This qualitative study grounded in critical inquiry and cultural-ecological theory explores barriers to academic achievement for Latino English language learners (ELLs). Parents and teachers were purposefully selected from a rural school district in the Rocky Mountain region to participate in focus group interviews. Findings included barriers…

This paper aims to find out two outcomes of feedback in the novice writers' graphic organizers, which are the novice writers' ability to align their ideas to their writing goal, and their perceived germane, metacognitive, extraneous and intrinsic cognitive loads when generating and revising ideas based on the feedback. Data was gathered from the…

This paper reports the latest stage of a research project focused on developing students' understanding of assessment criteria, the assessment process and assessment standards. It explains the theory of a social-constructivist assessment process model and details one particular module where the authors have tried to put it into practice. In…

Aims: This paper explores young people's own opinions about how the "drinking to get drunk" culture can be changed. More precisely, the two objectives of this study were to explore: (1) whether young people viewed binge drinking as a real "problem"; and (2) what they thought could be done to reduce binge drinking. Methods:…

Purpose: To date, little attention has been given to the circumstances in which the process of developing key competencies for sustainable development may take place. The purpose of this paper is to consider, the possibilities both of formal and informal learning and their relationship to competence development within higher education.…

This article presents the findings of a qualitative research project about the difficulties in accessing advocacy faced by adults labelled as having autism and Asperger's Syndrome in the Northwest of England. It is also an example of partnership working between three organisations. The article examines both the process of team-led (emancipatory)…

Context: Outreach to high-risk communities is one of the goals of Area Health Education Centers. One such population is the farm community, which is known to suffer high rates of traumatic events. Purpose: To describe a participatory methods initiative by the Arkansas Delta Area Health Education Center and other agencies to address farm-related…

This paper gives a brief overview of the focus group method, its history, and usefulness for educational researchers and outlines the essential steps to a successful focus group. An example of the use of focus groups is given. The focus group originated in the 1920s in the social sciences, developed further in market research, and is undergoing a…

Purpose ? In response to the emergence of an enterprise economy, government claims that building an enterprise culture is vital. Correspondingly, provision of entrepreneurship education in higher education has expanded. The paper aims to assess the potential of entrepreneurship education to develop skills, and of whether students perceive them as…

One of the goals of a family-centered approach in early intervention is to equally involve family members as active partners with professionals. This article describes one state's model of family involvement using parents of young children with disabilities as parent educators in the Part C system. Qualitative focus group data were collected with…

Five focus groups explored concerns about adopting the Unified English Braille Code. The consensus was that while the proposed changes to the literary braille code would be minor, those to the mathematics braille code would be much more extensive. The participants emphasized that "any code that reduces the number of individuals who can access…

The high school to college transition is a difficult time for most first-time, traditional-aged students. Students experience changes in interpersonal and social adjustment, academic and career concerns, and personal adjustment (Bishop, Gallagher, & Cohen, 2000). Failure to successfully adjust and acclimate into their new college community can…

The Australian Government report Teachers for the 21st Century: Making the Difference (DEST, 2000) highlighted that teachers were central to student learning, and that there was a need for professional development for teachers in order for them to adapt to changing student needs. These ideas are not new and have been have been supported by other…

For a variety of reasons, U.S. higher education has employed an increasing number of international teaching assistants (ITAs) to teach undergraduate courses in science, engineering, and humanities departments. Often, ITAs arrive on campus and are placed in undergraduate classrooms without having previous training or teaching experience; they are…

Since its inception, American music education has been viewed as seemingly less important than other academic disciplines. In times of financial crisis, it has undergone reductions and eliminations. Consequently, music education advocates have had to escalate their efforts to preserve and protect music programs. This study seeks to determine the…