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This article examines individualising processes in the context of Municipal Adult Education in Swedish for Immigrants (SFI). Demands to adapt education to individual students' needs are increasingly evident in adult education policies, requiring accountable authorities' active engagement in enacting effective organisational frameworks while accommodating the labour market's needs. Such endeavours are often sources of tensions. Conceptual tools from cultural-historical activity theory are employed to address the complexity and multiplicity of individualising processes. An analysis of policy documents and interviews with municipal actors shows that individualising processes are played out through tensions found in three areas of object formation: making of an individual student; making of an effective education; and making of a coherent society. Hence, the study unpacks how individualising processes elicit transformations of SFI education through destabilisation/restabilisation cycles in the involved actors' activities, concluding by highlighting the concept's dynamic and potentiality for development in contemporary adult education settings. more...

School-based day treatment is an intensive mental health service for children with social, emotional, and behavioral difficulties. Research on day treatment is scarce and descriptions of program models are lacking. We used stimulated recall interviews to explore the moment-to-moment processes and strategies of classroom staff in a day treatment program for children in kindergarten and Grade 1 in Canada. Several processes and strategies used by staff emerged from the thematic analysis of the interviews. These included a process of individualized intervention, characterized by a continual and cyclical process of attunement, responsiveness, assessment, and evaluation, using a team-based approach, noticing positives about children, a climate of positive relationships, staff regulating their own emotions, being flexible while also being firm and consistent, and seeing children from a developmental perspective. More specific strategies used by staff (e.g., token economy) also emerged from the interviews. Implications for future research and teacher training are discussed. more...

Background: Originally designed for use with adolescents in group-based settings, there has been limited evaluation of Trauma and Grief Component Therapy (TGCT) with respect to its use with individual patients across a wide age range of children and adolescents. Objectives: This study describes a pilot open trial of individually administered TGCT, an assessment-driven, modularized treatment for traumatized and/or bereaved children and adolescents. Key outcomes measures include posttraumatic stress, depressive symptoms, and maladaptive grief reactions. Method: The sample consisted of 58 treatment-seeking children and adolescents who experienced trauma and/or bereavement (ages 7-17 years, M = 12.78, SD = 2.93; 68.4% female; 45.6% Hispanic, 14.0% Black, 22.8% White, 14.0% Multiracial). The study used a single-group open trial design. Youth referred to the study due to experiencing a potentially traumatic event or death of a loved one completed self-report measures of posttraumatic stress, depressive symptoms, and maladaptive grief reactions (when applicable). Measures were also completed following Module 1 of the treatment. Results: Bayesian regression models revealed youth who completed TGCT Module 1 reported substantial reductions from baseline, with large effect sizes for posttraumatic stress, depressive symptoms, and maladaptive grief reactions. Rates of reliable improvement ranged from 42 to 65% across treatment outcomes with 69% of youth demonstrating reliable improvement in at least one outcome. Conclusions: The present study provides preliminary evidence supporting TGCT as an individual treatment for traumatized and/or bereaved children and adolescents experiencing posttraumatic stress, depressive symptoms, and/or maladaptive grief reactions. more...

Training to run is not straightforward since without proper personalised supervision and planning, people will not improve their performance and will increase the risk of injuries. This study aims to identify the different factors that influence running training programmes, examining the benefits, challenges or limitations of personalised plans. Moreover, this study explores how multimodal, immersive and artificial intelligence technologies can support personalised training. We conducted an exploratory sequential mixed research consisting of interviews with 11 running coaches from different countries and a survey of 12 running coaches. Based on the interviews and survey analysis, we identified and extracted relevant factors of the training process. We identified four relevant aspects for running training: physical, technical, mental and body awareness. Using these aspects as a reference, we derived a framework using a bottom-up approach. This framework proposes multimodal, immersive and artificial intelligence technologies to facilitate personalised running training. It also allows coaches to personally guide their athletes on each aspect. more...

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) engage in less physical activity than typically-developing peers. This can result in serious negative consequences for individual well-being and may contribute to the physical, behavioral, and emotional challenges associated with ASD. This study explored the potential benefits of trainer-led, individualized, physical fitness sessions specialized for ASD. Eleven individuals (ages 7-24 years) with ASD were assessed at baseline and following 15 fitness sessions. Participants demonstrated improvements in core and lower-body strength and reductions in restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior, along with non-significant but marked reductions in issues with daytime sleepiness. Results suggest the merit of specialized fitness programs and emphasize the need for larger and more rigorous research studies on this topic. more...

