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Students with fine motor problems can benefit from occupational therapy. Yet not all students receive the services because of a lack of teacher awareness about the problems and the services. This study aims to evaluate a workshop designed to improve teacher awareness about fine motor problems and occupational therapy. The study involved three groups: preservice (N = 34), general education (N = 30), and special education (N = 19) teachers. Each group received a 2 1/2- to 3-hour interactive workshop. They completed the Fine Motor Awareness Scale (FMAS) before, after, and one month following the workshops. Preservice teachers had the greatest learning needs on the topic. All three teacher groups showed significant improvements in the FMAS scores post-workshop, with the greatest change in the preservice teachers group, followed by the special education and then the general education teachers. Knowledge transfer principles contributed to the success of the workshops. Post-workshop evaluation showed teachers wanted more content and longer, multi-session workshops in future. Preservice, general and special education teachers need to know more about fine motor problems and occupational therapy. Knowledge-transfer workshops provided by occupational therapists can meet their learning needs and subsequently help their students to improve fine motor problems. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

With more than 325,000 students, the California State University (CSU) system is 1 of the largest in the United States, making it a useful unit of analysis for studying disability and diversity. Using a critical discourse theoretical framework and borrowing strategies from Astroff (2001) and Pauwells (2012), we found disability information on CSU websites to have surface visibility--66% of the sites had minimal information on the home page. However, digging deeper into the sites we found frustrating navigation structures, hidden content, and the disengagement of disability from diversity. The sites constitute disability as the deficits of individual students that call for regulatory institutional responses and ignore disability as a feature of diversity.

Thirteen participants from two private universities located in the western region of the United States shared their lived experiences of being a college student who does not request accommodations. In one's educational pursuit, bullying is often experienced. While the rates of bullying have increased, students with disabilities are more likely to be bullied. This article chronicles key incidents through the educational journey of a college student with Asperger's syndrome enrolled in a Christian university. Incidents of bullying, aggression, retaliation, and forgiveness underlie this article. Recursive analysis was used to analyze qualitative data from semi-structured interviews. Initial codes were combined to create interconnected families of codes. A second level of analysis resulted in seven spaces in which participants describe their lived experiences. Findings suggest participants experience various tensions, ranging from incompatible options to competing perspectives, as they negotiate their identity. Implications for effective school-home collaboration are addressed.

Children with physical disabilities (CPD) often experience decreased opportunities to participate in daily occupations. Occupational therapists (OTs) prescribe writing and communication aids; however, little is known about this population's perceptions of the technology. This qualitative study explored the perceptions that CPD had regarding their writing and communication aids. Children were interviewed; a focus group of one parent and two OTs provided context to the children's comments. Enablers and barriers to using communication aids were found. Participants reported a greater sense of pride, more self-confidence, and a greater sense of autonomy and productivity with the technology. Analysis of the interviews, focus group, and reflective notes resulted in a model showing how enablers and barriers of on-screen technology usage relates to occupational enhancement or occupational detriment. This study contributes to an understanding of the meaning that CPD associate with writing technology and the factors associated with usage. (Contains 2 tables and 1 figure.)

Visual attention and visual search are the features of visual perception, essential for attending and scanning one's environment while engaging in daily occupations. This study describes the development of a novel web-based test of visual search. The development information including the format of the test will be described. The test was designed to provide an alternative to existing cancellation tests. Data from two pilot studies will be reported that examined some aspects of the test's validity. To date, our assessment of the test shows that it discriminates between healthy and head-injured persons. More research and development work is required to examine task performance changes in relation to task complexity. It is suggested that the conceptual design for the test is worthy of further investigation.

The Pediatric Volitional Questionnaire (PVQ) was used along with the Test of Playfulness (TOP) to assess 16 children with cerebral palsy who took part in a study of virtual reality play intervention. Both observational measures are designed to assess children as they are engaged in occupations in one or more environments. Virtual reality offers an alternative play environment for children who have disabilities. It eliminates several physical barriers usually encountered in real life. It also is a powerful medium for engaging and providing a sense of control and enjoyment with the tasks engaged with. Several virtual environments and activities were offered to the children over an eight-week period. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between these two measures that were used to assess aspects of motivation and playfulness, and to explore which aspects of these measures are most correlated when assessing children in virtual environments. The Pearson correlation calculated between the average motivation score of the TOP and the average PVQ score was significant ( r = .47, p = .05). The item correlations were all non-significant except for two. These were item 6 'stays engaged' ( r = .51, p = .03) and item 9 'tries to produce effects' ( r = .55, p = .02). There is some evidence that these two measures are tapping into similar constructs. These results will be discussed.

