This article describes a narrative study exploring the challenges that international teaching assistants (ITAs) encounter when using humor in North American university classrooms. Twenty participants were recruited from twelve teaching fields. Each ITA participated in two interviews and a videotaped teaching observation. The participants talked…

The article attempts to introduce, describe, and theoretically justify the phenomenon of the children's prank as one of the natural features of childhood. According to the author, the children's prank deserves to be conceived of as a particular category due to the many descriptions of this phenomenon in children's literature. The author defines…

Emotion characterises learners' feedback experiences. While the failure-to-fail literature suggests that emotion may be important, little is known about the role of emotion for educators. Secondary analyses were therefore conducted on data exploring 110 trainers' and trainees' feedback experiences. Group and individual narrative interviews were…

The aim of this study is to determine how the 5-6 year-old preschool children evaluate the humour through pictural analysis of their drawings about humour. The study was conducted with 52 preschoolers aged 5-6 at independent preschools attached to the Ministry of National Education. The data were collected through drawing and interview techniques.…

Using a grounded theory approach to the study of historical texts and an expert interview, this study investigates culturally embedded conceptions of giftedness as evidenced in one of the most important Iranian literary canons, "The Gulistan", to guide the development of education and programming for gifted and talented students in Iran.…

In this research, the potential of Facebook groups used in an online course in order to establish social presence was examined. Qualitative research methodology was used in this study. The participants of the study were 12 senior undergraduate students taking the School Experience course online over a period of 12 weeks. A Facebook group where…

This paper examines emotional expression experienced by female principals in the Arab school system in Israel over their managerial careers--role-related emotions that they choose to express or repress before others. I employed narrative methodology, interviewing nine female principals from the Arab school system to investigate expression of…

In this article, we interpreted, in light of Mezirow's theory of transformative learning, interviews with 13 educators regarding their work with marginalized adult learners in prisons in the northeastern United States. Transformative learning may have been aided by the educators' response to unplanned activating events, humor, and respect, and…

Metacognitive reading strategies and reading motivation play a significant role in enhancing reading comprehension. In an attempt to prove the foregoing claim in a context where there is no strong culture for reading, this study tries to find out if there is indeed a relationship between and among metacognitive reading strategies, reading…

Scholarly communities are dependent on and often measured by their ability to attract and develop doctoral students. Recent literature suggests that most scholarly communities entail ecological niches in which the doctoral students learn the codes and practices of research. In this article, we explore the microclimate in an ecological niche of…

One of the fastest-growing subpopulations of nontraditional college students is military veterans who enroll in institutions of higher education following their returns from deployment. Although much research has been conducted on veteran-students, much of that work has focused on issues such as veterans' finances or academic achievement, rather…

The current studies explored early humour as a complex socio-cognitive phenomenon by examining 2- and 3-year-olds' humour production with their parents. We examined whether children produced novel humour, whether they cued their humour, and the types of humour produced. Forty-seven parents were interviewed, and videotaped joking with their…

In this study, we explored older parents' perceptions of their adult sons and daughters with autism in order to gain insights into how parents' beliefs about autism may influence their coping. Narrative analysis of in-depth interviews held with 16 parents aged 60 years and older of adults with autism revealed that these parents perceived that…

This study examined the behaviors that teachers in eight large urban high schools in a Northeastern state considered important for good teacher-student relationships. A factor analysis of teacher (N = 103) survey responses revealed three factors related to student behaviors: (a) demonstrating engagement and interest in schoolwork; (b) being…

Recent efforts to define qualities of effective teaching practice have done little to capture the role of play, imagination, and creativity in classroom teaching. Drawing on theories of play and data from a two-year case study that included classroom observations, interviews, artifact collection, and surveys, the author examines the ways in which…