Participation in society is increasingly dependent on educational achievement. Accordingly, society as a whole is committing more resources to education to prevent the adverse outcome of students moving through the school system only to emerge without the knowledge and skills that they might be expected to attain. In this paper, we explore the…

In this article, two teachers from a public school in the United States describe their beliefs about the importance of using student voice as a foundation for increasing student efficacy, recognizing student individuality, and addressing curriculum standards. Sharing examples from their classrooms, the authors illustrate how student voice can help…

The notion of language as a complex adaptive system has been conceived within an agent-based framework, which highlights the significance of individual-level variation in the characteristics and contextual circumstances of the learner/speaker. Yet, in spite of this emphasis, currently we know relatively little about the interplay among language,…

This article focuses on some of the issues that shape understandings of professional practice in the rapidly expanding context of children's centres in England. Drawing on data from an ESRC-funded project exploring practitioners' understandings of quality and success, the perspectives of 115 practitioners working in 11 Sure Start Children's…

The assumption that effective leaders differ in some identifiable and fundamental ways from other people is still a large part of mainstream I/O psychology. Based on a research review on the trait theory of leadership and what is known about the concept of expertise, this paper attempts to find a convergence between leader and expert traits.…

In 1921, Carl Jung wrote about four different types of personality, identified 24 centuries ago by Hippocrates. He theorized that these differences were not abnormalities in personality. Instead, he maintained that human behavior is predictable and classifiable that everyone has and acts upon personal preferences, established in early childhood.…

Considers the ways young children manifest individual differences and the benefits of acknowledging these differences for both parent and child. Offers suggestions to parents for accommodating and understanding their child's unique traits and behaviors. Stresses the importance of the parent's role in helping children accept and be comfortable with…

This article focuses on the need of meaningful experiences to children's individual differences. The degree to which one can tailor experiences to each child's unique qualities increases the likelihood that the child will grow up physically, intellectually, and emotionally healthy and thus able to meet the expectations of family and society. This…

These demonstrations stress individual differences, a concept becoming increasingly important in psychological research. Intended for use in undergraduate psychology courses, four demonstrations that illustrate common examples of human variation are described. The demonstrations deal with the following individual differences: taste blindness,…

Summarizes the results of a project to make a class of learning disabled ninth graders aware of their individual learning styles. This seemed to increase their self-esteem and thus they worked according to their strengths and their grades improved. (NKA)

Explores the changes in the juvenile court system, in particular, the juvenile waiver and sentencing laws, as it transformed from a social welfare agency into a type of criminal court system for young offenders. Addresses whether states should create an integrated juvenile and criminal justice system. (CMK)

One way to connect research with its clinical application is to examine the interplay between context and child. This article discusses the relationship between temperamental characteristics and the caregiving environment. During the first year of life, individual temperament differences in newborns are moderately stable and influence the nature…