Peer-mediated interventions are a powerful and practical way of promoting the social relationships, learning, and inclusion of students with disabilities. In this article, we describe one state's efforts to scale up a research-based, peer-mediated program called Peer to Peer throughout Michigan. Among the more than 700 schools that now offer this…

This chapter describes the historical and contemporary theoretical underpinnings of learning communities and argues that there is a need for more complex models in conceptualizing and assessing their effectiveness.

Integrating practice and research is vital in all helping professions in order to offer the most ethical, evidence-informed interventions to clients. This article describes some avoidable distractions that hinder integration, discusses controversies related to integration, and describes options for moving forward, including making wasted resources…

As the world becomes smaller in a small field like gifted education, cross-cultural research gives us a unique opportunity to understand top students and academic interventions in a deeper way. In this article, the author describes the importance of cross-cultural research as a way to serve gifted children globally. A description of a…

We describe the literacy issues facing young deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) learners in Taiwan who are learning both a logographic and an alphabetic script. We describe the contextual factors that surround their reading and writing processes such as island demographics, reading achievement levels, and background language learning variables…

It is now axiomatic that challenging behaviors are defined more profitably by their functions (their motivations) than by their topographies (what they look like). The notion that challenging behaviors can be defined on the basis of their function has led in the past 30 years to a dramatically reconfigured approach to assessment and intervention.…

To improve our understanding of the factors that influence persistence rates in STEM field majors, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation provided a grant to the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute in 2007 to study the question. The five papers in the symposium represent the output of the project. This introduction explains the motivation for…

In a previous issue of "Mind, Brain, and Education," Hinton and Fischer (2008) argue that educational research needs to be grounded in the lived realities of school life. They advocate for research schools as a venue for accomplishing this. The Center for the Study of Boys' and Girls' Lives represents an alternative model--a research collaborative…

This article presents an overview of a community-based teaching and learning project linking sustainability, working family housing, neighborhood social capital, and urban design research and development. The article foregrounds principles and protocols that can be used to measure community effectiveness and it highlights a basis for further…

The society relies on institutions of higher education to produce a literate workforce; one that is able to function in a dynamic, technological, information-overload environment. In support of this new thrust, most universities have incorporated the use of new media and ICTs in the teaching learning process resulting in a multi-modal approach…

Discusses the major emphases of the National Reading Research Center regarding future research and study; the types of input to the center from the reading community; the role of individual reading researchers at the center; and potential products of the center. (RS)

This report of the Committee on National Needs for the Rehabilitation of the Physically Handicapped focuses on the current problems in the field, the areas in which additional knowledge is needed, and directions in which the society and government should move both with respect to the acquisition of knowledge and a more effective organization of…

The document summarizes the Vocational Training and Placement of the Severely Handicapped Project (VOTAP), a project designed to determine: (1) potential vocations for severely handicapped youth and adults; (2) what vocational training programs are available for the severely handicapped; (3) whether effective job placement programs exist; and (4)…

Provides an update on, and preliminary research agenda for, best evidence medical education (BEME). Describes the Campbell Collaboration and the Cochrane Collaboration's Effective Practice and Organization of Care review group. Provides, based on discussion by the Society of Directors of Research in Medical Education, a list of topics and…

The problem with various versions of Writing across the Curriculum (WAC) that have emerged since the turn of the century is that they are not self sustaining--they seemed unable to overcome the destructive forces of departmentalization and the entrenched attitudes in the university both toward writing and toward interdepartmental programs. If WAC…