After-school programs offer a superb venue to teach twenty-first century skills. The programs enable students to explore new fields, use new technology, meet real-world challenges, and develop mastery. They create a new civic space in which young people can forge positive relationships with adults, learn the joys of productive work, and be…

In Astronomy 101 at the University of New Mexico, we carried out a repeated-items experiment on quizzes and tests to investigate the impact of cooperative testing. This trial was the only change in a reformed course format that had been refined over previous semesters. Our research questions were: (1) Did cooperative quizzes result in gains for…

Bullying can start in a child's early school years, and this paper initially explains the distinct profile of behaviour and abilities of young children with Asperger Syndrome and why they can be more vulnerable than their peers to being the target of bullying. The paper subsequently describes a range of strategies designed to reduce the frequency…

Purpose: This study investigates the impact of online synchronous audio and video systems on the performance of cooperative learning in decision making and intellective tasks. Design/methodology/approach: In total, 156 subjects, divided into 46 groups, were invited to resolve decision and intellective tasks in text messaging and audio conferencing…

Although much literature exists on desired qualities of team leaders of IT projects and even desired components of the team, there is a paucity of literature on the desired personal qualities of individuals working within team settings. This research set out to empirically investigate the personal qualities which students believe would be…

Since 1990, Vermont legislation has required all schools to establish an Educational Support System (ESS) that provides a comprehensive set of supports and services designed to meet the needs of students with disabilities as well as those at risk of school failure. Given the need to promote the success of an increasingly heterogeneous group of…

Considered a successful university-operated, urban middle school serving an overwhelmingly African American student body, "Charter" Middle School was dechartered suddenly, then merged a year later with students from a neighborhood school to become "Choice" Middle School, a school of choice in the urban district. Using a situated learning framework…

In Calgary, Alberta, Canada, cooperation between families, agencies and health care providers has resulted in services that improve the health and quality of life for individuals with Down syndrome. One of these is the multidisciplinary Down syndrome team at the Alberta Children's Hospital, which provides assessment, treatment and support based on…

The present research refers to the assigning of a hands-on group project to freshman engineering students, evaluating their performance, and deriving conclusions on student benefits and educational advances. The research procedure included action plans for the instructor and the students, instructions to the students on performing the work,…

Online interaction creates a desirable learning situation. Transferring traditional instruction to an online environment usually does not generate effective interaction for learning. This paper discusses theories and practices for an interactive collaborative learning community in an online environment. Three theoretical constructs--interactivity,…

As the sponsors of the Cohort at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia--a program to increase the number of minority male students in Advanced Placement (AP) classes--the authors view their work with the young men in this program as very similar to coaching a team. The Cohort asks these young men to challenge and push themselves; to test…

Eight faculty members from five different campuses across the state of Wisconsin collaboratively taught a seminar course in early childhood special education through distance education technologies. A description of the course development and implementation is provided followed by summaries of the qualitative and quantitative analyses of student…

Program Improvement (PI) and School Assistance and Intervention Teams (SAIT) programs place rigorous, narrowly defined requirements upon monitored schools and districts, with corrective actions typically written as both school-level and district-level interventions. The requirements, known as the Essential Program Components, aim to enable schools…

Critical Friends Groups (CFGs) are vehicles for creating collective intentionality that reaches a shared end: increased opportunity for the disadvantaged to create equality of opportunity. Not that participating in CFGs is the only action educators can take to create moral schools; rather, moral schools reflect the beliefs, ends, and practices…

This study examined the effectiveness of the Self-Directed IEP to teach individualized education program (IEP) meeting skills. One hundred and thirty secondary students were randomly assigned to the treatment or control group. Observations of 130 meetings and 764 IEP team members were performed using 10-s momentary time sampling to determine the…