In face-to-face surveys, interviewer observations are a cost-effective source of paradata for nonresponse adjustment of survey estimates and responsive survey designs. Unfortunately, recent studies have suggested that the accuracy of these observations can vary substantially among interviewers, even after controlling for household-, area-, and…

We present the results of a study that explored the emotions experienced by students during interaction with an educational game for math (Heroes of Math Island). Starting from emotion frameworks in affective computing and education, we considered a larger set of emotions than in related research. For emotion labeling, we started from a standard…

There has been a steady interest in investigating the validity of language tests in the last decades. Despite numerous studies on construct validity in language testing, there are not many studies examining the construct validity of a reading test. This paper reports on a study that explored the construct validity of the English reading test in…

Beginning with the 2010-2011 school year the North Carolina State Board of Education (SBE) mandated the use of the North Carolina Teacher Evaluation Process (Evaluation Process) for use in all public school systems in the state to conduct teacher observations and evaluations. The Evaluation Process replaced the Teacher Performance Appraisal…

New teacher evaluation systems have emerged as the cornerstone of the recent movement to improve public school teaching. Fueled by incentives from the federal government, state and local policymakers have sought to replace the often-cursory evaluation models of the past with more comprehensive ones. In contrast to past evaluations, which often…

Functional assessment and functional analysis are processes that have been applied successfully in work with people who have developmental disabilities, but they have been used rarely with students who experience emotional or behavioral disorders. In the present study, five students in elementary school programs for severe emotional disturbance…

Positive Behaviour Intervention and Support (PBIS) is an evidence-based approach that has been proven to be effective in remediating problem behaviours in children. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the family-centred PBIS approach when involving Taiwanese families in the treatment of off-task and non-compliant…

Parents teach their children through informal social interactions in a process known as guided participation (Rogoff, 1990). Although most research focuses on parent-child dyads, young children also learn from older siblings and parents through shared participation in daily activities. Utilizing a structured observational design, the authors…

The overall aim of this study was to assess the diversity of primary school children's physical activity (PA) during outdoor recess. The study was grounded in a mixed method approach, assisting in the identification of multifaceted predictors of children's PA, including insights to social behaviours during break time. Data were obtained from…

The purpose of this study was to test the reliability and validity of the Inclusive Classroom Profile (ICP), an observation measure designed to assess the quality of classroom practices in inclusive preschool programs. The measure was field tested in 51 inclusive classrooms. Results confirmed and extended previous research findings, providing…

This study examined the feasibility and effectiveness of a comprehensive function-based intervention applied across multiple inclusive classroom settings. The participant was a middle school student diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome who exhibited chronic off-task behaviors across all academic environments. This study was conducted across two…

It is common to use questionnaires and interviews to assess the emotions of staff who serve clients with intellectual disabilities. Remarkably, observations of actual staff behaviour and assessments of nonverbal expressions are usually not involved. In the present study, we have made a first start in the development of an observation instrument…

Opportunities to respond (OTR) and specific praise are two practices that may be particularly beneficial to students learning in secondary inclusive classrooms. Yet, there is relatively little research on effective inclusion practices involving secondary students with learning disabilities (LD) or studies at the secondary level. This study sought…

The qualifications of the educators who teach children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) may affect the outputs of the education. Qualified educators play an important role in skill development. Therefore, educators need to have special qualifications. Within this scope, it is important to organize well-designed training programs for the…

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of the special educator within a response-to-intervention (RTI) framework and to examine what instructional behaviors special educators evidence most frequently in the advanced RTI tiers (i.e., tiers beyond tier 1). Specifically, these two issues were investigated with regard to: (a) proportion of…