This article presents the results of research conducted at the first place where autism was diagnosed in China, the Nanjing Child Mental Health Research Center. The purpose was to examine the development of service provision for children with autism in this state-run medical institution. Specifically, the specific intervention model for autism,…

Evaluating the psychometric properties of the indicators that comprise the Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale-Revised (ECERS-R) language-reasoning scale from an item response theory (IRT) perspective on a sample of observations from 334 Caribbean classrooms, Stout's procedure revealed that all indicators on this dimension are not part of a…

This article extends recent work on the consequences of literacy-learning reforms by complicating the notion of "policy." Through a qualitative study in one high school, I explored how policy in its many forms, including the ways it was perceived and misperceived, shaped the literacy learning experiences of marginalized adolescent readers.…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to first elaborate on the notion of a learning environment based on an empirical study of care work. Second, to explore how aspects of a learning environment may differ between and within units in the same organization, and how to understand and explain such differences. Design/methodology/approach: The study…

Autistic individuals were observed in their familiar residential environment using a time-sample technique. The data do not support the notion that autistic children are unusually "negativistic". (Author/NH)

An educational researcher describes absurdities and paradoxes encountered in the research process, arising from the nature of natural science, subjectivity, education, the profession, the naturalistic paradigm, and ethnography. (SK)

Describes an environmental education program at an Alabama elementary school that integrates nature into every facet of school life. The campus features a small, student-built pond, bluebird houses, and butterfly gardens. The nationally acclaimed program was initiated by Principal Ross Hobbs, who sees the environment as common ground for all…

Researchers agree that language and literacy derive from the first days of a child's life. Children become literate members in society by listening and interacting with the people that surround them. This study examines how children develop literacy through play by looking closely at the benefits of uninterrupted play and how it encourages…

In response to the claim that students who have received an undergraduate degree in education lack adequate preparation for postgraduate study, the designers of a masters course in research methods set an assignment at the first meeting which asked practising teachers to match Goffman's dramaturgical concepts to observation of behaviour in public.…

An analysis of the different rationales articulated and utilized by partners in an interorganizational collaboration is the focus of this paper. The Leadership Education and Development (LEAD) Program in Business is an initiative involving 12 US universities, nearly 40 multinational corporations, a federal government agency, and a non-profit…

The quality of care offered in four different types of non-parental child care to 307 infants at 10 months old and 331 infants at 18 months old was compared and factors associated with higher quality were identified. Observed quality was lowest in nurseries at each age point, except that at 18 months they offered more learning activities. There…

This article draws on Bourdieu's field theory and related concepts of habitus and capitals, to explore policy implementation in relation to a particular case of teacher professional development in Queensland, Australia. This implementation process is described as an effect of the interplay between what is called the policy field and the field of…

Gottlieb used naturalistic observations of normally occurring events in the life history of individuals for the purpose of discovering the role of experience in the development of species-typical behaviors. His research revealed the impact of self-generated experiences (particularly those experiences that were self-stimulated) in the establishment…

The research goals were to use the constructs of harm and intent to quantify the severity of aggression in the real-world setting of the bar/club, to describe the range of aggressive behaviors and their relationship to harm and intent, and to examine gender differences in the form and severity of aggression. Systematic observations were conducted…

Chronicles Henry David Thoreau's early positions as a nontraditional, progressive, futuristic teacher, tutor, and schoolmaster. Explains how Thoreau's disposition for observing, questioning, and evaluating led him to leave education and nurture his role as a naturalist and philosopher. (NEC)