This study examined the effects of a graphic organizer intervention package on the quality and quantity of persuasive writing of three middle school students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The intervention included a 3-day training which consisted of explicit instruction on the components of a persuasive essay, modeling and guided practice…

Writing is critical to success in education, the workplace, and everyday communication yet receives limited attention in the research, particularly the topic of writing instruction in adult education. Adult literacy practitioners frequently lack training in writing instruction and must rely on a confusing array of information, primarily derived…

Background: Education reforms over the last several decades have relied heavily on external assistance to help schools increase capacity for improving outcomes, but investing in sustained outside coaching and support is increasingly difficult with diminishing federal, state, and district resources. One under-investigated possibility for…

Most students with disabilities participate in state assessments with or without accommodations [based on each student's Individualized Education Program (IEP)]. A small number of students with the most severe or profound intellectual disabilities participate in an alternate assessment based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS). Until…

College Enrolment Expansion policies have been implemented in China since 1999. Unfortunately, numbers of qualified teachers and the amount of educational funds input have not caught up with the pace of student intake. Even the curricula taught in colleges are outdated and work practice programmes are inefficient. As a result, new college…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of adapted peer tutoring (APT) on social interactions and early language and literacy skills of pre-school-age children who were English language learners (ELLs). APT was the treatment for this study. Quasi-experimental group comparison design was applied. Two inclusive pre-school classrooms…

In this Reflection on Practice we propose a triple nexus of research, public engagement and teaching that could provide a new pathway for academic developers to enable greater engagement in learning and teaching issues from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) academics. We argue that the public engagement activities demanded…

MemphiSTEP is a five-year STEM Talent Expansion Program (STEP) at the University of Memphis sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The project focuses on retention and persistence to graduation to increase the number of STEM majors and graduates. The project includes a range of student retention programs, including a Summer Mathematics…

This article offers an extract of a qualitative case study focused on collaborative professional development of science teachers in a transformative continuous professional development (TCPD) network, whose aim is the professional development of science teachers with a view to improving praxis. Teacher narratives generated through an iterative…

Although the benefits of experiential learning for students are well documented, such courses are sometimes seen as a professional burden for faculty because they are very labor- and time-intensive endeavors. This paper suggests, however, that the time investment in experiential learning courses can be made more efficient if faculty members treat…

The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of teaching modules designed to enhance the use of critical thinking (CT), evidence-based practice (EBP), and professional writing (PW) skills by graduate students in communication sciences and disorders. Three single-session teaching modules were developed to highlight key features of CT,…

In 2010-2011, the School District of Philadelphia (the District) launched its Renaissance Schools Initiative, a program designed to dramatically improve student achievement in the District's lowest performing schools. Some schools became Promise Academies, based on the federal turnaround model, and remained District-operated neighborhood schools.…

This article reports different ways researchers work with stakeholders in national projects targeted at raising achievement of students. Specifically, New Zealand has a persistent high performance-low equity profile in international tests, with indigenous Maori students and immigrants from the Pacific Islands most at risk of underachievement and…

In this article, I describe two of our field's most notable advancements for students with high-incidence disabilities. The first has been to enhance our knowledge of how to design effective instructional interactions between teachers and students (in both small and large groups) that lead to dramatic increases in student outcomes. The second area…

Despite recent advances in the development of instructional interventions, many students with significant learning problems do not benefit from them. This includes 25% to 50% of students with learning disabilities (LD). In this article, we identify five limitations of current instructional programs that may help to explain students' inadequate…