This article focuses on the planning and organisation of teachers' continuous professional development as part of the nationally representative "Schools and Continuing Professional Development in England--State of the Nation" research study (SoNS), commissioned by the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA). Thematic analysis…

This article describes what school social workers observed to be the quality components, or the "key ingredients," of the youth development activities they implement within their practice. The article reports on findings from twenty-eight interviews of school social workers. Eight quality components emerged from the data including: (1) giving…

This qualitative study focused on the identification of problem situations associated with adolescent dating experiences and relationships, including those that placed youth at risk for dating violence perpetration or victimization. Interviews were conducted with 44 African American middle and high school students in an urban school system.…

This article describes the development and qualitative student outcomes of an intergenerational service-learning course designed to promote social work gerontological competencies. Efforts focused on creating a learning environment to actively promote learning opportunities for students and older adults. The course was hosted at a local, private,…

The purpose of this study was to examine career success perceived by professionals in the fashion industry. Two sets of open-ended interviews were conducted with 33 fashion industry professionals. The interviews were analyzed for success themes using a grounded approach methodology. External definitions of success mentioned were salary,…

The parenting experiences of mothers in a family with a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and a typically developing (TD) child were studied using a qualitative analysis of mothers' perceptions of the impact of autism on family and personal life. An additional quantitative comparison was performed to evaluate the effect of ASD on mothers'…

This research describes the results of a cross-case analysis of four individual case studies at schools having nationally recognized school library programs. The focus of the study is on the culture of the school as an organization and its effect on establishing an effective school library program. The purpose of the study was to identify cultural…

Participatory design (PD), or the collaboration between software engineers and end users throughout the design process, may help improve CALL design practices. In this case study, four ESL learners, a software designer, and a language teacher created and evaluated a series of paper prototypes concerning help options in computer-based second…

As university students are frequently given the tasks of writing research reports to fulfil their respective programme requirements, teaching novice writers to present the results of their reports understandably constitutes an essential component of English lessons at tertiary level. While past research has shown that results are consistently…

The author examines the use of constructivist teaching practices by four new secondary school science teachers (NSTs) from a preparation program with a focus on constructivism. Data of the NSTs is compared to data of secondary school teachers from two different sources: (i) new teachers (NTs) from a broad-scale nationally-funded project involving…

The term "community" holds historical connotations of political, economic, and social disadvantage in South Africa. Many South African students tend to interpret the term "community" in ways that suggest that community and community psychology describe the experiences of exclusively poor, black people. Critical pedagogies that…

The purpose of this study was to examine all states' participation guidelines for alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS) and to analyze these guidelines for common and contrasting themes. State alternate assessment participation guidelines were found for all 50 states. Participation guidelines were coded, and 12…

Twenty parents attending an urban community college were interviewed about how they respond to common questions children ask about sexuality. Parental responses to children's questions about sexuality were considered in relation to the authoritative and authoritarian patterns of communication identified by Baumrind (1967). The majority of parents…

To understand the experiences of leaders in student affairs in higher education and to document the strategies they used to cut budgets and the results of these actions, the authors conducted a qualitative research study using public institutions as case studies. Data were gathered in 2005 through phone interviews with senior student affairs…

The toll of HIV/AIDS and drug abuse on economically disadvantaged women of color in the United States is a public health problem of epidemic proportions. Malnutrition, believed to be pervasive in this population, exacerbates the devastating health effects of addiction and HIV. This study documented dietary deficiencies in this population and…