We describe a perceptual experiment that we have successfully used in Research Methods classes. Students attempt to identify a series of simple cookie cutter shapes using only the fingers and hands (haptic perception). Students read archival studies that have used this procedure, identify confounds, generate and test alternate hypotheses, and…

Nothing interests middle schoolers more than themselves, so a project that has them investigating their own names proves to be motivation for research, interviews, and writing. In the process, students find a reason to care about organization, writing conventions, writing style, and personal reflection. (Contains 9 resources.)

This article discusses the current issues involved in the evaluation of children who have both intellectual gifts and a specific learning disability (SLD) in reading. Given recent changes in federal special education law (i.e., the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004), the use of a unified assessment model that…

The various forces, various branches of the federal government in confusing and conflicting ways that have constructed and influenced the Hispanic identity and educational status are suggested. Hispanics are a significant percentage of the United States of America's population and are becoming a greater percentage everyday.

This article further specifies the relationship between church-based resources, group identification and political activism among black Americans. Previous research indicates that political communication within churches and activism within the church serve to motivate political participation. Our research suggests that, net of relevant controls,…

Identification of children with developmental disabilities is the first critical step in providing early intervention services. Currently, only 20% of Taiwanese children who could potentially benefit from early intervention have been identified. One possible reason for this low identification rate is the lack of a culturally appropriate,…

This article delineates the results of 7 gifted program evaluation studies conducted in 20 different school districts and places them in the context of major areas for gifted program improvement. The author suggests that the field of gifted education may be vulnerable to losing its infrastructure at local levels if enhanced program development in…

The concept of capacity, its ethical mandates, and a rationale for the assessment of capacity to execute a health care proxy was discussed. Special New York State regulations, relevant to the execution of a health care proxy by persons who have mental retardation, were reviewed, discussed, and compared with regulations in some other jurisdictions.…

The authors proposed that racial and gender identities were related to ego identities based on common themes that exist across these different dimensions of identity. A sample of 300 White college students completed the White Racial Identity Attitude Scale (Helms & Carter, 199), the Womanliest Identity Attitude Scale (Ossana, Helms, &…

In a sample of 434 university freshmen, Sense of Identity was found to be positively related to GPA, even controlling for the Big Five personality traits of Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, Extraversion, and Openness. Similar correlations were found for racial and gender subgroups. When all study variables entered a stepwise…

Achievement goal theory and the expectancy-value model of achievement choice were used to examine fourth-grade students' motivational changes in an elementary physical education running program. In fall and spring of the school year, participants (N = 113; 66 boys, 47 girls) completed questionnaires assessing achievement goals, expectancy beliefs,…

A model of identity formation comprising four structural dimensions (Commitment Making, Identification with Commitment, Exploration in Depth, and Exploration in Breadth) was developed through confirmatory factor analysis. In a sample of 565 emerging adults, this model provided a better fit than did alternative two- and three-dimensional models,…

Configural visual abilities in thirteen children with Williams syndrome (WS) compared to 13 children matched on mental age and 13 children matched on chronological age. Configural abilities were tested through four tasks (1) Silhouette (2) Fragmented (3) Mooney and (4) overlapping figures. In the first three tasks, it was necessary to take into…

Many educational researchers writing on the subject of identity and the issues of marginality in the educational setting (see, for example, Paechter, 1998; Osler, 1997; Troyna, 1994; Gaine and George, 1999) have pointed out that in the educational context there is a multiplicity of "Others" that are marginalised and stigmatised because…

Most people spend all year looking forward to the time of holidays and the celebration and reflection it brings. Although family traditions abound with hearty food and holiday cheer, the holidays can also be stressful for parents of children who have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In this article, the author provides several tips…