To examine how young children learn to read new words, we asked preschoolers (N = 115, mean age 4 years, 8 months) to learn and remember novel spellings that made sense based on letter names (e.g. TZ for "tease") and spellings that were visually distinctive but phonetically inappropriate. Children who were more knowledgeable about letter names…

This study looks at existing aspects of written school violence policies (Codes of Student Conduct) across large, mid-size, and small school districts in Florida. The aim was to provide a clearer picture of how weapons are defined, and the consequences of their possession, use, or display. Two research areas were addressed: (1) What constitutes a…

There are many questions to be asked about the pedagogical practice of questioning. Questions provide insight into what students at any age or grade level already know about a topic, which provides a beginning point for teaching. Questions reveal misconceptions and misunderstandings that must be addressed for teachers to move student thinking…

Within the population of students with disabilities there is a broad range of levels of expenditures. A few students with very high levels of needs can have a serious impact on the budget of an individual school district. The recent IDEA reauthorization allows state-level "local educational agency risk pools" to help distribute the…

Acceptance of claims made in scientific research articles depends on the "stance" authors take and their resources for "appraisal" (Martin and White, http://www.grammatics.com/appraisal). "Stance" has been defined as "the ways authors project themselves into their texts to communicate their relationship to subject matter and the readers",…

In this article, the authors attempt to employ a pedagogical tool, social perspective-taking, as a way to engage their students in the act of critical self-reflection, from a personal and professional point of view. The use of perspective taking devices, especially around issues of diversity (e.g., race, class, gender, ethnicity, and language) is…

This study examined effects of negative versus positive symptom formats on the assessment and subsequent classification of ADHD in children in public schools. Symptoms associated with the disorder based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) were presented to parents and teachers of referred children…

Student interactivity in web-based educational environments has shown to increase academic learning and motivation (Jiang, 1998; Petraglia, 1998). However, instructors often find it difficult to assess the quality of online group dynamics without visual observations of student behaviors. The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of…

Many of the most talented authors and artists of the past and present have shared their thoughts and their gifts with young children through picture books. Many picture books allow young children to explore important ideas and to stretch their minds far beyond rote memorization. Young children absorb knowledge at a very rapid pace. In an age of…

Introduction: The strategies that people use to browse Websites are difficult to analyse and understand: quantitative data can lack information about what a user actually intends to do, while qualitative data tends to be localised and is impractical to gather for large samples. Method: This paper describes a novel approach that combines data from…

This article reports the academic and special education status of 129 graduates of special education preschools at 19 years of age. Participants had been randomly assigned to either direct instruction or mediated learning preschool classrooms. At age 19, their achievement was approximately one standard deviation below average. Consistent with…

This article reviews the emerging literature on developmental relationships and proposes a typology of relationships. Developmental relationships are defined as either formal or informal relationships where an individual takes an active interest in and initiates actions to advance the development of another. The authors focus on five dimensions of…

Translation and cultural adaptation of rating scales are two critical components in testing culturally and/or linguistically heterogeneous populations. Despite the proper use of these scales, challenges typically arise from respondents' language, culture, ratiocination, and characteristics of measurement processes. This study investigated factors…

Two studies were conducted. In study one 100 participants rated 60 occupations on the amount of cognitive/intellectual, physical, sensory-perceptual, and perceptual-motor demands they perceived as required for successful performance in that particular occupation. Results of a cluster analysis determined four clusters of occupations on the basis of…

Tools to support teachers and learning technologists in the creation of effective learning designs are currently in their infancy. This paper describes a metadata model, devised to assist in the conception and design of new learning activities, that has been developed, used and evaluated over a period of three years. The online tool that embodies…