For caregivers of people living with major neurocognitive disorders (MNCD), adapting and applying methods optimizing learning (MOL) to a specific situation, based on preserved cognitive skills, can be challenging. This study aimed to 1) co-develop workshops, a web application and accompanying materials to support the operationalization of MOL; 2) better understand the factors influencing caregivers' use of MOL, and 3) evaluate the perceived effects of the workshops. A participatory action research study was conducted in collaboration with family caregivers of people living with MNCD and healthcare and community organization workers (HCOW). Qualitative questionnaires and interviews were conducted and transcribed in verbatim. Thematic content analysis was conducted. Workshops and accompanying materials were co-developed and continuously improved based on conceptual framework and feedback from the participants. The final version of the workshops consisted of seven two-hour sessions structured around the type of cognitive deficits affecting the realization of activities. Facilitators (e.g. help to identify the person's capabilities) and barriers (e.g. fluctuation of MNCD symptoms) for caregivers' use of the MOL were reported. The identification of the cause of reactive behavioral expressions could be challenging for some family caregivers, reducing the use of MOL. Caregivers mentioned their increased preparedness to support and relationship with the person living with MNCD and feeling of competence for analyzing the reactive behavioral expressions and to use MOL. This participatory action research has shown that caregivers can acquire abilities to adapt and apply MOL in specific situations with people living with MNCD. more...

All students have the right to be safe at school. Regulations mandate that schools must establish procedures to ensure the safety of all students during emergency situations. Twenty years ago, a Midwestern school district created Individualized Emergency Evacuation Plans (IEEPs) to address unique safety needs of students with disabilities. A mixed methods design program evaluation was conducted to study its effectiveness. It examined the extent to which these practices align with the needs of students with disabilities, and what changes might be implemented to improve the program. Participants were multiple levels of District personnel. Data were collected using a quantitative online survey and qualitative individual semi-structured interviews and two focus groups. Most survey participants felt that current plans meet needs of students with disabilities; however, the plans could be updated to better support student safety. Interview analyses produced three emergent themes: We will do whatever it takes; There is always room for improvement; and "It might be helpful to … ." District Q continues to implement some practices from the original framework of the Individualized Emergency Evacuation Plans. The program evaluation produced suggestions for more effectively and efficiently meeting the safety needs of students with disabilities in emergency situations. more...

Coaching is necessary for the successful implementation of individualized behavior support in the classroom. However, the way in which school teams engage in coaching to facilitate the implementation of individualized behavior supports has not been well described. This large-scale exploratory survey examined current coaching practices of elementary school educators implementing individualized behavior supports. Respondents described their coaching experiences with respect to frequency, type of coaching activities, type of feedback, method of feedback, tools to support coaching implementation, perceived coaching effectiveness, and obstacles to effective coaching. Results indicate wide variability in coaching practices for those receiving coaching, in addition to a disparity between ideal coaching as described in the literature and actual coaching practices in schools. more...

Individualising processes often are prescribed as all-embracing solutions in adult education policies worldwide. Nevertheless, re-adaptation of educational frameworks to individual students' needs may result in tensions for involved agents due to complexities of such initiatives. This literature review examines individualising processes in international adult education research and aims to identify societal needs and challenges eliciting individualising processes and how the latter materialise in policy and practice, causing transformations of adult education in different contexts. The point of departure is Swedish Municipal Adult Education, which is viewed as a collective human activity embedded in a transnational policy agenda and involving a wide array of agents. Thus, the scope of the review involves international research. The analysis of the selected literature is based on the analytical concepts of motive and object, stemming from cultural-historical activity theory. The results indicate that, in the selected literature, individualising processes are problematised within three interrelated and not mutually exclusive themes: mediating between liberation and responsibility; alleviating the risk of exclusion; and addressing student diversity. The study concludes with recommendations for further research that considers the complexity and potentiality of the topic. more...

