The purpose of this paper is to present how teachers build capacity within a learning community. Two participant researchers, acting as facilitators and co-teachers in an Ontario elementary public school literacy initiative, applied a learning community model for professional development to determine its impact on teachers' capacity, and on students' standardized test scores. Data collection included meeting notes from weekly modelling sessions and biweekly learning community meetings, field logs, reflection statements from teachers and principal, and documents (such as team-constructed lesson plans and lesson materials). Findings indicated that the use of a learning community to promote collaborative planning, sharing of effective or best practices for teaching, and modelling of literacy components, was valued by teachers. As well, the collaborative learning experience encouraged teachers to take on increasing responsibilities for planning and delivering lessons, promoting a cohesive learning situation for students, as indicated by significantly improved standardized test scores as measured by the Education Quality and Accountability Office Test (EQAO Test), and staff attitudes towards the use of the learning community, as a means of professional development.

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SignificanceWe assess the trade-offs and synergies involved with coordinated dam removal at three spatial scales in New England. We find that increasing the scale of dam decisions improves trade-offs among ecosystem services, river safety, and cost, but the benefits of large-scale river restoration vary dramatically by location. Our model may help facilitate future dam decision negotiations by identifying appropriate scales, locations, and criteria that satisfy multilateral funding, policy, and stakeholder goals.

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