There is persistent debate over the role of scale of operations in education. Some argue that school franchises offer educational services more effectively than small independent schools. Skeptics counter that large centralized operations create hard-to-manage bureaucracies and foster diseconomies of scale and that small schools are more effective…

This article describes the initial findings for students with learning disabilities from the first year of The Ohio Longitudinal Transition Study (OLTS). The study included 416 participants with learning disabilities who were exiting high school. Data from an in-school survey were analyzed by sample demographics (e.g. school setting, school type,…

This study examined the mental models of the desert environment held by fourth- and seventh-grade students in the USA and whether those mental models could be affected by: (1) classroom field trips to a desert riparian preserve, and (2) interaction with family members at the same preserve. Results generally indicated that students in this study…

This project was significant in that it administered the National College Health Risk Behavior Survey (NCHRBS), a health risk assessment, to a sample of students at three public universities in Virginia. Virginia was never included in the original or subsequent nationwide assessments using this instrument. This health risk assessment is…

In the past, the African female child had always been denied formal education due to various cultural and social prejudices. Distance education has been employed by numerous women, who had earlier thus been deprived, to bridge the educational gap between males and females in the country. These are mature females, of which the majority (54%) are…

Development of adaptive tests used in K-12 settings requires the creation of stable measurement scales to measure the growth of individual students from one grade to the next, and to measure change in groups from one year to the next. Accountability systems like No Child Left Behind require stable measurement scales so that accountability has…

This study proposes a teaching and research initiative, named SAMAL (Smart AMbience for Affective Learning) that will provide a unique ambient mediated environment for integrating cognitive and affective approaches to enhance learning. Also, this study illustrates a design of SAMAL classroom with affectively evocative scenarios for learning de…

Past research has shown that, as workers age, their participation in education and training declines, which is a problem in our fast changing society and economy. This study focuses on the stimulating and prohibiting reasons for participation in formal learning activities. It investigates whether employees in the second half of their career differ…

We explored the effectiveness of compliance-gaining strategies on college student-athletes (N = 228) in three request situations (i.e., seeking a tutor, attending a weekly academic appointment, and faithfully attending class). The study revealed several key findings: a) Student-athletes perceive the compliance-gaining strategy of negative…

Commonalities and distinctions in Hong Kong-Chinese and German kindergarten teachers' conceptions of play and learning were examined. Six video clips of play episodes reflecting common play behavior and themes were selected from observations made during free play in two kindergartens in Hong Kong and two in Germany. Ten Chinese and seven German…

This is the first of six commentaries discussing Zongjie Wu's essay, "Interpretation, autonomy, and transformation". Wu's analyses of pedagogy have opened a new window for looking at the essence of education. The comparison of Confucius's pedagogy with contemporary teaching in China provides a striking contrast. However, perhaps it is…

A school subject leader (SL) is formally considered to make a difference in the educational system as a leader of a professional learning community, being responsible for the efficient and effective performance of the subject department. Since the department entails frequent and significant interactions among teachers, and organizational…

Learning and achievement issues among Foundation Year (FY) students at the Royal College of Surgeons (RCSI) Bahrain have been responded to by the Language and Culture Unit to address the educational problems that have arisen as a direct consequence of the differences in skills students have on leaving secondary school and the skills that are…

This article describes the Voluntary Support for Education (VSE) Survey, an instrument created by the Council for Aid to Education. Our objective is to explain VSE's potential value as a tool to inform both institutional and academic research regarding fund-raising activities at community colleges. Of particular interest is how the data available…

The aim of this paper is to illustrate the applications of service-learning pedagogy for an advanced Spanish language course through a case study conducted at Rollins College, a comprehensive liberal arts institution in Winter Park, Florida. The paper discusses diverse theories on service-learning pedagogy, explaining how and why this teaching…