A new questionnaire instrument, the Life Satisfaction Index for Adolescents (LSIA), has been developed for adolescents with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). This article reviews the conceptual basis of the LSIA, its development, and its reliability and validity (established with 15 male adolescents with DMD). (DB)

This study investigated the effects of a hand positioning device on aspects of upper extremity movement control and muscular activity and visual motor performance in 10 children with cerebral palsy. Although no significant results were found, individual subject data revealed a trend toward increased numbers of movement units, slower movements, and decreased average velocities. (Author/DB)

ABSTRACT This research tests the accuracy of the Leslie matrix, which is a discrete age-structured method that uses fertility and survival rates, as a tool for predicting women population. Based [...]

ABSTRACT The economic crisis facing our nation forced many companies and universities to downsize and learn to operate with smaller budgets. Valdosta State University (VSU) was not immune to this [...]

ABSTRACT At times we the math instructors in a classroom are not careful enough to use proper Mathematical wording, e.g. [sin.sup.2] + [cos.sup.2] = 1 without any reference to the [...]

The purpose of this note is to introduce a challenging problem in geometry that was inspired by a well-known problem in high school geometry. In this note we will explore geometry problems that involve six-petal rosettes inside a regular hexagon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study provides preliminary findings of a larger phenomenological study that investigates the educational experiences of 24 individuals who attended, taught, or served as an administrator at a Black segregated school during the Jim Crow Era. Research supports that much can be learned from Jim Crow teachers and their pedagogical practices that predates what we currently know as culturally relevant pedagogy. This article presents preliminary findings from five randomly selected participants from the larger study. Semistructured interviews were utilized to obtain the participants' description of their K-12 educational experiences. The three propositions (i.e., student learning/academic achievement, cultural competence, and sociopolitical consciousness) of Ladson-Billings (1995a) concept of culturally relevant pedagogy was used to organize and interpret the meaning the participants assigned to their lived experience. A discussion facilitates a dialogue on practices and future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract An article by Evans and Tirosh, in the July 1995 issue of the Journal of Educational Studies in Mathematics, which addresses a difficulty with rational exponents is epitomized by [...]

Although American's Pre-K-12 classrooms are becoming increasingly racially and ethnically diverse, the teaching force remains primarily White. We acknowledge that conversations surrounding race can be difficult, but are necessary to facilitate, establish, and maintain civil discourse surrounding race and other related topics that have implications to the field of education. Therefore, this special edition provides a space for such conversations to take place through critically engaged qualitative and quantitative research, as well as research based on philosophical perspectives that explored historical and contemporary policies or issues of diversity in education, practices, and pedagogies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To: 1) characterize the overall experience in using the McGill immersive wheelchair - community centre (miWe-CC) simulator; and 2) investigate the experience of presence (i.e., sense of being in the virtual rather than in the real, physical environment) while driving a PW in the miWe-CC. Method: A qualitative research design with structured interviews was used. Fifteen clinicians and 11 children were interviewed after driving a power wheelchair (PW) in the miWe-CC simulator. Data were analyzed using the conventional and directed content analysis approaches. Results: Overall, participants enjoyed using the simulator and experienced a sense of presence in the virtual space. They felt a sense of being in the virtual environment, involved and focused on driving the virtual PW rather than on the surroundings of the actual room where they were. Participants reported several similarities between the virtual community centre layout and activities of the miWe-CC and the day-to-day reality of paediatric PW users. Conclusion: The simulator replicated participants' expectations of real-life PW use and promises to have an effect on improving the driving skills of new PW users. Implications for rehabilitation: Among young users, the McGill immersive wheelchair (miWe) simulator provides an experience of presence within the virtual environment. This experience of presence is generated by a sense of being in the virtual scene, a sense of being involved, engaged, and focused on interacting within the virtual environment, and by the perception that the virtual environment is consistent with the real world. The miWe is a relevant and accessible approach, complementary to real world power wheelchair training for young users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mobility is important for participation in daily activities and a power wheelchair (PW) can improve quality of life of individuals with mobility impairments. A virtual reality simulator may be helpful in complementing PW skills training, which is generally seen as insufficient by both clinicians and PW users. To this end, specific, ecologically valid activities, such as entering an elevator and navigating through a shopping mall crowd, have been added to the McGill wheelchair (miWe) simulator through a user-centred approach. Purpose:The objective of this study was to validate the choice of simulated activities in a group of newly trained PW users. Methods:We recruited 17 new PW users, who practiced with the miWe simulator at home for two weeks. They then related their experience through the Short Feedback Questionnaire, the perceived Ease of Use Questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews. Results:Participants in general greatly appreciated their experience with the simulator. During the interviews, this group made similar comments about the activities as our previous group of expert PW users had done. They also insisted on the importance of realism in the miWe activities, for their use in training. Discussion:A PW simulator may be helpful if it supports the practice of activities in specific contexts (such as a bathroom or supermarket), to complement the basic skills training received in the clinic (such as driving forward, backward, turning, and avoiding obstacles). Implications for RehabilitationNew power wheelchair users appreciate practicing on a virtual reality simulator and find the experience useful when the simulated diving activities are realistic and ecologically valid.User-centred development can lead to simulated power wheelchair activities that adequately capture everyday driving challenges experienced in various environmental contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]