Self-regulation is an essential skill for lifelong learning. Research has shown that self-regulated learning (SRL) leads to greater academic achievement and sustainable education, but students often struggle with SRL. Scaffolds are widely reported as an effective and efficient support method for SRL. To further improve digital scaffolds' effectiveness, real-time detection of learning behavior can be used to personalize scaffolds. Therefore, the present study aimed to inform the field of scaffolding SRL by reporting on the design and evaluation of digital scaffolds. We present decisions made during the design process of personalized scaffolds to inform future scaffold designs. We evaluated how scaffolds were personalized based on real-time detection SRL, how university students respond to the scaffolds (i.e., compliance), and how this response is related to learning outcomes (i.e., quality of an essay). The research design was a pre-posttest with three conditions (no, generalized (same for all), or personalized scaffolds). A 45-minute reading and writing task was used, during which SRL processes were recorded in real-time. Findings revealed that different real-time SRL processes could be used to personalize scaffolds, meaning that we were able to personalize the content of scaffold based on students' actual learning behavior. In addition, students in the personalized condition complied more with the scaffolds than students in the other conditions. This compliance with the scaffolds was generally associated with better learning outcomes. To conclude, our approach showed how design decisions could be evaluated and provided insight into the personalization of scaffolds. more...

Autistic children tend to show divergent social information processing, and controversies exist regarding the mechanisms underlying this processing. In this article, we summarize and categorize the current theories and evidence related to hypo- and hyperarousal accounts of social information processing in autism. The hypo-arousal account proposes reduced motivation or sensitivity to process social information and is supported by behavioral, eye-tracking, and neuroimaging studies. Recent evidence has challenged this account, highlighting the role of eye gaze in interpreting the hypo-brain activation. The hyperarousal account posits that social context could evoke anxiety and discomfort in autistic children, which could interfere with their social information processing and result in social avoidance. Most research in this field has studied children and adolescents, but some studies have included adults since autism is a lifelong condition. Here, we highlight the importance of considering the heterogeneity of arousal patterns in autistic children when developing individualized supporting protocols. more...

One way to provide intensive intervention for students with severe and persistent reading difficulties is to use a systematic data-based decision-making process called data-based individualisation (DBI). DBI is a process for identifying needs and aligning them with specialist support. Meta-analyses of DBI studies by university-based researchers have shown positive effects, but university research studies do not involve many of the implementation science-related factors that affect success. This study addresses the dearth of data from practice-based studies that incorporate DBI and was done as a researcher-practitioner collaboration, developed with based on the theory that the collaborators' combined knowledge and skills could produce positive outcomes. Mixed methods were used to examine whether there was evidence of success in implementation DBI conducted through a researcher-practitioner partnership in New York City Public Schools, the largest public school system in the United States. Specifically, data were collected concerning the quality of DBI implementation and changes in teachers' and administrators' perspectives about the value of implementing intensive intervention. Results indicated that district-level implementation met many criteria for effective DBI, that school teams (N = 6) implemented DBI with an overall high level of fidelity (mean score of 4.1 on a 5-point scale) and that teachers and school administrators changed their thinking about intensive intervention as a result of participation in DBI. Stakeholder interview data indicated a high level of social acceptability for DBI implementation. Features of the research-practice partnership thought to have contributed to the success of the project are discussed. more...

Schools are expected to hold an increasingly central role in co-ordinating support for children with mental health needs. However, the role that schools hold in supporting pupils with selective mutism (SM) is complex. Through a Critical Interpretive Synthesis (CIS), this review explores the multidimensional role which educational settings hold in supporting children with SM. Key databases were searched (PsycInfo, British Education Index, Education Resources Information Center, British Library EThOS and Google Scholar) and a conceptual map, informed by experienced practitioners, guided additional purposive searching with a focus on conceptual saturation. A total of twenty-four papers were identified following a further process of appraisal. Reciprocal Translational Analysis (RTA) found that schools hold a tripartite role in supporting children with SM: this incorporated developing a shared understanding of the disorder, engaging in effective (and often multi-professional) planning, and offering direct support through adapting provision and facilitating individual intervention. Through realising this role, schools and educational settings might transform the support currently available for children and young people with SM. Implications for practice, policy and future research also emerged. This included a clear need for enhanced teacher understanding of SM, arguably at the level of initial teacher training (ITT). more...

A needs assessment was conducted at a learning center at one completely online institution to understand administrator, faculty, and student perceptions of the center's services and resources to uncover gaps between the current state and intended outcomes (personalized support, clarity of services, and shared accountability for student success). Through gap analysis, findings suggested that there is a need to empower students through personalized support, prevent struggling students from feeling overwhelmed, and direct students to specific services and resources based on their unique needs. Next steps and implications for future research are discussed. more...

