Fostering parents-professional collaboration for facilitating the school inclusion of students with ASD: design of the “ToGather” web-based prototype

Educational technology research and development - In recent years, many psycho-educational technologies were studied to address the school-related difficulties encountered by students with autism...     

Differences in Brain Activation Between Novices and Experts in Science During a Task Involving a Common Misconception in Electricity

Science education studies have revealed that students often have misconceptions about how nature works, but what happens to misconceptions after a conceptual change remains poorly understood. Are misconceptions rejected and replaced by scientific conceptions, or are they still present in students' minds, coexisting with newly acquired scientific conceptions? In this study, we use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare brain activation between novices and experts in science when they evaluate the correctness of simple electric circuits. Results show that experts, more than novices, activate brain areas involved in inhibition when they evaluate electric circuits in which a bulb lights up, even though there is only one wire connecting it to the battery. These findings suggest that experts may still have a misconception encoded in the neural networks of their brains that must be inhibited in order to answer scientifically.     

Graphophonemic awareness in adults after instruction in phonic generalisations

A number of studies have shown, counter-intuitively, that skilled adult readers find it difficult to correctly relate phonemes to graphemes in written words. In most adults this is of little consequence. However, teachers are required to show children how to relate phonemes to graphemes when teaching reading. This study investigated whether a brief period of instruction would improve the ability of adults in this task. Results showed a general level of improvement relative to controls. Exposure alone to the task had no effect. Improvement for the instructed group was not very large and there was difficulty relating phonemes to graphemes which had more than one letter. It may be that trainee teachers need instruction to improve knowledge of grapheme phoneme correspondence so that they can pass such knowledge onto young readers.     

Effects of a Mindfulness-Based Intervention on the Perception of Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction among Special Education Students

Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) have been increasingly implemented in schools to foster better emotional regulation skills for students with special education needs such as learning disabilities (LDs). This pilot study aimed to evaluate the impact of a MBI on the need satisfaction of elementary students with severe LDs. A prospective quasi-experimental design involving one group and two time points was employed. A sample of 14 elementary school students from a severe LDs special education class participated in this project. Repeated-measures ANOVAs were conducted and revealed a significant reduction in need satisfaction, with a large effect size (η² = .35). Contrary to our hypothesis, the MBI appeared to be negatively related to need satisfaction among participants. These results indicate that MBIs could be linked with better self-evaluation skills in students with severe LDs, which, in turn, may change (or increase the accuracy of) the perception that children have of their own need satisfaction.