This article provides information about aspects of the school environment students perceive to influence the occurrence of school violence. Concept mapping, a mixed-methods methodology, was used with two groups of urban, primarily African American high school students (N = 27) to create conceptual frameworks of their understanding of the school…

Teachers who attended unitary rural schools in northwestern Spain were asked to relate their early school experiences in the form of a personal reflective and analytical narrative. Our analysis of these narratives revealed some strikingly difficult conditions; nevertheless, students tended to relate these hardships with a strong sense of…

In this paper, we focus attention on the issue of the future by listening to the voices of Indigenous children in the far north of Sweden--the Sami children. The overall aim of the study is to explore the meaning of Sami children's visions of the future. The participants attend the same Sami School, and they were of the age of 9-12 years. Data…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of international students of service quality delivery (SQD) in a Malaysian public university. Design/methodology/approach: The study was limited to the University's immediate physical environment and its associated human and systems-based services. The physical environment in this…

This paper examines perceptions of quality of life in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada from the perspective of residents and key community stakeholders. A series of eight focus groups were conducted. Six sessions were held with residents of neighbourhood "hubs", areas characterized by high levels of poverty. The following themes were…

In this article we explore the potential of psychogeographic mapping for developing an understanding of community-as-enacted and discuss how this can help us to get a more nuanced sense of the dynamics of civic learning within communities of plurality and difference. We argue that civic learning has to do with the transformation of private…

In this article we will discuss the outdoor environment for younger children with the help of two different concepts. The first concept, affordance, is well known in the discussion about outdoor environments. What the affordance in the outdoor environment is perceived as can differ between actors. How the affordance is used can be another source…

Universities want a lot of things such as high quality students, excellent faculty, supportive alumni, high quality academic programs, a great football team, a beautiful campus, and a good reputation. They also want students to learn. One typically thinks of learning as taking place only in classrooms but research has confirmed that students…

Based on analysis of the responses of 359 no-fee preservice students, this study found that: (1) Local identity includes the living environment, cultural environment, people, behavior, economic identity, and sense of alienation associated with one's home place. (2) Local identity is relatively high overall, but identity with behavior at home and…

The purpose of this review was to analyze fidelity features in parent-implemented interventions for young children with disabilities. The authors conducted a review of 24 studies published in nine peer-reviewed journals. Each identified article was scored on the following categories: the participant characteristics, settings, study design,…

This article reports on two projects: one that investigated the impact of school gardens on primary children's learning and one that is currently exploring the pedagogies involved in teaching children in the garden. The evidence presented suggests that school gardens can be an interesting and effective way of engaging children with learning, but…

Part-time faculty teach approximately 58% of U.S. community college classes and thus manage learning experiences for more than half (53%) of students enrolled in community colleges (JBL Associates, 2008). Often referred to as "contingent faculty," their work is conditional; the college typically has no obligation to them beyond the…

Technological infrastructure is often taken for granted in our day to day lives until it breaks down, usually because it invisibly supports tasks otherwise. Previous work in HCI has focused on how people react and deal with breaks in infrastructure as well as how to help people to fix or exploit these breaks. However, few have sought to understand…

Objective: To examine the role of music and social contact on exercise benefits. Methods: Two hundred twenty-nine (n229) students were randomly assigned to one of 6 conditions: biking alone with iPod or friend in a laboratory, walking alone with iPod or friend outdoors, or biking or walking alone in control conditions. All participants completed…

Over the last 40 years, researchers and educational facilities professionals have learned more about the ways in which the built environment of the school serves as a place where students construct their identities, where occupants create communities for learning, and where the outside community provides both context and support for the schools…