This paper deals with the topic of child protection in Irish primary schools, and reports on a recently completed survey of newly qualified teachers' knowledge of and familiarity with their school's child protection policies and procedures. The study was undertaken by means of a questionnaire survey, and conducted with 103 teachers from different…

The rise in inadequate and unhealthily diets in children has led investigations to examine the development of food preferences. This review outlines the ways in which children choose between foods made available to them and the subsequent shaping of their own habitual diet. Children are liable to form preferences to certain hedonic foods, and to…

The trend towards inclusive education has led to an increase of studies focusing on peer attitudes. This review study presents an overview of studies describing attitudes of students, variables relating to students' attitudes, and the relationship between students' attitudes and the social participation of peers with disabilities. Based on a…

This mini-survey assessed the environmental literacy level of preservice teachers in a Nigerian university through 199 social studies teacher-trainees. It found a high level of awareness/knowledge on local environmental problems but low level on global environmental issues. Although a positive disposition toward environmental issues was…

There are 1.2 million school-age children with military parents in the United States, and approximately 90% attend public schools. On average, military children move three times more often than their civilian peers. Tensions at home, enrollment issues, adapting to new schools, and a lack of familiarity with military culture by public school…

Two experiments examined the effects of multimodal presentation and stimulus familiarity on auditory and visual processing. In Experiment 1, 10-month-olds were habituated to either an auditory stimulus, a visual stimulus, or an auditory-visual multimodal stimulus. Processing time was assessed during the habituation phase, and discrimination of…

This article reports the results from a research study regarding how school social workers extend opportunities for students to volunteer, serve others, or contribute to their communities and how social workers engaged students in service activities within their roles. The results are one part of the findings of a large research study on the role…

Literature-rich interactions provide strategies that help emergent readers to develop knowledge about print, including the production and recognition of letters, and generate familiarity with the basic purposes and mechanisms of reading. Yet teacher understanding of these multiple dimensions of emergent literacy does not ensure that a child will…

After premature closures in 2004 of biomedical human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention trials involving sex workers in Africa and Asia, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and Global Advocacy for HIV Prevention (AVAC) undertook consultations to establish better participatory guidelines for such trials in order to address…

The authors investigated potential factors impacting students' satisfaction with online course delivery using business students as participants. The findings suggest that the student who would be more satisfied with the delivery of online courses fits the following profile: graduate, married, resides more than 1 mile away from campus, and male.…

Based on the findings of a qualitative study, this article describes how mothers of children labeled with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) mediate for their children in interactions with those who are unfamiliar with ASD. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and participant observations. Findings indicate that mothers mediate for their…

The Einstellung (set) effect occurs when the first idea that comes to mind, triggered by familiar features of a problem, prevents a better solution being found. It has been shown to affect both people facing novel problems and experts within their field of expertise. We show that it works by influencing mechanisms that determine what information…

Intuitive systems are usable systems. Design guidelines advocate intuitiveness and vendors claim it--but what does it mean for a user interface, interactive system, or device to be intuitive? A review of the use of the term "intuitive" indicates that it has two distinct but overlapping meanings, namely intuitiveness based on familiarity and…

This article explores the higher education learning experience of Kat, a mature female student. As part of a longitudinal case study spanning two years, data were collected through interviews and journal entries. The data were used to construct an account of Kat's higher education experience, focusing particularly upon her self-theory in relation…

We investigated whether 1-year-old infants use their shared experience with an adult to determine the meaning of a pointing gesture. In the first study, after two adults had each shared a different activity with the infant, one of the adults pointed to a target object. Eighteen- but not 14-month-olds responded appropriately to the pointing gesture…