To explore the impact of the communication medium on building common ground, this article presents research comparing learner use of reception strategies in traditional face-to-face (FTF) and in synchronous computer-mediated communication (CMC). Reception strategies, such as reprises, hypothesis testing and forward inferencing provide evidence of…

Background/context: Professional development is an important element of professional practice and teachers are expected to engage in activities that not only improve practice but also have a positive impact on pupil learning. Physical educators worldwide have acknowledged the need to improve the continuing education of teachers and have called…

"Personalised learning" and the value of national assessment data in achieving it have been identified by the UK Secretary of State for Education and Skills as essential for raising educational standards. Employing multilevel analysis, this paper compares children's end of primary school (Key Stage 2) test scores with those they achieved…

Last fall, "Science and Children" invited kindergarten to grade eight teachers to participate in a study investigating students' ideas about plants and plant growth (Barman et al. 2002). Two hundred twenty-seven individuals from 16 states in the United States, one U.S. Territory, and one Canadian Province responded to this invitation and…

Personal response systems, better known as "clickers," are all the rage on college and university campuses and are beginning to expand into the K-12 market. Clickers allow students and instructors to interact in a variety of interesting and innovative ways, both in classroom situations and professional development sessions. In this…

Coordinate graphs of time-series data have been significant in the history of statistical graphing and in recent school mathematics curricula. A survey task to construct a graph to represent data about temperature change over time was administered to 133 students in Grades 3, 5, 7, and 9. Four response levels described the degree to which students…

As the context of special education has changed in the last quarter century, the role and work of the IEP team also has evolved. Today, the general education curriculum is central to the educational programs of all students. The expectation that is clearly communicated in federal policies and regulations, such as the No Child Left Behind Act and…

This explanatory sequential mixed-methods study explored how the encoding of text ideas is affected when students with learning disabilities (LD) take notes from Web-based text. In the quantitative phase of the study, 15 students took three kinds of notes--typed, copy and paste, and written--with each kind of notes addressing a different topic.…

The authors' approach to using pattern-centered analyses and longitudinal data addresses how configurations of personal and contextual factors forecast the educational achievement and attainments of different youth across adolescence. Here, they discuss various types of pattern-centered analyses and provide an empirical illustration of how these…

Purpose: When cognitively impaired nursing home residents exhibit agitated and aggressive behaviors during bathing, nursing home caregivers are in a unique position to improve residents' experience. This report addresses whether certified nursing assistants (CNAs) who received training in a person-centered approach with showering and with the…

Strong education and training systems are viewed as a route to increased labour market participation for groups that have traditionally been excluded from, or marginalised in, the labour market. Engagement in the labour force for such groups has both individual and societal benefits. However, while this emphasis on an increased role for the state…

A cognitive/metacognitive framework is presented for analysing applications tasks and responses to these. Conditions facilitating or impeding access to such tasks at the upper secondary level were identified using qualitative data analysis techniques within this framework. Strategies employed in exploiting, or overcoming these conditions were…

The purpose of this paper was to determine what communication skills are considered most important by employers in the accounting profession as well as to determine the general office, income tax, and bookkeeping software packages used by CPA firms in Mississippi. The data was collected by means of an electronic five-point Likert-type survey…

Self-report questionnaires are frequently used in youth research, but doubt remains whether total anonymity affects the results. This study compared the responses of 704 mainly 16-17-year-old adolescents to self-report measures of various health indicators in 2 groups: anonymous and confidential collection. For most health indicators no…

Researchers conducted focus groups in three Minnesota Head Start programs that provide full-day services. The purpose of this descriptive study was to understand how these programs operated, the strengths and challenges of full-day Head Start programs, and how working parents and those on public assistance described these services. Findings…