Search

This essay discusses the utilization of safeguard strategies, particularly Improvement Science principles, in the academic and professional writing of scholar-practitioners within EdD programs. These strategies bridge the gap between theory and practice, enabling graduate students to apply their scholarly insights meaningfully. The essay highlights the roles of bias, professional wisdom, positionality, and reflexivity in inquiry, empowering scholar-practitioners to develop authentic solutions to the problems of practice they encounter. Drawing on the recommendations of Perry and colleagues (2020), the essay emphasizes rigorous data collection, explicit theoretical frameworks, evidence of impact on practice, and transparent mitigation of biases. Strategies such as positionality and reflexivity statements, adoption of Improvement Science as a conceptual framework, critical questions as safeguards, and engagement with critical friend groups (CFG) enhance the integrity and rigor of scholar-practitioners' inquiries. By implementing these measures, scholar-practitioners foster a robust examination of problems of practice and contribute to the advancement of knowledge.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of therapeutic play training on physical health in 10-12 year old children with back muscle weakness. Experimental research model was used in the study. According to the results of the Functional Movement Screening test, 16 children (8 Study, 8 Control) with back muscle weakness were included in the study as participants. According to the pre-test analysis results, children with weak back muscles were given therapeutic play training with 7 different games adapted to increase healthy posture and physical development for 8 weeks and 3 days a week. At the end of the therapeutic game education application process, the FMS test (post-test) was administered to the children again and the results were recorded. The groups were homogeneously distributed, independent sample t-test was used to determine the difference between the research and control groups, and paired sample t-test was used to compare the data within groups. All statistical values obtained were evaluated at 95% confidence interval and significance was evaluated at p<0.05 level. According to the findings obtained from the study, a statistically significant difference was found when the FMS pre-test-post-test results of the children in the study group, in which therapeutic games were applied, were analyzed (p<0.05). As a result of the FMS pre-test before the education program was started, it was determined that 7 of the 8 participants, who could not reach a sufficient score and whose back muscles were found to be weak, reached a sufficient score according to the FMS post-test results after the applications, and only 1 participant showed positive development although he could not get a sufficient score. When the FMS pre-post test results applied to the control group were examined, it was determined that there was no statistically significant difference p>0.05.

Background: People with intellectual disabilities are rarely involved in research on quality of life. The study sought to answer the question: what do people with intellectual disabilities believe improves or hinders their quality of life? Method: Using an inclusive, accessible research design, 18 participants met in small groups to answer the study's question using their choice of arts-based media. Participants completed the analysis collaboratively, identifying key themes among their responses. Results: The participants concluded that supports, well-being, hobbies, and activities contribute to quality of life. Lack of accessibility, assumptions, negative behaviours, stress, and negative people (staff, roommates, people in general) were identified as detractors of quality of life. Conclusions: To continue to make progress in improving the quality of life of individuals with intellectual disabilities, the voice of those with intellectual disabilities is key. The results suggest key areas of focus to make these improvements.

Background: Laboratory-based studies have shown that children's ability to remember intentions (i.e., prospective memory; PM) can be improved by asking them to imagine performing the PM task beforehand (i.e., episodic future thinking; EFT) or to predict their PM performance. Moreover, combining the two strategies resulted in an additional improvement in children's PM performance. However, the effectiveness of these encoding strategies on real-life PM tasks is still unknown. Aims: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effect of EFT instructions, performance predictions, and of their combination on children's PM in a natural setting, namely in the classroom. Sample: Twelve classes composed by a total of 121 children (53% females) aged between seven and 9 years participated to the study. Methods: As a PM task, children were asked by their teachers to deliver a letter to their parents and to bring it back to school the next day. Children were divided into four groups: control, prediction, EFT, and the EFT + prediction group. Parent reports on children's everyday prospective and retrospective memory failures were also collected. Results: Results showed that encoding strategies were effective in enhancing children's PM performance. However, differences compared to previous laboratory-based findings emerged since predicting PM performance resulted to be most effective in enhancing real-life PM performance. Moreover, parent reports were related to children's PM performance. Conclusions: These novel findings highlight the importance of studying PM interventions in natural settings in order to increase their ecological validity and inform educational practices.

