This small-scale pilot research project investigates the prevalence of Speech Language and Communication Difficulties in a sample of children attending a Youth Offending Service in the UK. Using the CELF-4, approximately 90% of the sample displayed some form of language difficulty and, overall, this population displayed mild to moderate…

Numerous e-learning 2.0 studies have advocated the use of social networking sites for educational purposes, but only a few of them have observed social networking sites as an instrument for specific learner skill development. This paper discusses a study which addresses the motivation and challenges associated with the introduction of the social…

This article describes an action research project carried out in North West England that aimed to assist Children's Services Departments and Care Trusts in developing their strategies for supporting care leavers into employment and training. The study found a range of models and approaches that can be utilised to develop local and regional…

This article profiles 2011 APPA Fellow Jack K. Colby, assistant vice chancellor for facilities operations at North Carolina State University. Colby has a history of nonstop service to his profession and to APPA that makes that ever-active, never-stop rabbit look like a piker. Like previous APPA Fellows, Colby could easily rest on his laurels of…

This study investigated the impact of two approaches to research-led education on students' learning and their understandings of research in the context of two university courses in international business involving third year undergraduate and graduate students. One approach involved the lecturer using his research as the basis for a case-study…

This article provides a critical perspective on the increasing involvement of young people in participatory evaluation as well as identifies the factors to consider when designing a youth-led evaluation project. Through this avenue, young people will increase their participation in organizational development and community change. Youth-led…

Using students' diaries as a frame of reference, this research project set out to learn more about how they experience foreign language classes in their first university year, over two semester periods (from September to June of the academic year 2007/08). The diaries were produced by 35 students of English Studies at the Universitat Rovira i…

This case study explores the lived experiences of two graduate students and two university instructors in a course-based qualitative research project. The course design was a research methods course that focused on qualitative research and analysis and provided a vehicle for the instructors to reflect on their experiences and the students'…

This paper presents a theoretical model of faculty consulting in the context of government and industry funding for research within the university, which then frames an empirical analysis of the funding and consulting of 458 individual faculty inventors from 8 major US universities. In the theory, firms realize that they free ride on government…

This paper contextualizes the 5th World Environmental Education Congress, discusses the theoretical underpinnings of the Congress theme "Earth Our Common Home," and relates this theorizing to the research project that was woven through the Congress. We provide a rationale for engaging in this research project, as an invitation for…

American publishers have published numerous children's books about Barack Obama over the past several years; most take the form of informational biographies. This article reports on a research project aimed at how these books incorporate sociohistorical narratives, particularly those related to the civil rights movement. Though the features of the…

This paper is based on research to identify common factors that contribute to the effective strategic leadership of teaching and learning centres. The second of three phases of data collection involved a survey of Directors of Australian teaching and learning centres. The data collected were quantitatively analysed using a range of descriptive,…

This paper focuses on pedagogical plans intended as objects to support human communication. Its purpose is to describe a structural model for pedagogical plans which can assist both authors and users. The model helps authors to engage in the design of a plan as a communication project and helps users in the process of understanding, customizing,…

For six years the Food Security Research Network at Lakehead University, Canada, has been engaged in an interdisciplinary theme-based service-learning initiative focusing on food security. Informed by complexity theory, the contextual fluidity partnership model brings community partners, students, and faculty into a nexus through which new…

This article concerns the contribution that feedback makes to valid classroom assessment of the writing of young learners (YLs), defined here as approximately 9-13 years old. It shows that a scale of descriptors adapted from the "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages" (CEFR; Council of Europe, 2001) can play a central role…