Four students with disabilities enrolled in a secondary transition program located at a community college were interviewed to learn more about their transition experiences. One of the issues they touched on was self-determination. This study is a part of the larger qualitative narrative effort but with a specific focus on exploring participants'…

Members of eight inter-professional teams working in different areas of children's services discussed their thoughts on three types of inter-professional dilemmas. Participants described resolutions to dilemmas in terms of the construction and pursuit of joint goals. However, emergent themes included identity, power, territory and expertise. These…

The authors critique the mechanistic notion of aspirations running through much research and policy-making on educational and vocational outcomes. They present a performative model, with individuals drawing on limited social resources to express aspirations within constrained contexts. This argument is illustrated by discussion of the findings of…

The organized camp experience has been an important part of the lives of children, youth, and adults for over 150 years and is a social institution that touches more lives than any other except for schools. Camp is more than a location or a program; it encompasses the affective, cognitive, behavioral, physical, social, and spiritual benefits that…

Modern American society faces challenges that are much different from those that the early pioneers of American play face. Play deprivation, or lack of play, is the result of children's unwillingness to choose free and spontaneous outdoor play such as that which occurs in parks and other natural settings. A lack of play in natural settings leads…

Mentorship is often considered one of the best ways to develop leadership potential in new library and information professionals. Mentors act as teacher, role model, and cheerleader, but there are potentially serious aspects to mentorships that will negatively impact the protege. Such negatives include mentors sabotaging or taking credit for a…

One seventh-grade English language arts teacher engaged in teacher research in order to become a more understanding, responsive, and confident instructor. Systematic inquiry into her own practice revealed a conflict between what students perceived as their literacy needs and desires (discrete reading skills) with what she perceived to be important…

Current instructional and learning models insist that when teachers prepare lessons for their technology and engineering classes, they must begin with a sense of what students already know. In preparing lessons, many teachers use their years of classroom experience as data to inform them about students' prior knowledge and about student…

In his book "Physical Education Futures" (Routledge, London) David Kirk (2010) introduces the notion of the idea of the idea of physical education, which challenges all physical educators to think more deeply and broadly about physical education as a school subject. The notion of the idea of the idea enables a "big picture"…

Despite huge investment over the past 10 years, improving outcomes for looked-after children remains elusive. A challenge for practitioners, researchers and policy-makers alike has been the absence of a shared conceptual framework for considering and responding to the needs of looked-after children. A second challenge relates to the measurement of…

Accurate marking is crucial to the reliability and validity of public examinations, in England and internationally. Factors contributing to accuracy have been conceptualised as affecting either marking task demands or markers' personal expertise. The aim of this empirical study was to develop this conceptualisation through investigating the…

This research is an investigation into English as a Second Language (ESL) and content area teachers' perceptions of collaboration after they completed a joint professional development program called the Collaborative Teaching Institute (CTI). The overall objective of the study was to identify how CTI and other joint professional development…

This paper uses a mixed-method approach to examine the efficacy of a 5-week distance learning model that offered 2-credit courses for K-12 inservice teachers as a form of professional development. This study examined the experiences of the inservice teachers across online professional development courses and analyzed participant surveys from this…

Dr. Richard J. Whelan is a distinguished professor emeritus at the University of Kansas. His earliest professional experiences were at the Children's Hospital (Southard School) of the Menninger Clinic, where he served as a recreational therapist, teacher, and director of education. During his career at the University of Kansas and the KU Medical…

Immigrant families with children with developmental disabilities must be served using culturally sensitive approaches to service and research to maximize treatment benefits. In an effort to better understand cultural issues relevant to the provision of parenting programs for immigrant Mexican mothers of children with developmental disabilities, we…