The purpose of the present study was to examine the relations of children's emotion knowledge (and its components) and socially appropriate behavior to peer likability in a sample of Italian preschool children at two time-points. At both Time 1 (T1; n = 46 boys, 42 girls) and a year later at Time 2 (T2; n = 26 boys, 22 girls), children's emotion…

Playing with peers is one of the most important contexts for the acquisition of social competencies in early childhood. This study examined the relation between children's play behavior, social acceptance in the peer group, and number of reciprocal friendships. One hundred and twenty eight children, aged between three and five years, participated…

Social participation of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) is a central topic in the current inclusion debate. Numerous studies have shown that the risk of social exclusion is considerably higher for children with SEN compared to their peers without SEN, especially for pupils with behaviour problems (BP) or learning difficulties (LD).…

Calls for improvement of undergraduate science education have resulted in numerous initiatives that seek to improve student learning outcomes by promoting changes in faculty teaching practices. Although many of these initiatives focus on individual faculty, researchers consider the academic department to be a highly productive focus for creating…

A growing, sizable proportion of school children do not live in conventional family environments. Among these, internationally adopted children have gained increasing visibility in recent years. While other areas of their behavior have been widely explored, little is known about adopted children's social competence and their integration into peer…

Previous research has shown that adolescents' attention for a peer is determined by the peer's status. This study examined how it is also determined by the status of the perceiving adolescent, and the gender of both parties involved (perceiver and perceived). Participants were 122 early adolescents (M age = 11.0 years) who completed…

The current pilot study investigated the effectiveness of the Superheroes Social Skills program in decreasing disruptive and aggressive behavior of elementary-age students with high-incidence disabilities. Six students in a self-contained classroom, identified as displaying high rates of disruptive and aggressive behavior toward peers, were…

The work team of the Postgraduate Studies Centre (henceforth CEDEP) of Pablo de Olavide University (henceforth UPO) has submitted a questionnaire in order to identify the training needs of the directors of the master's degrees which are implemented in The UPO during the academic year 2016/2017. This article aims to analyze how the lessons are…

This study was conducted to examine the relationship between 32 typically developing preschoolers' attitudes and play behaviors toward their classmates with disabilities or developmental delays. Children's attitudes toward peers with disabilities were assessed using three methods: child interviews, sociometric peer ratings, and a social acceptance…

This paper aims to shed light on the level of social acceptance among students with learning disabilities (LD) in various secondary school vocational programs in comparison with their peers without disabilities. Our findings are based on an empirical study that comprised 417 students, of whom 85 were students with LD. Based on sociometric analyses…

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between the social position of preschool children and their attitude towards the environment. The sample group of the survey comprised 106 children from five-to-six years age group, attending nursery classes of primary schools affiliated to Ministry of National Education, in Denizli city centre.…

The use of "radar charts" is an increasingly popular way to present spatial data in a visually interesting format. Some authors recommend using "filled radar charts" to compare the performance of observational units. Filled radar charts are not appropriate for such comparisons because the size of the area within the polygon is not invariant to the…

In preschool classes, sociometric peer ratings are used to measure children's peer relationships. The current study examined a computerized version of preschool sociometric ratings. The psychometric properties were compared of computerized sociometric ratings and traditional peer ratings for preschoolers. The distributions, inter-item…

The purpose of the present study was to examine the moderating role of child-teacher relationship quality (i.e., closeness, conflict, and dependence) in the association between children's shyness and indices of socio-emotional adjustment and maladjustment. The participants were Italian preschool children (63 boys; 66 girls) and two lead teachers…

The complexity of learning has plagued the educational establishment for decades. Recently, ideas of complexity theory and complex adaptive systems have made headway in how we think of institutions of learning. This study developed and tested an instrument for the modeling of underlying social structures, as an element of complexity, within the…