There is growing interest in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as a result of the increasing prevalence rates, and because children with ASD find it particularly challenging to enter the educational system. The present study explored the perceptions of parents of ASD children by identifying the factors which enhanced or hindered their children in…

Photovoice, a participatory action research method, supports deep, personal reflection through the use of photography, personal narrative development, and group discussion. This lesson plan describes the use of Photovoice as a pedagogical tool in an undergraduate human sexuality course. The goal of this activity is to encourage students to 1)…

A classroom community doesn't just show up on the first day of school along with the glue sticks and boxes of Kleenex. It requires careful thought and planning. It requires a strategy. For one teacher, community-building conversations--inspired by Nike's "Find Your Greatness" ad campaign--helped set the tone for the new school year.

The aim of this study is to investigate experiences of groups with different success levels during small group discussions in argumentation applications. In the study, case study was based as one of qualitative research patterns. In this line, a success test including mechanical subjects comprising multiple-choice and open-ended questions was…

The "Leading Trauma-Sensitive Schools" online module is designed for school and district administrators and other school staff helping to lead efforts to adopt a trauma-sensitive approach schoolwide. The module and companion action guide outline a multi-phased process for adopting a trauma-sensitive approach, including how and when to…

This study investigated how the different discussion approaches in Facebook influenced students' scientific knowledge acquisition and the nature of science (NOS) views. Two eighth- and two ninth-grade classes in a Taiwanese junior high school participated in the study. In two of the classes students engaged in synchronous discussion, and in the…

The potential of wikis for learning has recently begun to capture the attention of English as a second/foreign language (ESL/EFL) research. While students' collaboration, attention to form, and perceptions of wikis in document mode have been widely addressed in previous research, the educational value of wikis used in thread mode, as discussion…

This research investigated faculty choice of web-based technologies for interaction in online economics courses and students' perception of those technologies. The literature review of online interaction has established the importance of learner-learner, learner-instructor and learner-content interaction in distance learning. However, some…

Aiming to extend sociocultural theory about the teaching and learning of literacies, this article reports on data from a qualitative study underpinned by a sociocultural framework (Rogoff, 1990; Vygotsky, 1986). Conducted in an Australian university community, the project tracked a group of pre-service teachers engaging in scaffolded literacy…

We researched the incorporation of three learning technologies (voice boards, i.e. voice-based discussion boards, e-book readers, and Second Life virtual world), into the Master's Programme in Applied Linguistics and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages offered by distance learning at the University of Leicester. This small-scale study…

Introduction: Continuing education is one of the means by which professionals maintain and increase their level of competence. However, the relationship between continuing education and the professional's sense of personal competence and other practice-related variables remains unclear. This study examined practicing psychologists' continuing…

The importance of attention to children's emotions has been emphasised widely in early care and education research and policy. Enabling such attention has been seen as achieved primarily through attachment interactions with nursery staff. However, there is increasing awareness that facilitating such interactions in a way that is optimal for…

This study analyzes the types of peer discussion that occur during lecture-based tutorial sessions. It focuses in particular on whether discussions of this kind have certain characteristics that might indicate success in the post-testing phase. The data were collected during an introductory physics course. The main data set was gathered with the…

The term "close reading" often conjures up an image of a teacher asking students several scripted questions that encourage them to reread and critically examine a text. The teacher then evaluates the students' responses. In this article, the authors offer another approach to close reading--one that places students' text-dependent…

The design and implementation of questioning, specifically in regards towards a higher level of thinking, is a common practice in many secondary social science classrooms (Bickmore & Parker, 2012). Questioning can help the teacher develop critical thinking concepts, scaffold discussions, and prod students towards an elevated level of cognition…