This qualitative study explored reasons K-6 teachers did or did not engage students regularly in writing. Interviews with 14 teachers, classified as high, transitional, and low implementers of writing instruction, revealed three themes: hindrances and helps, beliefs concerning practice, and preparation and professional development. Both high and…

The diagnosis of autism is often delayed, which translates into a missed opportunity to provide treatment during a critical developmental period. This study reviews studies that assessed factors associated with age at autism spectrum disorder diagnosis and provides recommendations on future research, programs, and policies to improve early…

Demographic and clinical factors may influence assessment of autism symptoms. This study evaluated these correlates and also examined whether social communication and interaction and restricted/repetitive behavior provided unique prediction of autism spectrum disorder diagnosis. We analyzed data from 7352 siblings included in the Interactive…

It has been argued that clinical applications of advanced technology may hold promise for addressing impairments associated with autism spectrum disorders. This pilot feasibility study evaluated the application of a novel adaptive robot-mediated system capable of both administering and automatically adjusting joint attention prompts to a small…

Oral fluency and foreign accent distinguish L2 from L1 speech production. In language testing practices, both fluency and accent are usually assessed by raters. This study investigates what exactly native raters of fluency and accent take into account when judging L2. Our aim is to explore the relationship between objectively measured temporal,…

Background: Facilitation within successful professional development (PD) requires individuals working with a cadre of teachers to examine and reframe their practices, navigating the complexities associated with educational reform initiatives. Although much has been written about the magnitude of the shift required of teachers within current…

There is still relatively little research on how well the CEFR and similar holistic scales work when they are used to rate L2 texts. Using both multifaceted Rasch analyses and qualitative data from rater comments and interviews, the ratings obtained by using a CEFR-based writing scale and the Finnish National Core Curriculum scale for L2 writing…

This study examines the methodology of global foreign accent ratings in studies on L2 speech production. In three experiments, we test how variation in raters, range within speech samples, as well as instructions and procedures affects ratings of accent in predominantly monolingual speakers of German, non-native speakers of German, as well as…

This study investigates the relationship in L2 writing between raters' judgments of communicative adequacy and linguistic complexity by means of six-point Likert scales, and general measures of linguistic performance. The participants were 39 learners of Italian and 32 of Dutch, who wrote two short argumentative essays. The same writing tasks…

Background: International concern regarding the marginalisation of physical education in school curricula worldwide led to international calls for the establishment and strengthening of national, regional and local networks to integrate physical education into education, sports, health and related policies. The subsequent introduction of the…

This article utilises critical whiteness theory to explore the ethnic discourses observed in a children's centre in South London. Whilst critical whiteness has been used as a framework to understand race, racism and multiculturalism in a number of settings, including education, there are few studies that have sought to understand ethnicity in…

This article provides an analysis of developmental discourses underpinning preschool physical education in Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence. Implementing a post-structural perspective, the article examines the preschool experiences and outcomes related to physical education as presented in the Curriculum for Excellence "health and…

Background: There is a wide range of published research analysing the possible influences of physical education at school over the building of values. Some of these studies indicate positive outcomes while others demonstrate that the influence of physical education at school over the values built by students is not as beneficial as believed. When…

Drives to increase the number of early childhood education and care places in England have relied on a mixed economy of providers. Yet this is not a free market as policy makers have sought to create a discursive truth of an entrepreneurial provider in order to secure their initial pump priming investment. However, there remain sustainability…

Social inclusion discourses have been powerful in informing early childhood policy contexts, both internationally and in Australia (the context of the current study) for the past decade or so. But little research has examined the productive aspects of social inclusion discourses particularly within early childhood education and care (ECEC) policy…