Much pedagogic research undertaken in geography and other disciplines relies on post-hoc methods such as surveys or interviews to investigate the student experience of higher education (often based on self-reports of behaviour). However, observation of students provides a far more direct route to obtain information about their behaviour, and there…

The need to collaborate in the fields of business, health care, and technology is not a new concept. Educational institutions, however, have been slow to recognize the need to teach collaboration skills (Brownell & Walther-Thomas, 2002; Jackson, 2004). This article focuses on the development of the Collaboration Self-Assessment Tool (CSAT). The…

Recognising and nurturing giftedness in young children presents an important challenge to educators. This study sets out to identify and support gifted children through the provision of a rich learning environment in the Nursery (Kindergarten) setting. Practitioners in the Nursery aimed to provide cognitively challenging activities appropriate to…

This article describes a new construct for coding the social communicative performance of school-aged children as they interact with peers and teachers in the classroom. The Social Communication Coding System (SCCS) allows clinicians a way of describing how children actually spend their time during the school day by observing ongoing behaviors…

This article reviews the developmental profile of a child with autism during the first 3 years of life. Analysis of home videos showed how the child appeared to make progress up to 12 months followed by decreases in social interaction, communication, and language. Discussion suggests that this particular profile is one of the possible pathways…

Discusses the effect of the interactive accomplishment of conversational normalization. To illuminate this process, this article investigates how the parties to a news interview collaborate to normalize the interviewee's practices in operating a house of prostitution. The methodological impetus for this study involves a variant of conversation…

The Verbal Interaction Analysis System is presented as an assessment of initial, dyadic conversations. Application of the VIAS to two case studies featuring mildly to moderately intellectually disabled adults shows how the VIAS provides an index of competence and assists in the development of specific treatment strategies. (Author/JDD)

The literature on intervention theory tends to overlook the pragmatic managerial issues and challenges of intervening. This paper analyzes the formative period of a school management development program to establish crucial differences between the program director's espoused theory and the actual experience of the intervention. These differences…

A description of an intervention strategy that was designed on the basis of the initial level of interaction of an isolate preschool child with peers and adults is presented. The results of this case study are discussed. (Author/AL)

Case study recordings of a science lesson are assessed to examine the role of talk in the learning process. Implications are raised for similar informal assessments by practicing teachers. (Author)

Six case studies are presented of School Community Councils (SCCs) in the Urban/Rural School Development Program of the Stanford University Leadership Training Institute. The councils were organized to facilitate school improvement and development through the incorporation of both school and community input. Each SCC was composed of two…

The report describes the Shared Process Evaluation System (SHAPES), a process analysis system designed to facilitate documenting, rationalizing, and evaluating community development projects. The evaluation process requires five steps. First, the project is described with respect to statements about the original problem situation and demographic…

Examines how people use "accounts," (communicate their own preferred meaning to explain a failure or problem in a more acceptable way). Illustrates the use of accounts in a teacher-student conference. (PD)

This case study evaluates the efficacy of intensive interaction approach in developing the social and communication ability of an 8-year-old boy with severe generalized developmental delay. The approach is based on the model of caregiver-infant interaction and principles of early development. Quantitative and qualitative data over 42 weeks showed…

The parents of a six-year-old disruptive boy were observed interacting with their son during 20 assessment-oriented, 10-minute experimental sessions. An experimental design consisting of alternately arranged baseline and self-monitoring conditions was utilized. Following the reversal-to-baseline phase, parents were given specialized training in…