The Virtual Grand Tour (VGT) is a paradigm for integrating a presentation of an overview of a larger subject with the possibility of launching at any time an exploratory study of a given sub-topic. The name derives from the paradigm's emulation of those 18th-century travels intended to educate (especially) young, affluent British men; today, with…

This paper is part of an investigation into 11-year-old students' interpretations of events in the environment. In particular, we analyse the use of a scale model constructed and manipulated by students when simulating a forest fire. We consider that their explanations involve the interrelation of three levels of organisation: the level at which…

Biology students in their first year at university have difficulty understanding the abstract concepts of photosynthesis. The traditional didactic lecture followed by practical exercises that show various macroscopic aspects of photosynthesis often do not help the students visualise or understand the submicroscopic (molecular-level) reactions that…

Path analysis was used to test theoretical models of relations among variables known to predict differences in children's memory--strategies, capacity, and metamemory. Children in kindergarten to fourth grade (chronological ages 5 to 11) performed different memory tasks. Several strategies (i.e., sorting, clustering, rehearsal, and self-testing)…

With the increasing number of disabled students entering the higher education sector, much research work has focused on the support services arena and the elimination of barriers that the disabled students have encountered. While producing useful advice on meeting the needs of disabled students, this line of research has done little to locate…

The Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) is immersed in an educational system mainly based on master classes, and although graduates benefit from a good preparation, there is an appreciable rate of failure among the students. The UPV is aware of the restructuring requirements of the current system and consequently, and in accordance with the…

In this article, the creator of the transactional model and a colleague give an overview of how the model emerged as well as its principal elements. For most of the 20th century, scientists believed that brain damage was the cause of a child's cognitive, social, or emotional problems. Later, researchers found that babies were likely to have…

In response to Cochran-Smith and Lytle's (1998) call for Other ways of researching and thinking about educational research and the recent call by the US Secretary of Education to reform "teacher-training" programs (Schoicet 2002), this article presents a research study focusing on a reform effort in teacher education. The study moved…

The authors present a rationale for developing core competencies for training and organizational development in extension. Core competencies are defined as "the basic knowledge, attitudes, skills, and observable behaviors that lead to excellence in the workplace." Competency-based models can be used to create an infrastructure that…

This paper develops a rhetorically centered model of community literacy in the theoretical and practical context of local publics--those spaces where ordinary people develop public voices to engage in intercultural inquiry and deliberation. Drawing on fifteen years of action research in the Community Literacy Center and beyond, the authors…

The Ministry of Education (2000) handbook, "Gifted and talented students: Meeting their needs in New Zealand Schools" requires each school to show they are identifying and catering for their gifted and talented students. The terms "gifted" and "talented" represent a range of diverse special abilities rather than…

Background: The purpose of the present study was to test a maternal attachment model of behavior problems in early childhood using phase I data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care, a prospective study of 1,364 children from birth through sixth grade. Methods: Mothers' and caregivers' ratings of children's internalizing and externalizing…

Marriage and family therapy programs need to go beyond the typical practices of recruiting and retaining students of color. Marriage and family therapy educators must assume positions of leadership by transforming graduate programs to reflect a deep, active, systemic commitment to both diversity and social justice. In this article, we argue that…

As universities and colleges have changed, so has the role of faculty. Greater accountability is expected for faculty time and effort. This paper considers faculty roles by the institution preparing new faculty, the institution hiring new faculty, and the new faculty member themselves. All institutions are seeking faculty who are triple threats:…

We examined the mediating role of family dynamics (marital quality, parental depression) in the link between economic pressure and child psychological functioning using the data from the National Survey of Family and Households (NSFH). From the initial multiethnic probability sample, we used a subsample of 2998 parents with a focal child 5 to 17…