Impact of Sensory Processing on School Performance Outcomes in High Functioning Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Difficulty processing sensory information may impede progress in school for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We explore the relationship between sensory processing and school performance in 26 high‐functioning youths with ASD and 26 controls (age 8–14) using measures of sensory, social, cognitive, and academic functioning. In the ASD group, bivariate Pearson correlations indicated a significant positive relationship between intelligence quotient (IQ) and the School Competence Scale (SCS) of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), and a significant negative relationship between Dunn's Sensory Processing Framework and SCS scores. Final hierarchical multiple linear regression model accounting for SCS scores in ASD included IQ, ADHD symptoms, and sensory features. An interaction between increased sensory sensitivity with reduced sensory avoidance behaviors explained the greatest amount of variance in SCS, meaning school performance is lowest for children with greater hypersensitivity and fewer avoidance behaviors. Results indicate a strong impact of sensory processing on school performance in ASD.     

The (Untold) Drama of the Turning Page: The Role of Page Breaks in Understanding Picture Books

While scholars have recognized the importance of page breaks in both the construction and comprehension of narrative within picture books, there has previously been limited research that focused directly on how children discuss and make sense of these spaces in the text. Yet, because of their nature as dramatic gaps in the narrative, page breaks offer unique and exciting opportunities to understand how children make meaning of picture books (Sipe in Storytime: young children’s literary understanding in the classroom, Teachers College Press, New York, 2008). This study explores how explicitly inviting young children to discuss page breaks offers insights into how these spaces function within the children’s readings. Drawing on transcribed audio-recordings of a series of read-aloud sessions held with a group of children ages five to eight, the analysis focused on coding themes within the children’s talk around page breaks in picture books. Specifically, the children referenced the role of page breaks as aesthetic choices; the utilization of page breaks to comprehend word/picture relationships; and the negotiation of these gaps in the story as they worked construct a cohesive understanding of the narrative. Overall, the data represents the rich possibilities for educators to include explicit talk around page breaks during picture book read-alouds as a pathway toward better understanding children’s sense-making of these texts.     

Family‐centered positive psychology: Focusing on strengths to build student success

Family‐centered positive psychology (FCPP) is defined as a framework for working with children and families that promotes strengths and capacity building within individuals and systems, rather than one focusing solely on the resolution of problems or remediation of deficiencies. This approach to family‐based services is predicated on the belief that child and family outcomes will be enhanced if members participate in identifying needs, establishing social supports and partnerships, and acquiring new skills and competencies, rather than simply receiving services from professionals. In this article, we present a rationale for FCPP, outline its primary principles, highlight one model for working with families that exemplifies FCPP practice, and illustrate its use through an authentic data‐based case study. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 7–17, 2004.     

Exploring the music: a teaching-learning sequence about sound in authentic settings

Background: Research regarding students’ ideas about the nature of sound reveals a variety of conceptions about sound. In order to reconstruct these ideas and explain sound phenomena, researchers’ teaching interventions often make use of everyday-life contexts. However existing research on sound only partially addresses the correlation between the properties of sound and its perceptive characteristics.

Purpose: To identify the evolution of students’ conceptions regarding the nature of sound and its properties (frequency, intensity and frequency spectrum) through a teaching-learning sequence (TLS) about sound phenomena in an authentic musical context. The described TLS consists of three activities aiming students to correlate the properties of sound waves (frequency, intensity and frequency spectrum) with its perceptive characteristics (pitch, loudness and timbre) via the use of smartphone applications.

Sample: Eight students, in the second year of their studies in the Department of Primary Education of the XXX University.

Design and methods: Students’ perspectives on sound and their progression are investigated through a teaching experiment design. Data are collected by recording students’ interviews. Due to the explorative nature of the research qualitative methods of content analysis are used.

Results: The results show that the students’ perspectives on sound evolved, as students managed to consolidate links between their everyday experience of sounds and the underlying science concepts as frequency, intensity and frequency spectrum. The authentic environment and the use of the smartphone’s applications were key factors for the success of the teaching experiment. The interaction with the activities shifted student’s conceptualizations closer to the scientific ones, by communicating every day sound experiences with their scientific interpretation.     

Tertiary pedagogy encounters the technological imperative

In one of the most challenging periods to confront tertiary education, we examine the impact that technology is having on the experience of one open and distance education university: Deakin University in Victoria, Australia. This paper considers how the espoused pedagogical views that were expressed by the academics interviewed, individually and collectively impacted on their attitudes to information technologies and to their reactions to exposure to and experience with various technologies. The first part of the paper explicitly considers the interview as a research method and situates the interviews we undertook within current scholarship. The focus of the interviews was to seek perceptions of what constituted good teaching as well as the relevance of technology for teaching: as each academic defined it; the discipline concerned and the mode of delivery (i.e. on and/or off‐campus). The research did not provide definitive answers but suggested themes and implications which are considered in the Conclusion. Although restricted to the perceptions of five academics at one university, the extent to which each of the ‘case studies' resonates with the reader's experience takes it beyond the experience of the one tertiary institution.     

The Role of Artists in Sites for Learning

Socially engaged, participatory and educational arts activities have been recognised by artists as a legitimate area of creative practice for a considerable time. Current policy initiatives around social inclusion and life long learning demonstrate that this government has a keen interest in the transformative nature of creativity and participation in arts activity. This paper explores the significance of the, Arts Council's Artists in Sites for Learning Scheme and a related piece of research within the context of recent cultural agendas and governmental policy initiatives. The research examined the ‘forms of engagement’ that occur between artists, participants and others and concludes that the role the artist inhabits within this form of creative practice is multifaceted and highly sophisticated. This paper also raises key issues concerning the ‘value’ and critical assessment of this form of practice and the need for appropriate support for (and evaluation of) it in the future.     

Multilevel Factors Affecting College Students’ Perceived Knowledge Transferability: From the Perspective of Self-Determination Theory

Promoting students’ ability to transfer or apply their knowledge and skills to real-life situations is critical in higher education. The current study was designed to test the likelihood that the constructs based on self-determination theory (SDT) framework help understand college students’ perceived knowledge transferability. A total of 3783 undergraduates from 301 classes participated in this study. The results of a series of multilevel modeling analyses indicated that (a) competence satisfaction and identification were the most salient factors influencing students’ perceived knowledge transferability; (b) the SDT-related variables together explained 64.2% of the between-student variance in perceived knowledge transferability; (c) after controlling for student-level covariates and SDT-related variables, 7.9% of the variance in perceived knowledge transferability was caused by between-class differences, and 19.6% of it could be explained by course fields and course levels. Our results, which provide evidence of multilevel factors influencing college students’ perceived knowledge transferability, have implications for promoting transfer in higher education.