A tiger in the arctic. Sunflowers in a coral reef. Would they thrive -- or even survive -- in those ecosystems? Probably not, despite being strong and resilient species. Similarly, even well-designed, evidence-based professional learning must occur in a supportive, rather than endangering, ecosystem to take root and thrive. Ecosystems that support…

Autobiographical remembering develops in childhood. A late-developing cognitive tool is the cultural life script. The present study aimed at exploring the beginnings of its acquisition and at replicating its acquisition in early adolescence in a Southern-European culture. Study 1 established the Portuguese normative adult cultural life script,…

Divergent cultural, religious, and ideological beliefs and practices are often challenging to contemplate and difficult to accept when they conflict with an individual's own convictions and way of life. The recognition that children and adolescents grow up in an increasingly diverse world has led to a general interest in fostering tolerance. In…

Accumulating information and knowledge is a major task of development. A common assumption is that we build our storehouse of world knowledge, our semantic memory, through direct experience. Although direct experience is involved, to explain fully how we know all that we know, we also must consider processes that allow for integration of…

So-called High-Impact Practices (HIPs) are high-impact only when planned and executed thoughtfully, with attention to the relevant literature and the wisdom of experienced practitioners. After decades of experience with most HIPs, and national recognition for several, in 2016, IUPUI (Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis) undertook to…

Across educational settings, leaders in the field are recognizing a need to support students' social-emotional development in order to improve educational outcomes (CASEL, 2020; Collie et al., 2015). Social emotional learning (SEL) is one approach which educational communities can collectively employ to improve students' cognitive, affective, and…

As we grow through leisure education, we tend to manage challenges to leisure and gravitate to positive experiences. These positive encounters transport us toward achieving the ultimate goals of experiencing leisure, being happy, and flourishing. The intention of "Leisure Education Program Planning, fifth edition," is to share…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore professional development from the perspective of instructional leaders to identify if the assumptions of Knowles's (1990) Adult Learning Theory were present in the planning and implementation of continuing education. For the purposes of this research study, professional development was defined…

This dissertation develops a cognitive model describing when children learn to group distinct sound segments (allophones) into abstract equivalence classes (phonemes). The allophones an individual acquires are arbitrary and determined by their particular input, yet are intricately involved in language cognition once learned. The proposed…

My dissertation examined the effect of adaptive prompts in virtual reality (VR) based social skills training on social skills of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In my dissertation, adaptive prompts refer to an instructional technique to enhance social skill performance of children with ASD considering their emotional states. Despite…

The purpose of the current manuscript is to delineate a collaborative professional development effort between Norfolk Public Schools and Old Dominion University--a nascent school-university partnership. Ed Talks were created to build relationships between public school and university faculty, but we have encountered challenges in implementing this…

Ample studies have confirmed that the concepts of Community of Practice and Lesson Study can effectively develop professional development, especially in the design of learning. This positive impact on learners is also evident. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the results that occurred with students who learned from teachers who used…

It is well established that positive youth development (PYD) programs improve adolescent psycho-social wellbeing; however, it remains unclear if PYD programs developed for able-bodied adolescents can be implemented with adolescents with disabilities in low-resource settings. We conducted a pragmatic trial of an evidence-based PYD program…

Caregivers are increasingly recognised as significant in providing naturalistic interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder in high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries including Sri Lanka. It is imperative to assess the impact of programmes targeting desired parenting skills within cultural boundaries. A preliminary…

The COVID-19 pandemic influenced academia in many ways, impacting learners and teachers. This article is authored by six sustainable urban development doctoral researchers from various backgrounds and stages of their journey, and an academic advisor. The article is an outcome of remote collaboration through a substantial period during the…