Background: Results from empirical research on character development in sport remain mixed concerning the outcomes of sport participation, in part because character is a socially constructed concept that can be interpreted in a wide variety of manners. Furthermore, the majority of research in this field has been conducted employing quantitative…

Previous studies have suggested that being imitated by an adult is an effective intervention with children with autism and developmental delay. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether "mirroring" interaction, which includes being imitated by an adult, can facilitate the social responsiveness of toddlers with autism spectrum disorder…

Theory of mind was assessed in 32 adults with HFA, 29 adults with Asperger syndrome and 32 neurotypical adults. The HFA and Asperger syndrome groups were impaired in performance of the Strange stories test and the Faux-pas test and reported more theory of mind problems than the neurotypical adults. The three groups did not differ in performance of…

The application of social-emotional and character development (SECD) in classrooms is about teaching, practicing, and modeling essential personal and civic life habits and skills that are almost universally understood as making people good human beings. Among these habits are respect, responsibility, integrity, caring, fairness, and constructive…

The purpose of this study is to describe what data preschools in a mid-sized city in the Northeast collect, how they use that data, and the challenges they face. The study focuses on three types of data: early learning outcomes, dosage (i.e., the amount of exposure to early childhood education), and classroom quality. The report further…

This "Stated Briefly" report is a companion piece that summarizes the results of another report of the same name. This study explores how seven early childhood education programs in a mid-sized city in the Northeast region are collecting and using data, how they would like to use data, how they could use the data that they have, and the…

Understanding disparities in school readiness among America's children when they begin kindergarten is critically important, now more than ever. In today's 21st century global economy, it is expected that the great majority of children will complete high school ready to enter college or begin a career, and assume their civic responsibilities. This…

Inequalities in education outcomes such as test scores or degree attainment have been at the center of education policy debates for decades. Indeed, the first seminal national report on the state of U.S. education--the 1966 Coleman Report--examined some of these inequalities 50 years ago. Since then, researchers have examined performance gaps by…

This publication focuses on student advisory programs. High school students often feel disconnected and have few personalized relationships with the adults who educate them. Advisory programs are based on the belief that students need the opportunity to develop trusting relationships with adult educators and that doing so benefits students in a…

Many children between the ages of four and twelve log in to Web-based virtual play spaces each day, and these virtual worlds are quickly becoming an important aspect of their out-of-school lives. Consequently, educators' challenge is to see how they can leverage virtual spaces, such as the virtual play spaces, for learning and literacy. Over the…

This paper focuses on the social and emotional needs of children and young people who are refugees. It was inspired by casework undertaken by the author involving a 13-year-old boy who was a refugee from Montenegro. A vignette of the case is presented in addition to a review of relevant literature to illustrate and discuss the various sources of…

In this paper, we maintain that sociologists should deliberately teach social responsibility as a means of fulfilling the promise that C. Wright Mills envisioned. A key aspect of the sociological imagination includes a sense of social responsibility, but that aspect is best learned through a combination of experience and academic knowledge.…

The so-called "soft skills" utilised by teachers--including relationship building, awareness of the pupil's context and background and the demonstration of authority--to develop an appropriate learning culture in their classrooms have long been recognised as being a major contribution to effective promotion of positive behaviour. This…

When adults make a joint commitment to act together, they feel an obligation to their partner. In 2 studies, the authors investigated whether young children also understand joint commitments to act together. In the first study, when an adult orchestrated with the child a joint commitment to play a game together and then broke off from their joint…

Prosocial behavior is an important aspect of normal social and psychological development. Adult and child twin studies typically estimate the heritability of prosocial behavior to be between 30 and 50%, although relatively little is known about genetic and environmental influences upon prosocial behavior in adolescence. We therefore examined…