As scholars in the field of gifted education continue to explore ways of improving the educational services provided to gifted and talented students, attention must be paid to the infinite amount of potential that an interdisciplinary theory offers. To this end, the following essay explores the intersections of sociocultural theory and gifted…

We analyzed the content of school-aged children's responses to a countywide in-class essay assignment in which they described what they are thankful for. Accounts were written in November of 2000 (n=152) and 2001 (n=196). We identified the most prominent themes of children's gratitude as well as differences in the themes that emerged before and…

In this article, the author discusses seven critical lessons for navigating a leadership position in higher education. The author focuses on developing a personal means of remaining centered regardless of circumstances or situations as well as building an ethical foundation for one's work. He uses spiraling as a metaphor to describe his own…

This study examined factors that contribute to effectiveness of social work for victims of terrorism, as reflected by a reduction of mental distress and promotion of personal growth in clients. Participants were 148 pairs of social workers and clients. Social workers completed questionnaires that assessed the intervention characteristics (micro-…

As engineers gain experience and become experts in their domain, the structure and content of their knowledge changes. Two studies are presented that examine differences in knowledge representation among freshman and senior engineering students. The first study examines recall of mechanical devices and chunking of components, and the second…

Research indicates that ongoing, high-quality staff development is essential to achieving significant standards-based reform. Currently, the majority of teachers do not regularly participate in staff development practices in the United States. Staff development decisions have traditionally been made by school administrators to meet the needs of…

An important touchstone of distance education has been to contribute to the development of individual learners whatever their life circumstances. The first half of the article provides an overview of this contribution and of the understanding and awareness that has been developed about distance learners in their individual learning contexts. The…

Describes the author's experiences in the evaluation training program at Northwestern University (1978-1980) in a postdoctoral fellowship in methodology and evaluation research. Also discusses the value of the friendships and professional relationships formed at that time. (SLD)

All the articles in this collection share at least three common features. First, they all give a narrative account of a change that took place within an activity system; in this, they follow Vygotsky's (1978) injunction to investigate the history of the system in order to understand its "causal dynamic basis" (p. 62). Second, in so doing, they…

This philosophical essay is inspired by a four-year pedagogical relationship that continues in its altered form today. The main focus of this piece is the transformation of a mentor as an immediate addressee into mentor as a "superaddressee," an influential third listener who oversees observable dialogues. I explore the mutual responsibilities of…

Purpose: This is a comment for all those writers who claim that organizations cannot learn. The author consistently rejects this notion. Rather the author contends that organizations can learn, in at least two different ways. Design/methodology/approach: The author reviews some of the common arguments against organizational learning, and tries to…

Tracking the functional development of specific regions of the prefrontal cortex in children using event-related potentials (ERPs) is challenging for both technical and conceptual reasons. In this paper we outline our strategy for studying frontal lobe development and present preliminary results from children aged 7-17 years and young adults using…

Over a three-semester period in a large undergraduate human development course, students were assigned to 5-7 member groups to work together in preparing for an exam in one of the five content units in the course. Their exam performance was tracked over three units: a baseline unit in which students worked only individually, a unit in which they…

Background: Prospective population-based follow-up study of 120 individuals with autism followed from childhood to adulthood. Methods: Individuals with autism, diagnosed in childhood, were followed prospectively for a period of 13-22 years and re-evaluated at ages 17-40 years. The instruments used at follow-up were the DISCO, WAIS-R, WISC-III,…

Evaluation of client progress is an important topic in communicative disorders research and clinical literature. Goal attainment scaling (GAS) is a technique for evaluating individual progress toward goals. Despite recognition of GAS as a clinical-outcome assessment technique in other clinical professions, the current debate on measuring client…