This paper aims to analyse the role of time concentration of instructional hours on the acquisition of formulaic sequences in English as a foreign language (EFL). Two programme types that offer the same amount of hours of instruction are considered: intensive (110 hours/1 month) and regular (110 hours/7 months). The EFL learners under study are…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of a nutrition-education intervention delivered at low-income middle schools in Washington, DC in the USA, using a mobile farmers' market to bring hands-on lessons to schools. The program was a partnership between a local farm and university and was funded by the United States Department…

The Mathematics Mastery programme is a whole-school approach to teaching mathematics that aims to raise attainment for all pupils and close the attainment gap between pupils from low income families and their peers. The programme aims to deepen pupils' conceptual understanding of key mathematical concepts. This summary is based on two randomised…

This report examines traditional calendar school Read to Achieve reading camps implemented in the summer of 2014. Teacher and student survey respondents reported positive reading camp experiences and reading camp was well attended. Based on data for 502 students, a small percentage (16.1%) reached reading proficiency by the end of camp. Gains in…

This brief report describes results from an evaluation of NAMI Basics, a peer-delivered family education program for family caregivers of children and adolescents with mental illness. Over six classes, family members are given information (e.g. education about mental illness and treatments), skills training (e.g. family communication skills) and…

Parents and peers have been successful at implementing interventions targeting social interactions in children with autism; however, few interventions have trained siblings as treatment providers. This study used a multiple-baseline design across six sibling dyads (four children with autism) to evaluate the efficacy of sibling-implemented…

This article reports on the effectiveness of First Step to Success, a secondary-level intervention appropriate for students in early elementary school who experience moderate to severe behavior problems and are at risk for academic failure. The authors demonstrate the intervention's short-term effects on multiple behavioral and academic outcomes…

College-level students arrive fairly confident in their research abilities. When the university began a new requirement for information literacy competency in the General Education Requirements, distance library faculty had the opportunity to teach an online section. A technologically savvy health science librarian and technologically challenged…

This study examined how using two different ways of displaying the solar system--a true-to-scale mode vs. an orrery mode--affected students' knowledge of astronomical concepts. Solar system displays were presented in a software application on a handheld tablet computer. In the true-to-scale mode, users navigated a simulated three-dimensional solar…

Recognizing the differences between three discrete distributions (Binomial, Hypergeometric and Negative Binomial) can be challenging for students. We present an activity designed to help students differentiate among these distributions. In addition, we present assessment results in the form of pre- and post-tests that were designed to assess the…

Although learning from multiple representations has been shown to be effective in a variety of domains, little is known about the mechanisms by which it occurs. We analyzed log data on error-rate, hint-use, and time-spent obtained from two experiments with a Cognitive Tutor for fractions. The goal of the experiments was to compare learning from…

In recent years, the regression discontinuity design (RDD) has gained widespread recognition as a quasi-experimental method that when used correctly, can produce internally valid estimates of causal effects of a treatment, a program or an intervention (hereafter referred to as treatment effects). In an RDD study, subjects or groups of subjects…

Students enrolled in a first-year seminar course focused on gender provided attitudinal and experiential responses at two points during the course: during the first week of class and during the last week of class. A qualitative-quantitative method using concurrent triangulation was used to investigate pre- and post-test responses to core concepts…

In a recently published meta-analysis, Tran, Sanchez, Arellano, and Swanson (2011) synthesized 13 studies that permitted assessment of characteristics of children who were adequate and inadequate responders to instruction. The authors indicated that "[t]he central question addressed in this review is whether individual differences in…

This article evaluates the incorporation of issues of sustainability as a central orienting theme into an American Government course. Issues of sustainability are at the forefront of the American political agenda and are intricately linked to our ability as a nation to prosper economically, socially, and physically. In this course, students are…