Many academic libraries have implemented personal librarian programs, seeking to improve relationships with students and reduce library anxiety. This pilot study, in which a personal librarian was assigned to sections of a general education course, aimed to expand upon the personal librarianship literature by assessing whether a personal librarian influences student academic outcomes and information literacy confidence. Results from the pilot suggest that the presence of and engagement with the personal librarian had minimal and not statistically significant effect on academic outcomes, but engagement with the personal librarian somewhat correlated with growth in information literacy confidence. more...

Background: Many countries use market forces to drive reform across disability supports and services. Over the last few decades, many countries have individualised budgets and devolved these to people with disability, so that they can purchase their own choice of supports from an available market of services. Key points for discussion: Such individualised, market-based schemes aim to extend choice and control to people with disability, but this is only achievable if the market operates effectively. Market stewardship has therefore become an important function of government in guiding markets and ensuring they operate effectively. The type of evidence that governments tend to draw on in market stewardship is typically limited to inputs and outputs and has less insight into the outcomes services do or do not achieve. While this is a typical approach to market stewardship, we argue it is problematic and that a greater focus on outcomes is necessary. Conclusions and implications: To include a focus on outcomes, we argue that market stewards need to take account of the lived experience of people with disability. We present a framework for doing this, drawing on precedents where people with disability have contributed lived experience evidence within other policy, research, knowledge production and advocacy contexts. With the lived experience evidence of people with disability included, market stewardship will be better able to take account of outcomes as they play out in the lives of those using the market and, ultimately, achieve greater choice and control for people with disability. more...

One of the most common reasons people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) return to institutions is because of maladaptive behaviors. This study's aim was to examine the impact organizational supports can have on the community outcomes of people with dual diagnosis--those with IDD and psychiatric disabilities. We analyzed secondary Personal Outcome Measures interview data from 533 people with dual diagnosis. Findings revealed people with dual diagnosis were significantly more likely to have community outcomes present when they received individualized organizational supports. In addition, we found a number of disparities in organizational supports, including related to guardianship, communication method, and residence type. A more robust service system is necessary to ensure people with dual diagnosis are integrated into their communities. more...

Talent of the practitioner is irrelevant if the person receiving support (or the person responsible for delivering support) does not follow through with the plan. This is true in applied behavior analysis (ABA), medicine, and allied health-care services. The cost of nonadherence and related nonoptimized interventions is a major contributor to the overall cost of health care, estimated at $290-528 billion annually in the United States (New England Healthcare Institute, 2009; Watanabe, McInnis, & Hirsch, 2018). Although a topic of research in medicine for over 60 years, no gold standard for the enhancement of adherence has been demonstrated in any single population, disease condition, or therapeutic approach (Nieuwlaat et al., 2014; Rudd, 1979). Given the broad applicability of behavior analysis as a framework for understanding human behavior, and the need to recognize and address the problem of nonadherence in ABA (Allen & Warzak, 2000) we propose a systematic behavioral model for adherence and the development of strategies to enhance follow-through with individualized support plans. more...

While public employment service delivery in many developed countries today is rendered in a differentiated, needs- or profile-based approach, it remains entrenched in a traditional one-size-fits-all, first-come-first-served approach in most developing countries. The right servicing model offers a system of continuous assessment and determination of the "right" level of service delivery that achieves a specific socioeconomic outcome in accordance with organisational attributes, citizen preferences and resource availability. For developing countries typically faced with data and resource limitations, the model can be operationalised through the cognitive information processing approach to career problem-solving and decision-making which has an established record of successful applications to career and employment services in over 40 countries. more...

Many adults with Down syndrome (DS) experience difficulty with speech production, and intelligibility challenges and communication breakdowns are common. Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) intervention can provide important supports for persons with these complex communication needs but must be customized to address the goals, strengths, and needs of the individual. This article provides a description of a personalized AAC intervention for a young adult with DS whose speech was frequently unintelligible. The AAC intervention made use of a video visual scene display (VSD) approach and was investigated in 2 separate studies in 2 key community settings: An inclusive post-secondary education program (a single-case reversal ABAB design), and a community shopping activity (a nonexperimental AB case study design). The participant demonstrated sharp increases in successful communication and participation in both settings following the introduction of the video VSD, and both the participant and the key stakeholders viewed the intervention positively. The results provide preliminary evidence that personalized AAC intervention, including the use of a video VSD approach, can provide important supports for communication and participation in community settings for adults with DS and complex communication needs. more...

