The Academy for Educational Development (AED) sent a research team to Western Kentucky University (WKU) on June 19-20, 2008 to conduct interviews with individuals who play important roles in the university's teacher preparation program (see Appendix A). These interviews, along with additional documentation provided by WKU and identified by the AED…

This study presents an innovative pedagogical approach where teachers become game designers and engage in creative teaching practices. Within co-design training workshops, 21 Spanish primary and secondary school teachers have developed their own Game-Based Learning (GBL) scenarios, especially tailored to their teaching contexts and students…

In 1992, Congress enacted the HOPE VI program to overhaul the nation's public housing policy. The reform legislation was prompted by a report commissioned by Congress that deemed two-thirds of all public housing "severely distressed." Since the landmark public housing policy was enacted in 1992, the Department of Housing and Urban Development…

Health screenings conducted during Special Olympics competitions and games have consistently shown that a significant number of athletes with intellectual disabilities (IDs) were overweight or obese, and surveys have indicated that athletes need more fitness training than they receive from their sport practices. In 2002, Special Olympics initiated…

Children of color are overrepresented in child welfare in Iowa at a rate double their percentage of the population. In 2005 the Iowa Department of Human Services implemented two pilot demonstration projects to address overrepresentation of Native American and African American children in the child welfare system. The projects, called the Minority…

Background: Adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities need dietary monitoring but are not likely to be able to provide accurate dietary intake data via traditional methods. Pilot study efforts to meet their support needs with a novel and practical approach to dietary intake data collection are described in this brief report. Materials…

Purpose: This paper seeks to describe the design, implementation, and lessons learned from an obesity prevention pilot program delivered in a low resource school in the USA. Design/methodology/approach: A planned program evaluation was conducted to: document explicitly the process of designing and implementing the program; and assess the…

Teaching has long been considered an isolated profession with little opportunity for collaboration. A major task for school leaders is to create improvement from within the school. Teachers are a valuable resource and each one possesses expertise in strategies and methodologies that can be a benefit to others. This action research explored the…

This article presents the results of a pilot study of the research information needs, behaviour and source preferences of academic researchers at a regional university engaged in a public policy research project. In-depth interviews with three public policy oriented academic researchers undertaking interdisciplinary research projects at Charles…

We report on the incorporation of e-book readers into the delivery of two distance-taught master's programmes in Occupational Psychology (OP) and one in Education at the University of Leicester, UK. The programmes attract work-based practitioners in OP and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, respectively. Challenges in curriculum…

The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the implementation process for Parenting Plus, an early intervention program in a rural, western Canadian health district. Parenting Plus, as modeled after Hawaii Healthy Start, provides strength-based paraprofessional home visitations to overburdened parents of newborns. The general inductive…

The purpose of this article is to describe and analyze how recognition of prior learning acts as a dividing practice and a technique for inclusion/exclusion of immigrants in their vocations in Swedish working life. It is a qualitative study of three pilot programs in Swedish urban centers, and the data consist of interviews and documents…

The model of learning best suited to the future may be one which sees learning as the process of managing the different kinds of participation an individual might have in complex social systems. Learning capability and engagement is thus dependent on the relationship between an individual identity and social systems. We report on the incorporation…

This paper presents the findings of a podcasting trial held in 2007-2008 within the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Sydney, Australia. The trial investigates the value of using short-format podcasts to support assessment for postgraduate and undergraduate students. A multi-method approach is taken in investigating…

Restorative Practices (RPs) in schools developed out of growing interest in Restorative Justice in the community. Schools looking for strategies to address disaffection, behaviour difficulties and violence were attracted by the key ideas: the need to restore good relationships when there has been conflict or harm; and develop a school ethos,…