Discusses a comprehensive approach to teaching business Chinese online that is beng developed in the language learning laboratory at the University of Illinois. The courseware consists of two complementary parts: a business Chinese workbook and a business Chinese simulation. (Author/VWL)

Contends that a problem with using discussion in the classroom is that only a few students participate actively. Provides four strategies teachers can use to involve all of their students in a discussion and to encourage the development of their students' understanding of historical issues and problems. Includes a handout. (CMK)

Presents a lesson where the students participate in a simulation of the process at Ellis Island in order to understand the feelings people underwent during immigration. Explains that the students choose and research a character, either fictional or a relative, and act out the experience of entering Ellis Island. (CMK)

Recent negotiations to amend the tuition reciprocity agreement between Minnesota and Wisconsin would require Wisconsin students attending the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus to pay a tuition surcharge. Simulations of how the proposed changes would affect enrollment and revenue showed that the proposed surcharge would not adversely…

This article uses a classroom Civil War exercise to illustrate how teachers can use fist-person characterization to communicate social history. It describes the benefits of first-person characterization for gifted students and outlines a seven-day schedule for a unit on the Civil War. (Contains references.) (CR)

Describes a participatory exercise in which a simulation is used to create the context of institutional discrimination. Explains that student volunteers leave the room while two terms are defined to the remaining students. When the volunteers return, the entire class is given a pop quiz on the terms. (CMK)

This article describes a simple, concrete and engaging model for teaching self-determination skills (such as self-awareness, goal-setting, choice-making, problem solving and self-monitoring) to early elementary students. The model was designed to increase appropriate behaviors, academic performance and positive self-concept in students with and…

Learning support studies involving simulation-based scientific discovery learning have tended to adopt an ad hoc strategies-oriented approach in which the support strategies are typically pre-specified according to learners' difficulties in particular activities. This article proposes a more integrated approach, a triple scheme for learning…

Two groups of three students with moderate mental retardation were instructed using group procedures to compare static picture and video prompting simulation strategies. An alternating treatments design was used to compare individual student task acquisition and maintenance performances of purchasing and banking skills. The results indicated that…

Recent research has found that the acquisition of theory of mind (ToM) is delayed in children with specific language impairment (SLI). The present study used a battery of ToM and visual perspective taking (VPT) tasks to investigate whether the delayed acquisition of ToM in children with SLI is associated with delayed VPT development. Harris'…

This study examined 2- to 3-year-olds' ability to make a pretend-real distinction in the absence of content cues. Children watched two actors side by side. One was really eating, and the other was pretending to eat, but in neither case was information about content available. Following the displays, children were asked to retrieve the real food…

Structural equation models are widely appreciated in social-psychological research and other behavioral research to model relations between latent constructs and manifest variables and to control for measurement error. Most applications of SEMs are based on fully observed continuous normal data and models with a linear structural equation.…

This paper compares two protocols for web-based instruction using simulations in an introductory physics class. The Inquiry protocol allowed students to control input parameters while the Worked Example protocol did not. Students in the Worked Example group performed significantly higher on a common assessment. The ramifications of this study are…

This article proposes an item response theory (IRT) approach to constructing and scoring multidimensional pairwise preference items. Individual statements are administered and calibrated using a unidimensional single-stimulus model. Tests are created by combining multidimensional items with a small number of unidimensional pairings needed to…

A method for incorporating maximum likelihood (ML) estimation into reliability analyses with item-level missing data is outlined. An ML estimate of the covariance matrix is first obtained using the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm, and coefficient alpha is subsequently computed using standard formulae. A simulation study demonstrated that…