This study examined the developmental trend of pretend play behaviour and the effect of partner's gender in Singaporean preschoolers. Peer dyadic play among 70 children, ranging in age from three to five years, was observed in a standardised toy play context. Videotaped recordings of the play were analysed using two scales--the Smilansky Scale for…

Distinguishing characteristics of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are deficits in social communication and interaction. Point-of-view video modeling has the potential to address these deficits. Therefore, the literature review investigated research targeting social skills through the application of point-of-view video modeling.…

Virtual environments have the potential to be an important teaching tool for emotionally sensitive issues capable of producing a sense of presence, perspective-taking and introspection in users in a risk-free, rapid feedback experience. In designing such experiences, it is essential that users are regularly engaged in a collaborative design…

In the current study, we assessed character strengths in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD, n = 32) and neurotypical controls (n = 32) using the Values in Action Inventory (VIA-IS, Peterson and Seligman 2004) and explored associations with levels of satisfaction with life (SWL). The most frequently endorsed signature strengths (i.e.,…

The oral re-telling of traditional tales, modelled by a storyteller and taught to children in school, can be understood as 'non-instrumental' practice in speaking and listening that emphasises oral language over the reading and writing of stories. While oral storytelling has significant benefits to children's education and development, it is…

In this paper, we utilize practitioner research to consider what happened in two literacy methods courses when we positioned students as human beings in the present rather than solely as future teachers. We first situate our work within the current sociopolitical context of the U.S., making the argument that critical literacy education is more…

For success in school and in life, students need more than academic proficiency and good test scores. Author Tom Hoerr shows how to foster the "Formative Five" attributes that today's students need: (1) Empathy: learning to see the world through others' perspectives. (2) Self control: cultivating the abilities to focus and delay self…

In many situations people need to mentally adopt the (spatial) perspective of other persons, an ability that is referred to as "Level 2 perspective taking." Its underlying processes have been ascribed to mental self-rotation that can be dissociated from mental object-rotation. Recent findings suggest that perspective taking/self-rotation…

There is a growing body of evidence showing that conversational implicatures are rapidly accessed in incremental utterance interpretation. To date, studies showing incremental access have focussed on implicatures related to linguistic triggers, such as "some" and "or". We discuss three kinds of on-line model that can account for this data. A model…

Critical consciousness refers to the ways in which individuals come to understand and challenge oppressive social forces. Philosopher-educator Paulo Freire argued that critical curiosity--an eagerness to learn more about and develop a deep understanding of issues of social justice--serves as an important catalyst to critical consciousness…

The role of empathy in the teaching profession has been vastly investigated in relation to its effect on students, but research on how teachers' empathy affects their own well-being at work is limited. This study investigated empathy and instructional assignment-related stress factors of primary school teachers serving in general or special…

This study examined the extent to which inclusion of diverse perspectives in the classroom contributed to the variation in thriving among first-year students of color at a midsize university on the West Coast. Student thriving was defined as academic, interpersonal, and psychological engagement and well being. The results indicated that presenting…

While it's acknowledged that some children demonstrate giftedness in leadership and social domains, it's still one area often overlooked by educators and parents. Literature on leadership has been geared mostly toward adults, not children. What does exist for student leadership has been typically organized around situations that focus on adapting…

Background: Global learning outcomes (GLOs) are increasingly emphasized within higher education because of the advantages they provide in navigating globalized contexts. The process of global learning may be understood through Mezirow's theory of transformational learning, in which presentation of dissonant information results in more open,…

Narrative skills are fundamental and indispensable in business in the twenty-first century. The ability to devise, craft, and deliver a successful narrative is not only a pre-requisite for any Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or senior executive, but is also increasingly becoming necessary for employees in any organisation. This ground-breaking…