The ultimate target of the education and teaching reform in higher education institutions is to improve the quality of teaching and talent training. As a key comprehensive university under the jurisdiction of the provincial government, Heilongjiang University sees its responsibility as training qualified talent to promote local economic…

Cynthia Tyson and Sung Choon Park's powerful article, "From Theory to Practice: Teaching for Social Justice," addressed many key points for educators to consider when discussing issues of social justice and injustice. They offered a variety of multicultural children's books and strategies for using them that can be helpful to educators.…

Adaptive social skills were assessed longitudinally at approximately ages 2, 3, 5, 9, and 13 years in a sample of 192 children with a clinical diagnosis of autism (n = 93), PDD-NOS (n = 51), or nonspectrum developmental disabilities (n = 46) at age 2. Growth curve analyses with SAS proc mixed were used to analyze social trajectories over time.…

Service-learning is an instructional methodology teachers can use to foster student engagement in rigorous curricula. Through service-learning, middle level students see that what they are learning in school is real and important, and that they can be valued, contributing members of society. In this article, the Titans team at Remington Middle…

Later-born siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder (Sibs-ASD) are at elevated risk for social impairments. Two putative predictors of later social impairment--measures of responding to joint attention and weighted triadic communication--were examined in a sample of 43 Sibs-ASD who were followed from 15 to 34 months of age. Results…

This study examined the heterotypic continuity of aggression hypothesis (physical to indirect) using independent teacher reports of aggression drawn from a nationally representative sample of 749 Canadian girls and boys. Confirmatory factor analysis using an accelerated longitudinal design confirmed a two-factor model of physical and indirect…

Social competence is an essential capability to bring to school because of its relationship to academic success. Development and consolidation of social understanding in early childhood ensures that young children have a solid foundation of social expertise when they begin formal schooling. Social expertise, conceptualized within the framework of…

This study used a social exchange framework to examine the features of non-romantic other-sex (OS) friendships compared with same-sex (SS) friendships and romantic relationships. High school seniors (N = 141) completed open-ended interviews about the benefits and costs of having OS friendships, SS friendships, and romantic relationships in…

Play, particularly children's sociodramatic play, is the cornerstone of early childhood classrooms in the United States. Early childhood educators learn and expound mantras of "the value of play," "play-based programs," "children learning through play," and "play as child's work." They strive to promote the importance of making a place for play in…

This article addresses issues surrounding critical media literacy using popular culture texts. The authors focus on the example of their work with a fourth-grade class involved in a project to unpack the messages of popular media and advertising texts. This project, which they call the Elementary Bubble Project, was inspired by guerilla artist Ji…

Religious beliefs, religious activities, and spirituality are coping resources used by many mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study examined whether and how these resources were related to maternal socioemotional functioning. Mothers of children with ASD completed questionnaires assessing religiosity, spirituality, and…

Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Project Green Reach (PGR) is a children's program that has offered garden-based youth education since 1990. PGR focuses on Grade K-8 students and teachers from local Title I schools who work in teams on garden and science projects. In this exploratory study, the authors used field observations, document analysis, and past…

The study aimed to find out the impact of tertiary education on development of moderate Islamic society in Pakistan. The population of the study constituted of all the teachers engaged on teaching and all the students studying in the colleges. The study was delimited to the area of public sector college education. Cluster sampling technique was…

This research examined some characteristics of the learning habits of students with special needs and those without them in programmes of short-term vocational education in five areas: motivation, learning and learning techniques, emotional, social and the area of self-evaluation. The research sample consisted of 140 students from different…