The emerging field of robotics education (RE) is a new and rapidly growing subject area worldwide. It may provide a playful and novel learning environment for children to engage with all aspects of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning. The purpose of this research is to examine how robotics learning activities may…

Students who return from an immersion experience often report that it was "life-changing," but how do we know that students' lives have changed, especially when change is best measured several months or years after the immersion? Each year, 1.6 million Americans participate in short-term immersion experiences or missions outside the…

Rigorous evaluation of social and emotional learning programs requires the use of measures that provide reliable and valid information on the meaningful differences in children's social emotional skills across treatment and control groups, as well as changes over time. In contexts affected by conflict and crisis, few measures can provide the…

Studies of children growing up in poverty describe increasingly devastating effects on many areas of development (e.g., cognitive, linguistic, socio-emotional, affective, psychomotor). Teachers need to be aware of these findings; they also need to develop empathy for their students living in poverty. One way to do this is to experience a poverty…

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder display impairments in social interactions and communication that appear at early ages and result in short- and long-term negative outcomes. As such, there is a need for effective social skills training programs for young children with autism spectrum disorder--particularly interventions capable of being…

This comparative research examined the effects of student involvement and college environment on students' learning and living experience delivered by two aspiring world-class universities in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Few studies have shown how the levels of student involvement and college environment can benefit students at world-class institution.…

Little research has been conducted on the effectiveness of training strategies for child care providers. The current study used an experimental intent-to-treat design to measure the impact of an established intervention, the on-site caregiver training component of the Program for Infant/Toddler Care (PITC), on child development and child care…

Vygotsky (1978) presented ideas influential to the "constructivist" approach to education. This approach included the "zone of proximal development," and defined what is essential for student's development of a higher cognitive ability in order to become self-motivated learners. His theory also directly relates to the research regarding the…

Results of the 1990-91 product evaluation of the Saginaw, Michigan School District's state-funded prekindergarten program are reported. In 1990-91, the program served 285 pupils enrolled at 8 sites. The purpose of the program is to provide at-risk 4-year-olds with an environment that will enable them to develop school readiness skills. The…

The Comprehensive Services Program of Palm Beach County, Florida, was an ambitious and innovative effort to improve the school readiness of low-income children in Palm Beach County by identifying needs early and providing early intervention services to support physical, cognitive, and emotional health and development. Services were delivered to…

A product evaluation of the Saginaw, Michigan School District's state-funded prekindergarten program for at-risk 4-year-olds (Michigan Early Childhood Education Preschool, or MECEP) was conducted in 1992-93. The Piaget-based program, which served approximately 279 children at 8 elementary schools, involves 7 component areas: cognitive,…

A product evaluation of the Saginaw, Michigan School District's state-funded prekindergarten program for at-risk 4-year-olds (Michigan Early Childhood Education Preschool, or MECEP) was conducted in 1993-94. The Piaget-based program, which served approximately 280 children at 9 elementary schools, involves 7 component areas: cognitive,…

A product evaluation of the Saginaw, Michigan School District's state-funded prekindergarten program for at-risk 4-year-olds (Michigan School Readiness Program, formerly Michigan Early Childhood Education Preschool, or MECEP) was conducted in 1994-95. The Piaget-based program, which served approximately 302 children at 9 elementary schools,…

The study was designed to demonstrate the effectiveness of diagnostic teaching with 70 children (6 to 14 years old) with learning and behavioral disorders and to investigate the administrative plan which is most efficient and effective for implementing diagnostic teaching. Ss were divided into three experimental groups--Experimental Group I with…

A study examined whether a half-day or all-day kindergarten readiness program was the more beneficial in preparing students for kindergarten. A questionnaire was drawn up after research into this domain and submitted to 45 faculty members at a child development center. The findings were found to be somewhat evenly divided between the half-day and…