Background: Obese and overweight children are often cast as being lazy or unmotivated in regards to participation in physical activity. Purpose: Based on the social cognitive principle of triadic reciprocality, this pilot study was designed to examine the impact of a mastery motivational climate on overweight and obese children's commitment to,…

This paper extends the research on the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework of understanding features of successful online learning to include the effects of the software used to support and facilitate it. This study examines how the Learning Management System (LMS) affords people the ability to take actions in an online course. A model is…

This study details the experiences from a pilot program aimed at virtually pairing pre-service teacher education candidates with fifth-grade students for the purposes of raising achievement and creating meaningful field experiences. Researchers paired the difficulties of traditional field experiences with the difficulties in vocabulary…

Purpose: This paper aims to report on a pilot research project designed to explore if new mobile augmented reality (AR) technologies have the potential to enhance the learning of clinical skills in the lab. Design/methodology/approach: An exploratory action-research-based pilot study was undertaken to explore an initial proof-of-concept design in…

In this paper we introduce and investigate the capacity for a novel, technologically advanced system (goACT) to enhance face-to-face psychotherapy. Specifically, we explore the capacity for goACT to enhance therapeutic alliance (TA) and engagement, and reduce distress. Using a mixed-methods, multiple-baseline design we present the first study to…

The current study describes the development and construct validation of a situational judgment test for assessing the strategic knowledge of classroom management in elementary schools. Classroom scenarios and accompanying courses of action were constructed, of which 17 experts confirmed the content validity. A pilot study and a cross-validation…

In the current study, the audiotapes from three hostage-taking situations were analyzed. Hostage negotiator requests to the hostage taker were characterized as either high or low probability. The results suggested that hostage-taker compliance to a hostage negotiator's low-probability request was more likely when a series of complied-with…

Negative representations of parts of our cities are endemic in the Australian media, where certain suburbs function as motifs for failure--past, present, and future. Indeed, as one journalist put it after invoking the "interchangeable" triumvirate of Sydney's Mount Druitt, Melbourne's West Heidelberg, and Brisbane's Inala, "geography is destiny"…

SchoolJam, a popular teen musicians' showcase in Texas that provides recognition for young performers as well as funding for their school music programs, is about to go nationwide. The competition, which NAMM, the International Music Products Association, brought to the United States from Germany in 2007, allows groups of musicians age 13 to 18 to…

The overarching goal of working through the CMGS Method (Case Method with Guest Speakers) in Sales Management courses is to provide Business and marketing learners with practical knowledge about how a sales manager can deal with a wide variety of possible professional scenarios. Even when the case method itself is an excellent way to equip…

Children from low-income backgrounds demonstrate poorer school readiness skills than their higher-income peers. The Kids In Transition to School (KITS) Program was developed to increase early literacy, social, and self-regulatory skills among children with inadequate school readiness. In the present study, 39 families participated in a pilot…

The purpose of this study was to measure music teachers' attitudes toward transgender individuals and toward school practices that support transgender students. Participants (N = 612) included men and women who teach a variety of music subjects in elementary, middle, and high schools, in urban, suburban, and rural areas. An online questionnaire…

In January 2009 the School of Education, University of Western Sydney decided to appoint an e-learning officer with the aim of improving the quality of online learning environments across course units. The e-learning officer had built a strong relationship with 45 academics across two campuses, with a positive impact on the application of…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), signed into law in December 2015, is the latest reauthorization of one of the most influential pieces of federal education legislation, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The law had not been reauthorized since 2001 when the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was signed, and ESSA is the result of…

This paper reports the results of interrater agreement analyses on a pilot special education teacher evaluation instrument, the Recognizing Effective Special Education Teachers (RESET) Observation Tool (OT). Using evidence-based instructional practices as the basis for the evaluation, the RESET OT is designed for the spectrum of different…