Stimulant medication and reading performance: follow-up on sustained dose in ADHD boys with and without conduct disorders.

The study examined the sustained effects of methylphenidate on reading performance in a sample of 42 boys, aged 8 to 11, with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Two subgroups were formed based on the presence or absence of co-occurring conduct disorders. Subjects were selected on the basis of their positive response to methylphenidate as determined in a series of original medication trials (Forness, Cantwell, Swanson, Hanna, & Youpa, 1991). For the purpose of this study, subjects were placed on their optimal dose of medication for a 6-week period and then tested on measures of oral reading and reading comprehension equivalent to those used in the original trials, retested after a week without medication (placebo), then tested again the following week after return to medication. Only the subgroup with conduct disorders responded, and this response was limited to reading comprehension improvement in only those subjects who also demonstrated improvement in oral reading on original trials. No response differences were found between subjects with or without learning disabilities.     

Power,Perceptions, and Relationships: A Model of Co-Teaching in Higher Education

Co-teaching has historically been used in K–12 education to provide students with disabilities access to general curriculum; therefore, much of the co-teaching literature has focused on the K–12 population. Research on collegiate co-teaching has been more limited and largely focused on the advantages and disadvantages of co-teaching, omitting important factors that affect relationships between partners. This qualitative study involved seven interviews of co-teachers of graduate and undergraduate classes in order to better understand interactions between college-level co-teaching dyads. Data analysis revealed themes of power and authority structures, dynamics of co-teaching relationships, and co-teachers' perceptions related to advantages of co-teaching, disadvantages of co-teaching, and student experiences. The researchers developed the Circular Model of Collegiate Co-Teaching, an original model to explain how these themes and subthemes are interrelated and affect each other. Specific best practices and new insights for collegiate co-teaching practice are discussed.     

Counseling Interview Techniques: A Comparison of Theory and Practice

The purpose of this study was to analyze counseling interview techniques learned while in counselor preparation in relationship to those techniques that secondary school counselors considered useful in actual secondary school counseling.     

Validation of a self-perceived media competence instrument for pre-service teachers / Validación de un instrumento de autopercepción de competencia mediática para docentes en formación

Abstract

Key to guaranteeing the fundamental human rights of freedom of expression and information is the development of media competence, particularly in schools. Training teachers in the area of media competence is particularly important for developing these skills in the broader citizenry. In order to provide educators and educational policymakers with a useful diagnostic tool, we have designed a self-perception questionnaire. The questionnaire was applied to a sample of Peruvian education students (N = 501). On the one hand, the results confirm the construct’s coherence, validity and instrumental reliability. On the other hand, they allow us to propose a theoretically based update to the way in which this construct is interpreted and applied, confirming the multidimensionality of media competence. Finally, we use this empirical evidence to discuss the integral, transversal and ecological status of media competence.     

A Behavioural Evaluation of Dance Instruction with Students Who Have Special Needs

A dance programme for a class of students with special needs was evaluated using a multiple baseline across behaviours design where the behaviours were movements representing aspects of the elements of dance: Space, Body Awareness, Relationships, Levels, Effort, Speed and Shape. Observational data showed that the instructional dance programme was successful in extending the variety of movements performed by the students and that the observational methodology designed for the study was a useful strategy for evaluating teaching in dance.     

Certainty of Punishment and Criminal Thinking: Do the Rational and Non-rational Parameters of a Student’s Decision to Cheat on an Exam Interact?

The purpose of this study was to determine whether criminal thinking interacts with the rational requirements of human decision-making in a group of college students. A convenience sample of 315 undergraduates (114 males, 201 females) completed self-report measures of criminal thinking and estimated their likelihood of cheating on an exam given different levels of certainty of apprehension. A repeated-measures analysis of covariance revealed that students were significantly more likely to seize on the opportunity to cheat when the certainty of getting caught was 10% than when it was 50% and that students with higher levels of criminal thinking were more likely to take the opportunity to cheat than students with lower levels of criminal thinking. In addition, students exhibiting moderate proactive criminal thinking and moderate to high reactive criminal thinking were significantly less likely to be deterred from cheating when the odds of getting caught were low.     

Developing a smart classroom infrastructure to support real-time student collaboration and inquiry: a 4-year design study

Instructional Science - K-12 classroom settings are not yet incorporating emerging technologies such as ubiquitous computing, augmented reality, nor even touch surfaces, despite the significant...     

Is science itself the cause of ineffective science teaching?

In her article “A Possible ‘Orality’ for Science?” (Interchange, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 227–244), Rampal argues that science can be made more relevant to students if its language is reformed and replaced by one that contains elements drawn from oral cultures. There is some point to this policy proposal, but it fails to note that the dispassionate and impersonal prose of science has its own function in the on-going practice of science. The real task for the teacher should not be reforming the language of science but rather using oral culture to lead students in the excitement of scientific theories and the joys of scientific research, bringing them in the end to a mastery of the prose style that the scientific community has found serves well its goal of increasing our knowledge of laws of nature.