The Social Functioning of Students With Learning Disabilities: Implications for Inclusion

This article presents a selected review of research on the social functioning of students with learning disabilities (LD) and draws implications for the inclusion of students with LD in regular education classrooms. Four areas of social functioning are addressed: social skills, self-concept, friendships, and social networks. Research in these areas indicates that some, though not all, students with LD demonstrate problems in the social domain that may have consequences for their inclusion in regular classrooms. In light of the trend toward inclusion of students with LD, we argue that the social dimensions of placement decisions for these students should be considered.     

Factors Contributing to Readmission of Seniors into Acute Care Hospitals

Medicare spending is expected to increase by 79% between the years 2010 and 2020, caused, in-part, by hospital readmissions within 30 days of discharge. This study identified factors contributing to hospital readmissions in a midwest heath service area (HSA), using Coleman's Transition Care Model as the theoretical framework. The researchers analyzed data from the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services and findings from a survey of seniors and a focus group of health professionals. The targeted HSA had a lower overall readmission rate than the national average, yet higher for surgical discharges in particular. Analysis of survey and focus data showed that factors centered around the area of patient-provider and provider-provider communication processes, patient adherence, and health literacy. The study's convenience sample limits its generalizability. However, findings are consistent with the theoretical framework and past research, demonstrating that the solution to the rising health care costs may be less high tech or pharmaceutical interventions per se but more fundamental communication among providers as well as with patients and caregivers.     

Learning Through Constructing Representations in Science: A framework of representational construction affordances

Compared with research on the role of student engagement with expert representations in learning science, investigation of the use and theoretical justification of student-generated representations to learn science is less common. In this paper, we present a framework that aims to integrate three perspectives to explain how and why representational construction supports learning in science. The first or semiotic perspective focuses on student use of particular features of symbolic and material tools to make meanings in science. The second or epistemic perspective focuses on how this representational construction relates to the broader picture of knowledge-building practices of inquiry in this disciplinary field, and the third or epistemological perspective focuses on how and what students can know through engaging in the challenge of representing causal accounts through these semiotic tools. We argue that each perspective entails productive constraints on students’ meaning-making as they construct and interpret their own representations. Our framework seeks to take into account the interplay of diverse cultural and cognitive resources students use in these meaning-making processes. We outline the basis for this framework before illustrating its explanatory value through a sequence of lessons on the topic of evaporation.     

The effects of teacher read-alouds and student silent reading on predominantly bilingual high school seniors’ learning and retention of social studies content

Teacher read-alouds (TRA) are common in middle and high school content area classes. Because the practice of reading the textbook out loud to students is often used out of concern about students’ ability to understand and learn from text when reading silently (SR), this randomized controlled trial was designed to experimentally manipulate text reading while blocking on all other instructional elements to determine the relative effects on learning content. Predominantly Spanish–English bilingual twelfth-graders (n = 123) were randomly assigned to either a TRA or SR condition and provided 1 week of high quality instruction in US history. Daily lessons included teaching key terms in the passage, previewing text headings, and conducting comprehension checks. Results of immediate, 1-week delayed, and 1-month delayed assessments of content learning revealed no significant differences between the two groups. Students were also asked to rate the method of reading they believed best helped them understand and remember information. Students in the SR condition more consistently agreed that reading silently was beneficial. Findings suggest low performing adolescents of different linguistic backgrounds can learn content as well when reading appropriately challenging text silently as when the teacher reads the text aloud to them.     

Services and Supports for Students with Traumatic Brain Injury: Survey of State Educational Agencies

Long-term follow-up studies conducted during the K–12 school years suggest that challenges related to childhood traumatic brain injury (TBI) tend to persist or worsen over time. A 1999 survey of State Directors of Special Education revealed that most states had emerging initiatives for children with TBI and were expanding their capacity to serve this growing population. To determine whether significant changes in patterns of identification and service delivery had occurred, State Directors and brain injury consumer organizations were surveyed. Survey results show some improvement, but significant gaps remain. Most state education administrators perceive a gap between incidence of childhood TBI and identification of students with TBI to receive special education services. Recommendations for policy changes and research are provided.     

“This is America”: Examining Artifactual Literacies as Austere Love Across Contexts of Schools and Everyday Use

The Urban Review - In this paper, we consider how teachers and teacher educators may foreground relationships, experiences, pasts, and possibilities to more fully recognize and extend...     

Third graders respond to literature for and about Afro-Americans

Although scholars have written about the intentions and evaluated the quality of some of the most notable culturally conscious literature written primarily for and about Afro-American children, few researchers have analyzed youngsters' responses to these books. We conducted an interview-based study with a class of 13 black and white (Anglo) third graders to determine their ability to comprehend, find realistic, identify with, and generally enjoy 24 largely culturally conscious works. With slight variations regarding race and gender, developmental age and prior experiences provided the context for heir appreciation of the materials. With the teacher's assistance in a group discussion the participants overcame some of their earlier problems with stories, but the paucity of their knowledge and understanding of African and Afro-American studies robbed them of the ability to embrace certain books. We concluded that the childrens' school policy makers must take steps to overcome this major shortooming.