuses of statistics.