Can success rates in a gateway course be improved by linking it to a college success course? This article describes the results of a pilot study that linked a first-year biology course that had a high drop-out and failure rate to a college success course that included study skills. The proposal to link courses came from the work of a faculty…

This study details the experiences from a pilot program aimed at virtually pairing pre-service teacher education candidates with fifth-grade students for the purposes of raising achievement and creating meaningful field experiences. Researchers paired the difficulties of traditional field experiences with the difficulties in vocabulary…

Children from low-income backgrounds demonstrate poorer school readiness skills than their higher-income peers. The Kids In Transition to School (KITS) Program was developed to increase early literacy, social, and self-regulatory skills among children with inadequate school readiness. In the present study, 39 families participated in a pilot…

In January 2009 the School of Education, University of Western Sydney decided to appoint an e-learning officer with the aim of improving the quality of online learning environments across course units. The e-learning officer had built a strong relationship with 45 academics across two campuses, with a positive impact on the application of…

A quality improvement system (QIS) is an intentional effort to raise the quality of afterschool programming in an ongoing, organized fashion. There are a number of reasons the QIS is gaining popularity. The main reasons community leaders are drawn to improving quality is that they know that 1) higher quality programs will mean better experiences…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate online problem-based learning (PBL) as a route to achieving sustainability education using sponsored projects. Design/methodology/approach: The Royal Academy of Engineering sponsored project at Manchester; to foster education in sustainability through inter-disciplinary problem-based approaches,…

The purpose of this paper is to describe a pilot program (i.e., Internet-Based Parent-Implemented Communication Strategies [i-PiCS] program) that provides long-distance training and coaching via the Internet to parents of young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The i-PiCS program is designed to teach parents how to use evidence-based…

Systematic evaluation is an essential tool for understanding program effectiveness. This article describes the pilot test of a statewide evaluation tool for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education (SNAP-Ed). A computer algorithm helped Community Nutrition Educators (CNEs) build surveys specific to their varied educational settings…

Constructionism places an emphasis on the process of constructing shareable artefacts. Many virtual worlds, such as "Second Life", provide learners with tools for the construction of objects and hence may facilitate in-world constructionist learning experiences. However, the construction tools available present learners with a significant barrier…

Introduction: The pilot study reported here determined the effectiveness of a multidisciplinary group rehabilitation program, Visually Impaired Elderly Persons Participating (VIPP), on psychosocial functioning. Methods: The single-group pretest-posttest pilot study included 29 persons with visual impairments (aged 55 and older) who were referred…

We evaluated the efficacy of a mindful parenting program for changing parents' mindfulness, child management practices, and relationships with their early adolescent youth and tested whether changes in parents' mindfulness mediated changes in other domains. We conducted a pilot randomized trial with 65 families and tested an adapted version of the…

Originated from Mentor, a wise counselor to Ulysses and then teacher and protector to Ulysses' son Telemachus in Homer's Odyssey, the word mentoring now means teacher, advisor, sponsor and role model (Jacobi, 1991). The mentoring literature now characterizes this type of mentoring as informal or traditional mentoring that has been found to be very…

The authors report on the implementation of an enrichment programme titled "Mathematics in the Workplace" for mathematically talented students, aged 8 to 12 years, who were studying in Primary 3 to Primary 6 classes in Hong Kong. The aim of the pilot programme was to enable gifted learners to make connections between mathematics and its…

The complexities associated with living and learning in a rapidly changing world impact on children's play, learning, wellbeing and resilience. Evidence suggests that parent education and parent-teacher partnerships in the early years can support positive outcomes for young children and their families. This paper provides an overview of a pilot…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe activities used to initiate health promotion in the school setting. Design/Methodology/Approach: Description of successful pilot Health Promoting School (HPS) initiatives in Canada and Uganda and the validated measures central to each program. Evaluation methodologies: quantitative data from the…