This study examined the use of the Apple iPad for learning by children with developmental disabilities (DD), including those on the autism spectrum. A single case design was used to record the participation of four students with DD when taught with their standard computer at baseline, followed by the introduction of the iPad. A six-component…

Conversation is a strategy that helps students build reading skills and improve reading comprehension. This study describes the implementation of connection prompts in a 2nd-grade classroom to support students in making predictions, questioning the text, and initiating further conversation. Research suggests that once conversation is initiated,…

Background: Traditionally, special educational needs (SEN) were often defined in terms of child deficits. Recently, there has been a tendency to define SEN in terms of (additional) support needed in the classroom. However, little is known about how teachers define students with special educational needs. To close this gap, characteristics of…

Most previous work examining co-speech gestures (the spontaneous bodily movements and configurations we engage in during speaking) has emphasized the importance of their most "salient" or energetically expressive moments, known as gesture "strokes" (Kendon 1980). In contrast, in this dissertation I explore the potential functions of intervals of…

The relation between reading for pleasure, night-sky watching interest, and openness to experience were examined in a sample of 129 college students. Results of a path analysis examining a mediation model indicated that the influence of night-sky interest on reading for pleasure was not mediated by the broad personality domain openness to…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the intended allocation of social studies time based on written timetables provided by elementary classroom teachers to students completing practicum requirements in a teacher education program. The timetables specify how time is prioritized for academic learning time as well as non-academic activities. The…

Top-ranked items were identified during 30-min free-operant preference assessments for 9 individuals. Data from each session were analyzed to identify the item (a) that was engaged with first in each session and (b) to which the most responding was allocated after 5 min, 10 min, 15 min, 20 min, and 25 min had elapsed in each session. The results…

Over the past 18 years, a number of large scale reviews of the literature have documented that gender differences in computer attitudes, ability, and use tend to favor males. Since the use of laptops in higher education classrooms is increasing, it is important to examine whether this use is disproportionally advantageous to males and…

Economists Philip Babcock and Mindy Marks recently assembled time-series survey data on college student time use from a number of sources spanning four decades. Their study, titled "The Falling Time Cost of College: Evidence from a Half Century of Time Use Data," will appear in a forthcoming issue of the "Review of Economics and…

Key characteristics of autism include differences in communication, social interaction, and restricted or repetitive activities and interests (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Because of these differences, active engagement is challenging for many young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, such engagement in a variety of…

This study sought to systematically examine the academic behavior of children with ADHD in different instructional contexts in an analogue classroom setting. A total of 33 children with ADHD participated in a reading comprehension activity followed by a testing period and were randomly assigned within days to either small-group instruction,…

There is great concern by teachers, school administrators and parents regarding the increase in the number of preschool-aged students who exhibit challenging behavior in early childhood settings (Benedict, Horner & Squires 2007), need for early intervention procedures that focus on young children who may be at risk for developing patterns of…

This article presents a pedagogical framework for interpreting and discussing texts with others, ""havruta" inspired pedagogy." The framework is comprised of three overlapping domains: structures, stance and practices. We illustrate each domain through teachers' words and classroom practices, depicting how teachers in one context work within these…

This project explored a newly developed computer-based voice input, speech output (VISO) calculator. Three high school students with visual impairments educated at a state school for the blind and visually impaired participated in the study. The time they took to complete assessments and the average number of attempts per problem were recorded…

At a time when the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and partner countries are trying to figure out how to reduce burgeoning debt and make the most of shrinking public budgets, spending on education is an obvious target for scrutiny. Education officials, teachers, policy makers, parents and students struggle to determine…