Many tests used in educational settings to identify learning difficulties endeavour to pick up only the lowest performers. Yet these tests are generally developed within a Classical Test Theory (CTT) paradigm that assumes that data do not have significant skew. Rasch analysis is more tolerant of skew and was used to validate two newly developed…

Persons with special needs have innate abilities and when properly harnessed through proper education would be able to contribute ultimately to their development as well as that of the society they reside in terms of political, social, economic and technological development. Before such group of persons can be properly educated there is the dire…

As a pedagogical approach, problem-based learning (PBL) has shown success for average and gifted students (HmeloSiver, 2004) and there are numerous incentives for its implementation in online learning environments (Savid-Baden, 2007; Chernobilsky, Nagarajan, & Hmelo-Silver, 2005). However, little research has been conducted regarding the…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the use of Readers' Theatre to improve the reading ability of elementary students receiving special education services. In this study, two groups of students were chosen to participate based on their academic Reading levels and their placement in the Special Education program. The students'…

Students with specific learning disabilities (SLD), such as emotional disturbances, and speech or language impairment, attending high schools located in the rural Mississippi Delta lack media literacy skills that could impact the student's ability to successfully graduate from high school. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to identify…

One of the most efficient ways in helping the students improve their academic outcomes is by giving them the time and the instruments they need to develop their metacognitive skills when learning. Journals can help the students identify the strategies they used or the way they may use it and subsequently appraise their efficiency. Building-up a…

The purpose of this study was to compare severity and risk status for anxiety and depression with coping skills among 130 Mexican school children with learning disabilities (LD) and 130 school children without LD. This research is the first to explore the emotional difficulties of Mexican children with LD. Children completed the Spanish version of…

This study was an examination of the extent to which sixth- and seventh-grade mathematics textbooks incorporated recommended instructional practices for students with learning disabilities to help develop representational ability. Results indicated that the textbooks (a) provided very little explicit instructional information about representations…

The field associated with educating students with gifts and talents has grappled for years with issues associated with locating and appropriately serving diverse students. As our schools have become more diverse, educators have struggled to effectively deal with the diversity of student backgrounds. Consequently, diversity among the gifted child…

The purpose of this study was to explore the academic achievement for students with learning disabilities in reading and how to determine if their rate of progress was different from non-disabled students in a sixth-grade language arts inclusion class. The data for this research was gathered from one school district with one middle school. The…

The purpose of this quantitative survey study was to determine the influence of attitudes toward students with disabilities and counselor self-efficacy on school counselors' perceptions of preparedness to provide services to students with learning disabilities using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB; Ajzen, 1985). One hundred and sixteen…

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) are one of the most underserved populations in today's schools (Kauffman, Mock, & Simpson, 2011). Many of these students also have additional disabilities in conjunction with an EBD identification, such as Learning Disabilities (LD), Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Attention Deficit…

When providing effective reading and writing instruction, teachers need to provide explicit modeling. Modeling is particularly important when teaching students to use cognitive learning strategies. Examples of how teachers can provide specific, explicit, and flexible instructional modeling is presented in the context of two evidence-based…

Some psychology students achieve high grades in all classes except for research methods (RM). Previous research has usually treated low levels of achievement in RM as a unitary phenomenon, without reference to the grades the student is achieving in other subjects. The present internet survey explored preferences for learning RM in 140 psychology…

Jim Blair is the only consultant nurse working with people with learning disabilities in the country. His job helps make people better and saves money. This article shares a conversation with Jim Blair. In the conversation, Blair says he is unhappy Valuing People programme did not do as much as it could have done. Jim is worried all the changes,…