We describe a decision protocol for choosing among potentially efficacious toilet training interventions and tested its effects with 3 preschool participants with disabilities. We utilized a decision protocol (Keohane and Greer 2005) to determine whether to initially implement interval or rapid training interventions as well as to determine whether adequate progress was being made with a particular toilet training intervention. We utilized the decision protocol to individualize toilet training procedure and evaluated its effects in a delayed multiple baseline design. Results indicated that the toileting skills of all participants improved with increased numbers of target voids on the toilet and decreased numbers of accidents as a result of individualized training procedures. more...

This contribution reports on the developing and piloting of a computer-based version of the test of English as a foreign language produced by the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), where it is currently used for the admission of international students and the subsequent evaluation of their language progress. Among other benefits, computer-based testing allows for better and individualised feedback to both teachers and students, and it can provide a more authentic test experience in light of the current digital shift that UK universities are undergoing. In particular, the qualitative improvement in the feedback available for test-takers and teachers was for us a crucial factor. Providing students with personalised feedback, that is, directly linked to their performance, has positive washforward, because it means we can guide their future learning, highlighting the areas they need to work on to improve their language skills and giving them suggestions on how to succeed in academia. Furthermore, explaining the meaning of test results in detail improves transparency and ultimately washback, as teachers can use the more accessible marking criteria, together with information on how their students performed, to review plans and schemes of work for subsequent courses. more...

Academic libraries have long employed student workers to assist with routine tasks, creating beneficial outcomes for both the student and the library. Traditionally, these tasks primarily consisted of checking in/out materials, shelving books, and monitoring the library; however, libraries have also started allowing students to assist in a peer-reference capacity. This article details how academic libraries can create a major aligned, student-centric, and personalised student worker program. This approach is a significant change from the task-oriented, library-centric design that is currently used in many academic settings. This case study describes how an academic library can work with student workers, employed, and voluntary, who from the initial interview, are provided with an individualised program design, library instruction, and mentoring while contributing to the greater mission and vision of the library. more...

Medicine in the twenty-first century faces an 'identity crisis,' as it grapples with the emergence of various 'ways of knowing,' from evidence-based and translational medicine, to narrative-based and personalized medicine. While each of these approaches has uniquely contributed to the advancement of patient care, this pluralism is not without tension. Evidence-based medicine is not necessary individualized; personalized medicine may be individualized but is not necessarily person-centered. As novel technologies and big data continue to proliferate today, the focus of medical practice is shifting away from the dialogic encounter between doctor and patient, threatening the loss of humanism that many view as integral to medicine's identity. As medical trainees, we struggle to synthesize medicine's diverse and evolving 'ways of knowing' and to create a vision of doctoring that integrates new forms of medical knowledge into the provision of person-centered care. In search of answers, we turned to twentieth-century philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer, whose unique outlook on "health" and "healing," we believe, offers a way forward in navigating medicine's 'messy pluralism.' Drawing inspiration from Gadamer's emphasis on dialogue and 'practical wisdom' ("phronesis"), we initiated a dialogue with the dean of our medical school to address the question of how medical trainees and practicing clinicians alike can work to create a more harmonious pluralism in medicine today. We propose that implementing a pluralistic approach ultimately entails 'bridging' the current divide between scientific theory and the practical art of healing, and involves an iterative and dialogic process of asking questions and seeking answers. more...

This article presents findings from the Changing Youth Labour Markets and Schools to Work Transitions in Modern Britain projects undertaken between 2009 and 2010. The projects examined young people's experiences and perceptions about study, work, and the future while going through transitions. The target group was young people on vocational courses at further education colleges in London aged between 18 and 24. This group is an under-researched cohort, who is neither NEET nor following "tidy" pathways. We apply the conceptual framework of temporal orientations of agency, originally proposed by Emirbayer and Mische (1998). We discuss the interplay between young people's agency and the contexts in which they live. more...

This article examines how inclusive education activities can be facilitated through coaching as a means of professional development. A review of literature on effective professional development practices is discussed, and a recent study focused on individualized peer coaching is examined. more...