The aim of this study was to develop and validate an instrument of inclusive teachers' competencies for teaching students with special educational needs in China. Data were obtained from a preliminary and large-scale investigation in Beijing. The primary analyses included exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The findings…

Objectives: This study investigates the effects of assistive technology on improving communication skills of children with autism. Methods: Twelve children with autism (mean age=8 years) randomly assigned to either experimental groups or a control group (n=4 per group). The study confirmed validity and stability for the language skills scale for…

Background: The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) developed by Council of Europe has been gaining popularity since its publication in 2001, and reshaping the practice in language teaching, learning and assessment not only across the European continent but also in many other places such as Japan (CEFR-J project). Some pioneering work…

The authors explored how thinking styles relate to quality of university life among deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) and hearing university students in mainland China. The first of two studies affirmed the validity and reliability of a modified version of the Quality of University Life Measure (QULM; Sirgy, Grezskowiak, & Rahtz, 2007) among 833…

This study applied the stages of transformative learning to faculty perceptions and application of best practices to online learning. Research questions included: Can transformative learning theory constructs be used to identify potential barriers in faculty development and delivery of online instruction?; How does the stage of transformative…

Teacher praise is an effective classroom management tool. Training teachers to increase their use of praise can improve student disruptive and off-task behavior. The purpose of this article is to examine different characteristics of praise and the training methods used in the literature. Training methods with positive treatment acceptability and…

The aim of this research was to empirically validate constructs for evaluation of teachers' attitudes toward usage of educational software in chemistry teaching. Questionnaire with items transformed from UTAUT (Unified theory of acceptance and use of technology) and other technology acceptance theories were filled in by 556 Czech chemistry…

The number of public school students who are English learners (ELs) has been increasing steadily in the United States. According to a report by Snyder, de Brey, and Dillow (2016), in the 2014-2015 school year, nearly 4.6 million students enrolled in Kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) in U.S. schools were English learners, representing…

A large number of studies document that children differ in the degree they are shaped by their developmental context with some being more sensitive to environmental influences than others. Multiple theories suggest that "Environmental Sensitivity" is a common trait predicting the response to negative as well as positive exposures.…

After considering the relationships between (a) reading fluency and reading rate and (b) reading rate and sight vocabulary, this study addressed a very practical question. Can a cut score on a sight vocabulary task (1-min) predict level of reading fluency 4+ months into the future? The prediction was tested at multiple times point across grades…

Teacher evaluation systems commonly rely on observation of teaching practice (OTP) by school principals. However, the value of OTP as evidence of teacher effectiveness depends on its psychometric quality. In this study, we address a key aspect of the psychometric quality of principals' OTP ratings. Specifically, we investigate the degree to which…

The overarching purpose of our study was to compare performances of treatment and control condition students who completed a literacy-infused, inquiry-based science intervention through sixth grade as measured by a big idea assessment tool which we refer to as the Big Ideas in Science Assessment (BISA). First, we determine the concurrent validity…

This study describes the adaptation and validation of the American Institute for Research (AIR) Self-Determination Scale for use in Norwegian research and education. The study contributes to the field by enabling reliable assessment of self-determination of Norwegian students with intellectual disability. The operational equivalence of the…

Ecological citizenship is a type of citizenship that encourages individuals, communities and organizations as citizens of the world to consider environmental rights and responsibilities. When the literature is examined, it is seen that there are four most emphasized dimensions of ecological citizenship. These are responsibility, sustainability,…

This report presents further validation evidence for the Student Subjective Wellbeing Questionnaire (SSWQ). Analyses conducted with a sample of urban middle-school students (Grades 5-8, N = 335) targeted two limitations from previous validation studies: the lack of convergent validity evidence linking responses to the SSWQ with actual school…