During the final years of secondary school, students engage in the decision-making process regarding their important choice of university career. Individual differences in how people approach this process could be attributed to personality traits, gender, and the specific year of attendance. To investigate this hypothesis, a study was conducted…

As digital skills become progressively more essential for workforce participation, addressing foundational digital literacy gaps among disadvantaged workers has become an increasingly pressing issue for achieving economic growth for all. The authors summarize results from a pilot study of a course on foundational computer skills and digital…

Children with autism from underserved communities face complex system-, provider-, and family-level barriers to accessing timely diagnosis and early intervention. The current study evaluated the preliminary effects and feasibility of a new program (ECHO Autism LINKS) that integrated pediatric primary care provider (PCP) training with family…

School districts are experiencing critical staff shortages with the most severe shortages concentrated in the highest-needs schools. The authors' Educator Preparation Program at Governors State University implemented a mock job fair pilot for their candidates around three complementary goals: (a) to improve our candidates' interview confidence,…

In 2018, the U.S. Federal government published a STEM education strategy report outlining a vision with three goals (building a strong foundation for STEM literacy, increasing diversity, equity and inclusion in STEM, preparing the STEM workers for the future) for providing Americans access to high-quality STEM education and acquisition of future…

Teacher preparation programs aim to improve student teachers' experiences to produce high-quality candidates. A qualitative case study explored how university supervisors and cooperating teachers perceive co-teaching during student teaching, revealing that while organic co-teaching occurs often, planned co-teaching is rare. Key factors for success…

A foremost goal toward sustainable energy is decentralizing its production and management. To achieve this, actors in peripheral contexts must be capacitated with novel competencies. Energy, however, remains a highly centralized field particularly in training its workforce. We explore in this paper tensions in producing a specialized track on…

This article discusses a model, created through the collaboration of two professors at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, for using children's literature to inspire service-learning during an Early Childhood pre-student teacher field placement. It defines service-learning to promote active citizenship and civic engagement for young…

This naturalistic study evaluated the treatment effectiveness of a U.S. New England region adolescent partial hospital program (PHP) for individuals referred from higher versus lower levels of care (LOC). Participants were adolescents ages 12 to 18 admitted to the in-person (n = 161) and virtual (n = 78) day programming. Chart review determined…

Background/purpose: Instructional interaction barriers--including physical, psycho-emotional, perceptual, semantic, and management-related factors--can impede learning and diminish the overall effectiveness of classroom practice. This study examines the barriers faced by mathematics teachers in Saudi Arabia and their differences across gender,…

In the United States, approximately 11.8% of students receiving special education are Emergent Bilingual (EB) students (Office of Special Education Programs [OSEP], 2022). Emergent bilingual students are frequently referred to as English Learners (ELs) or Limited English Proficient (LEP) students which portray them through a deficit lens and…

Research and literature validate a disconnect between STEM graduates' classroom-acquired knowledge and skills versus those needed to perform tasks in the workplace. Some contend that pedagogical and curricular developments focus on discipline-specific content rather than soft skills, willingness to learn, flexibility, critical thinking,…

Premature termination is a prevalent challenge faced by counsellors-in-training. To explore the experience of counsellors-in-training with premature termination of clients, this qualitative study used a transcendental phenomenological approach and recruited eight counsellors-in-training from a medium-size university in the southeastern United…

The Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) is the nation's first federal nutrition education program for low-income populations. Without question, accelerating equity in programming has long been a priority of EFNEP. Historically underserved populations with limited financial resources are often people of color and at increased risk…

Earning a college degree has long been critical to unlocking many high-paying jobs -- and, as a result, to economic mobility and security. Increasingly, however, the traditional "norm" of a college student--one who enrolls straight out of high school, receives some support from their parents, lives on campus, and does not have…