DESCRIBE IT: A Strategy for Teacher Candidates Implementing Behavior Interventions

Teachers with years of experience in the classroom rely on that experience to help them develop behavior intervention plans for students with behavioral challenges. New teachers, however, may struggle with the complex steps needed to develop successful plans as they address other aspects of their professional work for the first time. DESCRIBE IT is a strategy that novice teachers can use to help generalize the process of behavior intervention planning they learned in university courses to their practice in the field. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how DESCRIBE IT guided one special education teacher through the process for behavior intervention planning and implementation. Use of DESCRIBE IT may help new teachers plan and monitor behavior interventions as they start their careers.     

Self-Advocacy Group Advisor Activities and Their Impact/Relation to Self-Advocacy Group Development

The purpose of this study was to identify self-advocacy group advisor activities, to examine advisor activities as they are linked to self-advocacy group development, and to examine how advisor activities change over time. A telephone survey was administered to 118 advisors randomly selected from a directory of self-advocacy groups (Longhurst, 1994). A total of 90 telephone surveys were completed representing a response rate of 76%. Major findings reveal a wide array of advisor activities, but perhaps most importantly, information on how advisors see their activities changing as the group changes. The results of this investigation provide important baseline information for individuals affiliated with the self-advocacy movement, university affiliated programs, developmental disability councils, and professionals in the field of intellectual impairment/developmental disabilities. The results can be used to help better meet the needs of advisors, self-advocacy group members, and to help readers to better understand how to support a self-advocacy group as it is evolving.     

The Educational and Behavioral Impacts of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Charter School

The Kauffman School is a public charter school serving students from low-income neighborhoods in Kansas City, Missouri. This paper used a matched comparison group design to estimate the impacts of the Kauffman School on student achievement, attendance, and suspensions. We found that the Kauffman School had large positive impacts on student achievement in mathematics, reading, and science. This paper also used qualitative data to explore possible mechanisms for the school's effects. We found evidence that the Kauffman School's hallmarks are being implemented faithfully, and that stakeholders believe the school's methods are having a positive influence on students' attitudes and performance     

Students’ Views on Difficulties in Learning Histology

The aim of this study was to provide a better understanding of the main difficulties hindering undergraduate biology students in learning histology. The study utilized a self-administered questionnaire which included three closed-ended and two open-ended questions: (1) if students had difficulty in learning about each tissue type; (2) what might be the problem in learning about the tissue at hand; (3) which topics were the most difficult; (4) what were the possible reasons that made image identification of tissue types difficult; and (5) how to improve the course curriculum from a student perspective. The survey was administered to 139 undergraduate biology students enrolled in a histology course, of which 101 surveys were completed and analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The topics that students experienced the most difficulties with were: nervous tissue, plant tissues, bone tissues, and glandular epithelial tissue. The main reasons students experienced difficulties with these tissue types, according to the students themselves, were the nature of the topic, grasping the terminology used, and insufficient teaching time. Students suggested the adoption of strategies such as: teaching based on practical tasks; reducing the content of the histology curriculum; adding anatomy subjects; and making histology education more interesting.     

ESD and lifelong learning: a case study of the Shangri-la Institute’s current engagement with the Bazhu community in Diqing,China

International Review of Education - This article argues that ESD should be integrated into lifelong learning and provides an example of how this might be done. It draws on a case study of a joint...     

The developmental nature of meta‐cognition and the relationship between knowledge and control over time

This study explored the development of meta‐cognitive knowledge and control, the relationship between the two constructs, the types of strategy knowledge Chinese students consider valuable and comparisons with US children's knowledge of strategies at the third‐grade level. One hundred and twenty students were randomly sampled from third‐, fifth‐ and seventh‐grade classes in China. Control was operationalised as comprehension monitoring and measured with CLOZE and Error Detection tasks, while awareness comprised declarative knowledge of strategies and was measured using an interview and a questionnaire. The findings indicated that knowledge of strategies and meta‐cognitive control develop over time, but knowledge develops at a faster rate in comparison. The evaluation of the relationships between the constructs suggested that the measurement format affected the students' accessibility of the declarative knowledge. The Chinese students demonstrated similarities in their knowledge of useful strategies, with previewing and activating background knowledge as the most valued strategies.     

An Industry Copyright Infringement Portal to Combat Online Piracy

Launched in Spring 2009, the industry’s Copyright Infringement Portal provides an easy and effective way for publishers and Trade Associations to combat online piracy. By automating the takedown notice process it saves publishers time and money, and enables Trade Associations to gain an overview of the scale and pattern of piracy.