Educators from a rural school describe the alternative program their school developed to help students who were seriously isolated, anxious, and disengaged--some of whom were falling through the cracks. These students are placed in smaller ELA, math, and science classes (usually with two teachers) so they receive more attention. They also enjoy…

A unit operations laboratory course was significantly modified to be an open-ended problem-based experience with an emphasis on teamwork and communication skills. Students were surveyed to assess gains in engineering self-efficacy as well as to indicate which course structure components were most beneficial to learning. Students showed significant…

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether college students' attitudes toward group work could be influenced by thoughtful group project design. Undergraduate students (N = 123) in a lifespan human development course were assigned to groups and asked to create a smartphone app for a specific life stage. The authors utilized a convergent…

There is limited research that explores the experiences of how behavioural specialists actively involve people with a learning disability and challenging behaviour in the development of their positive behavioural support (PBS) plan. Accordingly, this exploratory research study aimed to explore this little understood area of practice. Methods: The…

This article explores the potential use metacognitive skills learned in computer games to teach mathematics. This study explored the similarities and differences in the learning of metacognitive skills between computer games and mathematics education. A mixed-methods approach was employed in which a quantitative survey (students, n=174) and a…

School emergency management can be addressed through the development of a school emergency operations plan (EOP) that addresses the school safety continuum, including safety, security, emergency management, and preparedness. Planners will address hazards and threats (e.g., wildfire and criminal activity), emergency management functions…

The "CORE Districts" ("CORE") is a nonprofit organization created in 2010, which works to foster collaboration between eight of California's largest districts. In 2018-19, "CORE" provided a range of supports to participating districts including programs to develop continuous improvement capability for district and…

A qualitative investigation was conducted to explore the characteristics of high quality teachers. This study used a phenomenological methodology, enabling the researcher to gather information from a purposeful selection of people directly identified as high quality teachers by their principals. This study employed processes of data collection…

Program managers frequently put staff training near the top of their lists of ongoing challenges. The mix of diverse, complex training needs in many programs means managers may be responsible for orienting new staff, implementing new administrative procedures, or facilitating steps toward long-term program improvement. The greatest underlying…

School based leadership is an increasingly complex task that requires leaders to find ways to spread responsibility throughout organizations to achieve goals. This dissertation research is an exploratory study in the field of sustainability of distributed leadership at Capital High School, a large urban high school. Exploring the sustainability of…

This paper describes some elements of a specific kind of design-based research, cooperative engineering. In the first part of the paper, we argue that cooperative engineering can be analyzed through a joint action framework. We first present some conceptual tools that the Joint Action Theory in Didactics proposes in order to understand didactic…

Non-suicidal self-injury--the deliberate destruction of body tissue without suicidal intent--has become relatively common among U.S. adolescents: 18 percent of school-based youth report self-injuring at least once. The authors give suggestions and vetted resources for how schools can safely address the issue of self-injury, in ways that let…

This article presents two studies aimed at understanding consequences of giving students complete decision-making authority to select team members for a team assignment. Study 1 concludes that students place a high level of importance on cognitively categorizing their classmates as those to approach and avoid when self-selecting teams, and they…

A study involving 32 adult persons who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) and successful in their jobs explored the key factors for their success. The results revealed that, in particular, social and personal competencies (soft skills) are important. These soft skills include self-confidence, patience, interest, motivation, ability to communicate,…

This paper analyses the development of a collaborative relationship between one academic and one educational development professional (EDP). The paper aims to assist academics and EDPs to establish successful long-term collaborations. Improving the success of such collaborations is important because the adoption of technology enabled learning and…