Mairead Hourigan and Aisling Leavy describe a range of teaching and learning activities focusing on the identification and classification of 2-dimensional shapes. The activities described are useful in highlighting students' misconceptions regarding non-traditioanl and non-prototypical shapes.

Pragmatic competence and its development has been a pivotal issue in ELT in the last two decades. This paper explored pragmatic knowledge incorporation into Iranian EFL textbooks. Three high school English books named "English Book 2," "English Book 3" and "Learning to Read English for Pre-University Students" were…

Research Findings: This study examined the learning effects of collaborative group work under heterogeneous group composition among 5-year-old children, especially in terms of their social skills. To this end, the study utilized an experimental research design wherein 3 groups of differently composed dyads and a group of students who worked alone…

The purpose of this investigation was to develop and initially validate the "Intervention Selection Profile-Social Skills" (ISP-SS), a novel brief social skills assessment method intended for use at Tier 2. Participants included 54 elementary school teachers and their 243 randomly selected students. Teachers rated students on two rating…

The most common tools individuals use to articulate complex and abstract concepts are writing and spoken language, long privileged as primary forms of communication. However, our, explanations of these concepts may be more aptly communicated through visual means, such as drawings. Interpreting and analyzing abstract graphic representations is…

Purpose: The purpose of this article was to evaluate the validity of the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular and Endurance Run (PACER) test in a sample of Hungarian youth. Method: Approximately 500 participants (aged 10-18 years old) were randomly selected across Hungary to complete both laboratory (maximal treadmill protocol) and field assessments…

To identify factors associated with valid Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnoses from electronic sources in large healthcare systems. We examined 1,272 charts from ASD diagnosed youth <18 years old. Expert reviewers classified diagnoses as confirmed, probable, possible, ruled out, or not enough information. A total of 845 were classified with…

Academic values and norms have as a consequence of the wave of European higher education reforms been put under pressure by the increasing expectations and demands of flexibility, entrepreneurialism and accountability. This article examines how these changes affect identity construction processes at department head level in the case of Danish…

As teacher educators in an alternative certification and master's programme, we support Teach For America (TFA) teachers who are developing understandings of learning, teaching, and curriculum while they are already working full-time in classrooms. Using critical discourse analysis, we analysed 109 metaphors for curriculum created by 27 novice TFA…

The present study examined whether perceptual individuation training with other-race faces could reduce preschool children's implicit racial bias. We used an "angry = outgroup" paradigm to measure Chinese children's implicit racial bias against African individuals before and after training. In Experiment 1, children between 4 and 6 years…

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions that Alabama funeral service licensees had towards their academic preparation for entry-level funeral service careers in a professional field that was changing. More specifically, this study identified and examined specific learning objectives within the American Board of Funeral…

This paper features an expanded Web-based "Facilities Performance Indicators (FPI) Report." The purpose of APPA: Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers (APPA's) Facilities Performance Indicators is to provide a representative set of statistics about facilities in educational institutions. "The Facilities Performance…

This qualitative phenomenological research study used narrative inquiry to investigate rural superintendents' experiences with the application of principle-centered leadership in their districts. Ten superintendents from rural districts in east Texas were interviewed. Narratives were analyzed by organizing, describing, classifying, and…

This study evaluates the use of a hierarchical classification approach to automated assessment of essays. Automated essay scoring (AES) generally relies onmachine learning techniques that compute essay scores using a set of text variables. Unlike previous studies that rely on regression models, this study computes essay scores using a hierarchical…

In large scale international assessment studies, questionnaires are typical used to query students' home possessions. Composite scores are computed from responses to the home resource questionnaires and are used as a measure of family socioeconomic background in achievement comparison or for statistical control. This paper deals with profiling the…