Data from the 2014 National Center on Deaf-Blindness Count show that fewer than 100 infants and toddlers are currently identified with deafblindness across the United States and that identification rates for this population vary greatly from state to state. The author presents a key rationale for timely and accurate identification of early-onset…

Higher education studies as a field of academic research has become more developed and important in Singapore since the 1980s when the city-state placed more emphasis on reforming and restructuring its higher education sector to achieve the status of "Asia's global education hub". The past few decades witnessed a more significant growth…

Home visiting programs are voluntary, family-centered programs that match new and expectant parents with trained professionals who provide ongoing, individualized support during critical points throughout pregnancy and a child's first year(s) of life. By reaching families early in their transition into parenthood, and linking them with needed…

Professional development (PD) is seen by a broad cross-section of stakeholders--teachers, principals, policymakers--as essential for instructional improvement and student learning. And yet, despite deep investments of time and money in its design and implementation, the return on investment and subjective assessments about PD's effectiveness…

Higher Education Professional Associations (HEPAs) play an important role in the development of professionals in the higher education industry. Since the 1990's, many HEPAs globally have engaged in developing international initiatives to meet the growing demands of a rapidly internationalizing higher education industry. The purpose of this study…

One way to facilitate the improvement of instructional practice is to ground professional development activities in teachers' classroom contexts and experiences (Kazemi & Hubbard, 2008; Wilson & Berne, 1999). While most would consider instructional coaching one such activity, the impact of coaching on student achievement (Campbell and…

Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) needs to be incorporated in the language curriculum if educators hope to help students develop an appreciation for the language and culture studied, an awareness of their own culture, and the development of skills that will allow them to be competent, adaptable, communicators. The key question addressed…

The Bible has long been valued and esteemed as the primary text for Christians all over the world. It tells the story of God and of the Christian faith and it provides guidance for Christians on how to live faithfully for Jesus Christ. Thus, one would expect a knowledge and understanding of the Bible to be a high priority--of utmost…

This article is a case study on how the educational technologies unit of the Digital University describes the experience of thinking, creating multimedia contents and training teachers regarding the development of the first MOOC of University of Porto (U.Porto). Upon describing this experience, we focus on the most relevant topics such as how the…

New educational curricula are regularly put into practice worldwide; and the issues related to curriculum design are frequently discussed from a pedagogical perspective. However, the processes involved in preparing a statewide English as a foreign language (EFL) curriculum are rarely elaborated from an inside view. As the experiences of program…

School enrollment is expected to increase over the next decade, and with this increase, schools in the United States have seen an increase in the number of paraprofessionals employed to provide services for special education students. Paraprofessionals are key to providing services and assistance to students with special needs toward their…

The purpose of this study is to present a cross-cultural description of responses to the Adolescent Intermediate Concepts Measure (hereafter the AD-ICM). Since the introduction of the AD-ICM, the measure has been used multiple times in the US, in The Republic of Macedonia, Taiwan, and the UK. Focusing on these data, the proposed paper session…

This study assessed the Christian spiritual health of middle school students attending a private, faith-based school. The results provide evidence of validity and reliability for the survey instrument aiming to measure spiritual health. Two factors of spiritual health emerged from the data through an exploratory factor analysis of survey data: (a)…

This research paper reported the results from research conducted regarding technologically-based reading comprehension programs for students who have intellectual disabilities. It provided evidence-based research and theoretical bases for learning (i.e. Zone of Generativity, Constructivism, Self-Efficacy) on the issue of these students not being…

Over the last decade, video games designed to teach academic content have multiplied. Students can learn about Newtonian physics from a game or prep for entry into the army. An emphasis on the instructionist approach to gaming, however, has overshadowed the constructionist approach, in which students learn by designing their own games themselves.…