The current study sought to evaluate the suicide prevention gatekeeper training program QPR (Question, Persuade, and Refer) among school personnel using a non-equivalent control group design. Substantial gains were demonstrated from pre- to post-test for attitudes, knowledge, and beliefs regarding suicide and suicide prevention. Exploratory…

As a primary educator, I have witnessed the impact literature can have on a child's life. Unfortunately, in our society children are exposed to a much higher level of violence, instability, and death than in previous years. To assist children through these difficult times, it is best to provide them with an outlet of expression. "Bibliotherapy",…

Effective criterion referenced assessment requires grade descriptors to clarify to students what skills are required to gain higher grades. But do students and staff actually have the same perception of the grading system, and if so, do they perform better than those whose perceptions are less accurately aligned with those of staff? Since…

With midlife career transitions becoming more common, and colleges and universities needing to replace retiring faculty members, more professionals who have attained doctoral degrees may be transitioning to a second career in the academy. While their practitioner-based knowledge and leadership skills might be welcomed, especially in applied degree…

Focusing primarily on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), this article reviews evidence regarding the roles of subregions of the medial temporal lobes, prefrontal cortex, posterior representational areas, and parietal cortex in source memory. In addition to evidence from standard episodic memory tasks assessing accuracy for neutral…

Designers of interactive learning environments face the issue of managing the learner's cognitive load, reducing irrelevant sources while optimizing useful sources of load. I propose a conceptual framework aimed at organizing the contributions of the papers presented in this special issue. The framework identifies three main dimensions, namely…

Two experiments are reported that investigated the relative effectiveness of a realistic dynamic visualization as opposed to a schematic visualization for learning about cell replication (mitosis). In Experiment 1, 37 university students watched either realistic or schematic visualizations. Students' subjective task demands ratings as well as…

A sample of 1060 Malaysian children were surveyed in order to examine differences in their motivation to study music in school and to learn a musical instrument outside of school. Adopting the expectancy-value motivation theory, the children were asked questions concerning their perception of music as being important, useful, interesting,…

This study contributes to research investigating the effects of individual differences and online instructional design on learning. Learning performance was compared across three hypertext formats incorporating different navigational aids. The hierarchical map represented the physical structure of the hypertext in one condition, while the network…

Many institutions are responding to current research about how students learn science by transforming their general chemistry laboratory curricula to be inquiry-oriented. We present a comparison study of student performance after completing either a traditional or an inquiry stoichiometry experiment. This single laboratory experience was the only…

Young Canadian boys and girls aged nine to eleven were asked to consider their personal futures, the future of their community and the future of the world. Mixed methods were employed for data collection and analysis. Responses were compared with those given by children in eight countries and the discussion focused on the importance prior…

Despite ample evidence of the relative financial illiteracy of students in college, personal finance education remains inconsistent across postsecondary institutions in the United States. Moreover, existing programs and services related to personal finance education have had modest success in attracting student interest and participation. To…

This dissertation is comprised of two manuscripts that resulted from a single study that tested the efficacy of teaching parents how to infuse comprehension strategy instruction into read alouds with their preschool-aged children. Twenty dyads, each composed of an incoming kindergartener and one of his or her parents, participated in this study.…

The early childhood practicum course is the venue through which college students synthesize prior learning about developmentally appropriate teaching practices and apply it in supervised fieldwork settings. Prior research identifies that while this course has a central place in the preparation of teachers, there are acknowledged gaps of…

The purpose of this mixed method study is to examine what new principals say they learned and the sources of the learning that inform their thoughts and actions as instructional leaders. The research questions proposed for this study emphasize who (new principals), what (their espoused theories and theories in use as instructional leaders based on…