The authors consider the problem of classifying an unknown observation into 1 of several populations by using tree-structured allocation rules. Although many parametric classification procedures are robust to certain assumption violations, there is need for classification procedures that can be used regardless of the group-conditional…

A previous study shows how a twelve-year-old girl discovers angles in her narrative from a climbing trip. Based on this research, the girl's class takes part in one day of climbing and half a day of follow-up work at school. The students mathematise their climbing with respect to angles and they express themselves in texts and drawings. Their…

Does unexpectedly poor spelling in adults result from inferior visual sequential memory? In one experiment, unexpectedly poor spellers performed significantly worse than better spellers in the immediate reproduction of sequences of visual symbols, but in a second experiment, the effect was not replicated. Poor spellers were also no worse at the…

Teaching mixed methods and action research to graduate students has great advantages but also poses interesting challenges. The purpose of this article is to make transparent the process by which a mixed methods research instructor helped inform a student-researcher of the limitations in a pilot study that was compromised by methodology, including…

In this article, the author explores the idea that reading proficiency in a second language involves comprehending the second culture and using it to interpret the world view of the second language. Using cognitive theory, the author examined the relevance of prior knowledge of Chinese language and idioms to understanding text written in Chinese.…

This qualitative, multi-case study was designed to examine off-campus centers and their administrators in creating an effective learning environment for adult learners. Serving as the conceptual framework, invitational leadership theory is a holistic approach which nurtures the belief that everyone is intrinsically motivated and it is the leaders'…

Developed for users of the Longitudinal Surveys of Australian Youth (LSAY), this user guide consolidates information about the LSAY 2009 cohort into one document. The guide aims to address all aspects of the LSAY data including: how to access the data; data restrictions; variable naming conventions; the structure of the data; documentation;…

Every 20 minutes, another child is diagnosed with autism. Are you ready to meet this growing educational challenge? This authoritative guide for practitioners--early interventionists, teachers, school counselors and psychologists--provides practical strategies for addressing the unique needs of children on the autism spectrum and their families.…

"Going Further" presents a roadmap to the works of the ACCLAIM (Appalachian Collaborative Center for Learning, Assessment, and Instruction in Mathematics) Research Initiative, the research effort of one the Centers for Learning and Teaching (CLTs) created with a grant (2001-2005) from the National Science Foundation. The Center began…

With the implementation of RTI, educators are attempting to find models that are the best fit for their schools. The problem solving and standard protocol models are the two most common. This study of 65 students examines a new model, the dynamic skills protocol implemented in an elementary school starting in their fourth quarter of kindergarten…

Quality of life (QOL) is the underlying goal of all rehabilitation interventions. Researchers and policy makers have proposed that QOL is an important and useful way to measure the impact of services. However, conceptual ambiguity, difficulty with operational definitions and measurement, and the inherent vulnerability to value bias have challenged…

The serious games community is moving toward research focusing on direct comparisons between learning outcomes of serious games and those of more traditional training methods. Such comparisons are difficult, however, due to the lack of a consistent taxonomy of game attributes for serious games. Without a clear understanding of what truly…

Assigning difficulty level indicators to the knowledge units helps the learners plan their learning activities more efficiently. This paper focuses on how to use the topology of a knowledge map to compute and rank the difficulty levels of knowledge units. Firstly, the authors present the hierarchical structure and properties of the knowledge map.…

The relationship between first language (L1) typology, defined as the classification of languages according to their structural characteristics (e.g. phonological systems and writing systems), and the development of second (L2) and third (L3) language skills and literacy proficiency in multilingual children was investigated in this study. The…

Background: Children growing up in poor versus affluent neighborhoods are more likely to spend time in prison, develop health problems and die at an early age. The question of how neighborhood conditions influence our behavior and health has attracted the attention of public health officials and scholars for generations. Online tools are now…