Although rising student debt levels are frequently studied, very little attention has been paid to the lack of student financial literacy and its negative effects. The absence of financial management skills and accompanying low credit scores can increase debt, cause inadvertent defaults, and be harmful for both students and their institutions. For…

This qualitative case study investigated how community college students perceived specific classroom attributes as contributing to or hindering their learning. The study addressed three questions: What has been the role of students in classroom design within the community college campus? How do students assess the classroom's physical design…

A chronic shortage of special education teachers exists throughout our nation and the state of Texas. Most special education teachers leave their positions within their first five years of teaching and the problem of teacher shortages in the field of special education exists throughout South Texas. Texas A&M University-Kingsville, in…

This article describes qualitative and quantitative assessment based on responses of 221 teachers from nine elementary schools in two districts (urban and suburban) to inform plans for reducing and preventing student aggression. Teachers' perceptions of students' aggressive behavior and beliefs were validated against students' self-reports and…

Although collaborative partnership between parents and professionals is a cornerstone of the special education and service systems, this relationship exists more as an ideal, especially when low-income, culturally diverse families are involved. Through three focus groups, we examined the beliefs of 16 low-income Latina mothers of young adults with…

Drawing on a 5-year program-wide investigation of ways preservice teachers learn to teach to diversity, this study uses focus groups of graduates to illuminate survey results of their feeling well prepared to advocate for equity in classrooms and schools. Offering suggestions for improvement, graduates nonetheless reported two broad categories of…

Health and social care education has a long established association with reflective learning as a way of developing post-qualifying professional practice. Reflective learning is also a key feature of self-regulatory learning, which is an essential aspect of life-long learning for today's National Health Service workforce. Using a small-scale case…

We focus on how African American parents in a low-income neighborhood experience, interpret, and respond to current reform efforts as implemented in their children's school. As part of a larger project on parent-child numeracy connections in an elementary school, we interviewed 10 parents and held 2 focus group meetings, during which parents…

There has been recent pressure for practitioners to consider cultural variables when implementing evidence-based interventions. Therefore, the Semistructured Interview for Consideration of Ethnic Culture in Therapy Scale (SSICECTS) was empirically developed to address this issue. First, psychometric properties of a 6-item scale were evaluated in…

This mixed-methods study investigates the leadership development and leadership skills of women graduate students at a theological seminary. Through the "Student Leadership Practices Inventory" (Student LPI) and "Leadership Competency Inventory" (LCI), demographic questionnaire, and focus group interviews, the researchers…

This research article summarises a study that set out to collect information about the actions that three primary schools have taken to develop a more positive school culture. The aim was to identify in what ways a change in culture could contribute to an improvement in school relationships and a reduction in bullying. The research questions…

In addition to challenges of adolescence itself, teens with asthma face demands of asthma management and risks of asthma sequelae, including fatalities. Few asthma educational programs specifically address their needs. In response to school nurse concern, this pilot study evaluated an adolescent asthma education program, the "Power Breathing[TM]…

This article documents a lifecycle approach to employing user-centered design, covering both qualitative and quantitative data gathering methods in support of using this approach for product design, usability testing, and market research. The author provides specific case studies of usability studies, focus groups, interviews, ethnographic…

Peer group supervision has had little attention in the research literature, although it is a common form of supervision utilised by psychologists in practice. The development and implementation of a structured peer supervision group (PSG) with nine trainee psychologists, within the training setting of university-based services, is described in…

This article describes a design for a teacher preparation program that is successfully preparing teacher candidates to teach in the complex, diverse classrooms in urban schools. The program provides intensive, authentic, field-based experiences and effective mentoring support for teacher candidates as they gain the knowledge, skills, and…