This paper describes changes which took place in 37 Hong Kong primary schools where class sizes were reduced from 38 to between 20 and 25. Chinese, English and mathematics classes were observed over three years from Primary 1 (aged 6) to Primary 3. For 75% of observations no child was the focus of the teacher's attention in large classes. Reducing…

Purpose: Because of high drop-out rates among the students entering vocational education in Denmark retention of students has become pivotal to Danish educational policy. Thus vocational educational training (VET) colleges have been asked to work on implementing different kinds of retention initiatives and as a result, most colleges have…

This article explores the themes of trust and ethical conduct in social research, with particular attention to the trust that can develop between the members of a research team as well as between researchers and the researched. The authors draw upon a three-year empirical study of destinations and outcomes for young people excluded from…

Conceptualisations of disability that emphasise the contextual and cultural nature of disability and the embodiment of these within a national system of data collection present a number of challenges especially where this process is devolved to schools. The requirement for measures based on contextual and subjective experiences gives rise to…

The present study utilised naturalistic observation to assess the impact of parental departure during daily drop-off at preschool on children's settling into daily preschool routines. Forty-six 3-5-year-old children and their parents/caregivers were observed during morning drop-off at preschool. Longer latencies of parent/caregiver leaving were…

This article demonstrates that the variance of three or four observations can be expressed in terms of the range and the first order differences of the observations. A more general result, which holds for any number of observations, is also stated.

The Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS; Lord et al., J Autism Dev Disord, 30(3):205-223, 2000) is widely accepted as a "gold standard" diagnostic instrument, but it is of restricted utility with very young children. The purpose of the current project was to modify the ADOS for use in children under 30 months of age. A modified ADOS, the…

The study of dynamic and nonlinear change has been a valuable development in psychotherapy process research. However, little advancement has been made in describing how moment-by-moment affective processes contribute to larger units of change. The purpose of this study was to examine observable moment-by-moment sequences in emotional processing as…

This article outlines the "Inquiry Cycle" at Ilam School in New Zealand. It is underpinned by the main tenets of the New Zealand Curriculum "Teaching as Inquiry" statement. Ilam's cycle involves seven core elements that evolved over a two-year, whole-school journey focused on developing a meaningful localised curriculum…

The purpose of this study is to explore the sensory processing difficulties of Grade R learners that are diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome (AS) in two schools in South Africa. Attwood (2007, p. 271) considers sensory sensitivities to have a greater impact on the lives of these individuals, than problems with making friends, managing emotions and…

The effect of evaluation on employee performance is traditionally studied in the context of the principal-agent problem. Evaluation can, however, also be characterized as an investment in the evaluated employee's human capital. We study a sample of mid-career public school teachers where we can consider these two types of evaluation effect…

Since the implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), there has been a decrease of creative outlets (Berliner, 2009; Pederson, 2007) for pre-teen students to develop a positive self concept in public schools; creatively implemented technology along with critical thinking skills are no longer emphasized contributing to the notion that only…

Some students are exiting first grade reading at less than adequate fluency rates at one rural elementary school. Poor fluency can lead to literacy problems later in their education. An appropriate system to address each student's fluency needs will help teachers to better serve students. A framework based on the theories of Rasinski's fluency…

This mixed methods study was designed to determine the type and quality of pre-college career guidance experiences of college freshmen and the impact of those experiences on student performance and retention. This study was limited to first time freshmen at a small private university in Tennessee. The population was 46% male and 54% female from 6…

The researcher utilized a qualitative approach to conduct a program evaluation of the organization where he is employed. The study intended to serve as a program evaluation for the structured in-house mentoring program at a large aerospace corporation (A-Corp). This program evaluation clarified areas in which the current mentoring program is…