Background: A music education program with a goal of enhancing cognitive development of preschool-aged children enrolled in local preschools is evaluated by The Evaluation Center at Western Michigan University. The budget for the evaluation was small, and therefore presented several challenges to the evaluation team. Purpose: Through a case study…

Pedagogically, the term "bottleneck" refers to a moment when students may face barriers to understanding content in the process of learning. As instructors identify "bottlenecks" within their courses, they are faced with the challenge of how to best assist students in overcoming them. Further, most instructors want to know what selected teaching…

Cultural diversity in the US includes race, ethnicity, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion, and other aspects of culture. American ethnic and racial minorities currently account for 31% of the US population, and growing. Their career development issues include the barriers they regularly encounter, such as discrimination;…

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the experiences of new users of Second Life in order to identify potential barriers and attractors to the expansion of the userbase and therefore the market for in-world information services. Design/methodology/approach: A multi-faceted methodological approach was taken utilising two questionnaires (pre- and…

In the arena of educational testing, accessibility refers to the degree to which students are given the opportunity to participate in and engage a test. Accessibility theory is a model for examining the interactions between the test-taker and the test itself and defining how they may decrease some students' access to the test event, ultimately…

Background: Hong Kong is currently a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. It has autonomy over many policy areas, including finance and education. It is a community of seven million people, which has changed its focus and identity significantly over the last 25 years, from predominantly manufacturing to a service and…

A survey was done of instructors at two satellite campuses located at a distance from the main campus of the University of Lethbridge in order to ascertain both utilization and awareness of library resources and services. Results were enlightening, indicating that lack of awareness and communication is one of the biggest obstacles for these…

Response to intervention (RTI) is advocated in elementary school as a system-wide, multitiered model of academic and behavioral interventions. Middle schools have begun adopting RTI models based on these existing elementary models. This investigation into current middle school RTI practices describes technical aspects as well as some of cultural…

The funding of higher education in South Africa has in the recent past been a subject of animated debate. This debate has ranged from the adequacy of government funding of higher education, the suitability of the funding framework, to protestations against frequent tuition fee increases. At present, the debate is mainly about "free"…

Learners with low vision can be trained to increase their visual functioning through a planned programme of visual experiences. Such a low vision training programme was introduced in Kenya in 1994. However, despite its implementation over the last 15 years, challenges still persist among teachers who work with such learners. The purpose of this…

Children with disabilities face more barriers accessing preventive health services. Prior research has documented disparities in the receipt of these services. However, most are limited to specific types of disability or care. This study investigates disparities in the use of preventive health care among children with disabilities in Taiwan. Three…

Despite the heavy investments in the economic development of East German industry, the region still faces immanent structural challenges that affect the provision of vocational education and training (VET), in particular apprenticeships, and the availability of a well skilled workforce. In this article the situation of the economy as well as new…

This article reviews research on primary physical education (PE). In primary schools around the world PE is taught by the classroom teacher rather than by a PE specialist. Most classroom teachers feel poorly prepared to teach PE programmes that are meaningful to pupils and provide the types of experiences that lead to lifelong participation. This…

In the past few years, Africa has joined the rest of the world as an active participant in the Open Educational Resource (OER) movement with a number of home-grown and externally driven initiatives. These have the potential to make an immense contribution to teaching and learning in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). However, certain barriers prevent full…

As creativity is likely to become a crucial aspect of living in the future, it is important for educators to teach students to think creatively when solving constantly evolving and increasingly complex problems. Supported by the idea that creativity can be taught and learnt, elements of creativity are now embedded in secondary school education.…