Understanding how relationships between instructors and students develop is important for understanding the undergraduate student experience. We expect the development of positive relationships is related to the social practices (e.g., greetings, using names, sympathizing, or empathizing with students) that instructors use in the course of normal…

Researchers of team behavior have long been interested in the essential components of effective teamwork. Much existing research focuses on examining correlations between team member traits, team processes, and team outcomes, such as collective intelligence or team performance. However, these approaches are insufficient for providing insight into…

Online discussions tend to be more effective when they are purposefully structured. In this article, we describe how the design of a photo-based protocol influenced community interactions within an online discussion in an undergraduate course. Students were asked to take and share a photo related to a course concept, respond to a peer's photo, and…

This article challenges traditional approaches to emotion as a discreet biological or dialectic process in the early years. In doing so the proposition is made that emotion is an answerable social act of meaning-making and self-hood. Inspired by Bakhtinian philosophy, which resists separating emotion from cognition or the individual from their…

Designing effective treatments for improving early social behaviors in autism has been identified as a critical research need. One barrier to drawing conclusions about optimal treatments for children with autism is the use of highly varied dependent measures in the treatment literature. Contributing to this is the absence of "gold standard"…

When teaching individuals with autism it is important to pay particular attention to fitness and movement as these individuals are less likely than typical children to achieve the recommended level physical activity. Common characteristics of autism spectrum disorder can include deficits in communication and social behavior, which may limit…

The article proceeds from the argument that war is a social institution and not a historical inevitability of human interaction, that is, war can be "unlearned." This process involves deconstructing/dismantling war as an institution in society. An important step in this process is to understand the philosophical and cultural bases on…

The hidden curriculum, the unwritten rules and standards for social conduct that most people take for granted and learn more or less automatically, poses a challenge for many individuals on the autism spectrum because of deficits in social cognition and social interaction skills. Compounding challenges are cultural factors, such as age, ethnicity,…

Intensive Interaction has become widely used when building up communication with children with profound learning difficulties. Often practitioners understand Intensive Interaction to be primarily about imitation and Mark Barber shows how this can be a "mis"understanding that limits the kinds of interactions that can be enjoyed by conversation…

Many children learn easily by watching others, imitating actions, and cuing into subtle social cues. However, some students with disabilities have trouble acquiring these social skills. These children require a more intensive intervention to make gains in the social area. For students who have difficulties initiating and maintaining interactions,…

Asperger's Syndrome is a neurological based disorder that primarily affects a person's ability to be successful with social relationships. Asperger's Disorder or Asperger's Syndrome is defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition (2000) as, "The essential features of Asperger's Disorder are severe and…

Discusses the merits of regularly scheduled chat room interactions as an important component for Web-based instruction. Topics include asynchronous communication; the importance of interaction; experiences with virtual classrooms; the development of knowledge; advantages of computer-mediated communication; social presence; and student perceptions…

The report describes preliminary results of a study investigating the merits of teaching five severely and multiply handicapped preschoolers to take the initiative during social interaction with an adult using signals/actions already in his/her repertoire. Such initiative was theorized as fundamental to the development of communicative,…

Computer-assisted observational technology was applied to the measurement and analysis of social reciprocity for infants with severe disabilities and their parents. Discussed are: development of the behavior coding system, computer hardware and software requirements, and observer training and reliability. The interface between computer technology…

A need exists for focusing on the development of social interaction skills across the college curriculum. Eight basic assumptions should be followed when attempting to develop students' skills: social interaction (1) is a major vehicle for learning; (2) assists students in developing a flexible range of effective behavior; (3) requires abilities…