Postsecondary experiences of young adults with severe physical disabilities

A need exists for follow-up information to determine how well the educational system is meeting the needs of young adults with severe physical disabilities. This study of the postsecondary experiences of 106 graduates of a special school for youth with severe physical disabilities examined the educational, employment, and community adjustment outcomes of these students. Findings suggest that young adults with physical disabilities should cultivate personal and family networks, continue their education, and use vocational rehabilitation agencies. Access to transportation was also found to be a key element in achieving employment and independence.     

Patterns of perceptual deficits in academically deficient juvenile delinquents

Patterns of perceptual deficits were investigated in a population of academically deficient juvenile delinquents. Comparisons were made with a group of youthful offenders with adequate academic skills. Auditory perceptual deficits appeared to be a more significant factor in accounting for the severe academic deficiencies observed in the delinquent subjects than did visual-perceptual deficits. However, multiple perceptual deficits involving both auditory and visual perceptual skills formed the basis of the majority of academic deficiencies and social maladaptation. The results indicate the potential ill effects of an undiagnosed and untreated learning disability on subsequent emotional development. Prevention of delinquency may begin with the preschool child who is at high-risk for developing behavioral problems in later years.     

Classification of children in special education: Importance of pre-assessment information

The records of 137 students for whom complete data files were available were examined in order to determine the extent to which pre-assessment data (teacher referral information and standardized reading test scores) could successfully be used to predict the handicapping classifications decided on by child-study teams. We were specifically interested in the predictive power of pre-assessment information above and beyond that provided by handicapped children's race and gender. Results of our analyses indicated that pre-assessment data can successfully predict the handicapped classifications of the majority of special education students, as well as differentiate students who are found eligible for special education from those found to be ineligible.     

Learning How to Believe: Epistemic Development in Cultural Context

Although Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs), also called knowledge-based tutors, are becoming more common and proving to be increasingly effective, each one must still be built from scratch at a significant cost. At the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, we have developed domain independent tools for authoring all aspects of a knowledge-based tutor: the domain model, the teaching strategies, the student model, and the learning environment. In this article, I describe these tools, discuss a number of design issues and design tradeoffs that are involved in building ITS authoring tools, and discuss knowledge acquisition and representation issues encountered in my work. I also describe how we plan to use these tools (collectively called Eon), including ontology objects, as a meta-authoring tool for designing special-purpose authoring tools tailored for specific domain types.     

The ecological footprint as an educational tool for sustainability: A case study analysis in an Israeli public high school

Education is widely acknowledged to be a means for advancing environmental sustainability. Many schools have recently introduced the idea of sustainability into their educational agenda and curriculum. This study uses an innovative method of communicating the principle of sustainability, the ‘Ecological Footprint’ Analysis, which illustrates the impact of community lifestyles upon the natural environment. This paper describes the process of integrating the concept of the ecological footprint at the high school level, analyzes the school's ecological footprint, and discusses its contributions to education for sustainability in schools.     

Making the Classroom Safe for Open‐Mindedness

For open‐mindedness to be an Aristotelian personal virtue, its possession must make agents better off. Unfortunately, open‐mindedness does not currently pay. The reasons include (1) novelty glut — taking seriously even a tiny percentage of the worthwhile, available ideas would be overwhelming; and (2) deception campaigns — we lack the time, sophistication, and knowledge to uncover the truth ourselves. Our best coping strategy is closed‐mindedness, that is, to ignore whatever we encounter unless vouched for by trusted experts. However, as Jessica Gottlieb and Howard Curzer argue in this article, student learning demands open‐mindedness. Although open‐mindedness is a personal vice, it is a student‐role virtue. Thus, teachers must buffer their classrooms against those features of the contemporary world that make open‐mindedness counterproductive. Teachers can counter these threats by using core practices that are general (such as facilitating classroom discussions) and content‐specific (for example, engaging students in scientific investigations). Core practices enable teachers to craft environments and experiences that make open‐mindedness great again.     

Attitudes Toward Retarded Children: Effects of Evaluator's Psychological Adjustment and Age

Gottlieb, J. (1969). Attitudes Toward Retarded Children: Effects of Evaluator's Psychological Adjustment and Age. Scand. J. Educ. Res. 13, 170‐182. Norwegian school children between the ages of 8‐10, 10‐12, 12‐14, and 14‐16 were divided into high and low adjustment groups on the basis of discrepancy scores between their ideal self and self scores on the semantic differential. It was hypothesized that the high adjustment group would report more favorable attitudes toward the retarded than the low adjustment group, and that attitudes would remain relatively stable with increased age. Both hypotheses were confirmed. The results were interpreted as supporting Rogers’ theory. Possible explanations for the over‐all favorable attitudes by the Norwegian Ss were also discussed.