Improving Schools with Blended Learning is specifically designed to address the important issues needed to successfully modernise education within the context of technological change. It does this by first providing a clear roadmap for designing Blended Learning environments able to respond to the technological imperatives challenging schools at present, and then illustrating this roadmap via specific, original research that details the 'how to' aspects of a successful technology-based design process. School leaders, teachers, teacher education students and researchers will all find highly relevant information about how to manage for disruption in the new and informative approach to Blended Learning (BL) they will discover in this book. This book arose from two different research projects the authors have been pursuing over the last 3-5 years, including school improvement research and Blended Learning research designed to investigate the role of technology in effective teaching and learning. By combining the insights gained from these two different research areas, this book is able to present a novel understanding of BL that is both insightful and clearly evidence-based. Improving Schools with Blended Learning also provides several original contributions to specific knowledge in the areas of BL and school improvement that most educators will find highly useful, including the use of BL schemas, a clear and extended BL continuum, how to measure and evaluate the success of BL, how to scaffold teacher ICT knowledge and skills, and a specific process for contextualising applied BL in relation to the 'disruption' imperatives of the Knowledge Economy.

Improving Schools with Blended Learning is specifically designed to address the important issues needed to successfully modernise education within the context of technological change. It does this by first providing a clear roadmap for designing Blended Learning environments able to respond to the technological imperatives challenging schools at present, and then illustrating this roadmap via specific, original research that details the 'how to' aspects of a successful technology-based design process. School leaders, teachers, teacher education students and researchers will all find highly relevant information about how to manage for disruption in the new and informative approach to Blended Learning (BL) they will discover in this book. This book arose from two different research projects the authors have been pursuing over the last 3-5 years, including school improvement research and Blended Learning research designed to investigate the role of technology in effective teaching and learning. By combining the insights gained from these two different research areas, this book is able to present a novel understanding of BL that is both insightful and clearly evidence-based. Improving Schools with Blended Learning also provides several original contributions to specific knowledge in the areas of BL and school improvement that most educators will find highly useful, including the use of BL schemas, a clear and extended BL continuum, how to measure and evaluate the success of BL, how to scaffold teacher ICT knowledge and skills, and a specific process for contextualising applied BL in relation to the 'disruption' imperatives of the Knowledge Economy.

Teacher and student interaction occur in a complex and dynamic environment. Managing with Mindfulness: Connecting with Students in the 21st Century draws on educational psychology, duty-of-care principles and mindfulness practices to introduce the Control/Connect continuum as a model designed to foster inclusive classroom practices for the contemporary classroom. Addressing topics such as communication, positive relationships, emotional literacy, motivation and classroom behaviours, the work is written to support Initial Teacher Education students in their transition to practice. Framed by the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers, Graduate level, this new textbook integrates the theoretical contexts of classroom management with the needs of contemporary teachers, as situated within the historical context of 21st century teaching and learning. The text is supported throughout with engaging and thought-provoking case studies and activities, thinking points and end-of-chapter review questions that encourage reflection on key concepts and practices.

In the last decade in Australia teacher education has undergone numerous critical reviews, yet little on the teacher education front appears to have changed. Related to this, the teaching profession's struggles to cope with a changing world have been publicly documented and an increasing push for improved school outcomes from Australian governments, at both the state and federal level, appear as regular pieces in the national press. This forms a complex situation involving competing concerns, and raises questions concerning what to make of the situation and how to move teacher education forward in Australia. This book seeks to answer these questions by providing an evidence-based framework for investigating and directing teacher education practice into the future.