Effective research data management (RDM) is essential to modern scientific investigations. As the volume and complexity of research data increase, researchers, research institutions, and countries are pressured to improve data management practices to ensure transparency, reproducibility, sharing, and reuse of their findings. Researchers and institutions in Kenya, like those in many other developing countries, have begun to adopt the practice. This review examines the early indicators of improved research data management practices in Kenya to identify leaders who would drive the culture of RDM and thus improve research output.

Psychological safety is a psychosocial construct that reflects an individual's perception of social risk in the work environment, and is related to employee performance and well-being, including job satisfaction and burnout. Psychological safety remains relatively understudied among educators, including its patterns over time and relationships with other aspects of the school environment. This study explored patterns of psychological safety over 4 years among 769 staff at 20 rural K-12 schools, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the associations of these patterns with work-associated well-being and organizational context outcomes. Repeated measures latent profile analyses identified a 3-class solution of stable-high (51.0%), stable-medium (44.8%), and dynamic-low (4.2%) psychological safety classes. Those in the stable-high class had consistently better outcomes, including less burnout and greater self-efficacy, and better perceived organizational context and climate, compared to other classes. Among educators, psychological safety is generally stable, and reliably differentiates other important outcomes. Interventions fostering greater psychological safety may improve perceptions of the school environment and reduce burnout.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of performance-based feedback delivered via email on teacher candidates' implementation of a multiple stimulus without replacement (MSWO) preference assessment with an adult confederate. Six participants enrolled in a special education teacher preparation program were recruited to participate. After exposure to an introductory MSWO training video, participant fidelity of MSWO administration was measured. Following baseline, performance feedback was delivered via e-mail to each participant after the completion of each research session. Results indicate that performance feedback delivered via e-mail improved fidelity of implementation for all six participants. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) continue to experience disparities in health and well-being despite improved provisions of person-centered care. Patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) translates evidence into practice for meaningful outcomes. This piece describes findings from an environmental scan and stakeholder outreach to identify and prioritize opportunities to enhance IDD PCOR data infrastructure. These opportunities include developing a standardized research definition; advancing data standards for service systems; improving capture of IDD at point of care; developing standardized outcome measures; and encouraging Medicaid data use for IDD research. Within this piece, we discuss the implications of addressing data gaps for enhanced research. While the identified activities provide a path towards advancing IDD PCOR data infrastructure, collaborative efforts between government, researchers, and others are paramount.

This case study describes the use of a syntax intervention with two deaf children who did not acquire a complete first language (L1) from birth. It looks specifically at their ability to produce subject-verb-object (SVO) sentence structure in American Sign Language (ASL) after receiving intervention. This was an exploratory case study in which investigators utilized an intervention that contained visuals to help teach SVO word order to young deaf children. Baseline data were collected over three sessions before implementation of a targeted syntax intervention and two follow-up sessions over 3-4 weeks. Both participants demonstrated improvements in their ability to produce SVO structure in ASL in 6-10 sessions. Visual analysis revealed a positive therapeutic trend that was maintained in follow-up sessions. These data provide preliminary evidence that a targeted intervention may help young deaf children with an incomplete L1 learn to produce basic word order in ASL. Results from this case study can help inform the practice of professionals working with signing deaf children who did not acquire a complete L1 from birth (e.g., speech-language pathologists, deaf mentors/coaches, ASL specialists, etc.). Future research should investigate the use of this intervention with a larger sample of deaf children.

Much of the literature in library leadership and management focuses on strategies and practices based on discrete attributes and sweeping human behaviors intended to improve operational effectiveness. This paper challenges the reader to build a mindset for leadership that reflects the real world, where leaders and managers work within parameters often contradictory and at times unconventional. It acknowledges the complexities of leadership in terms of decision-making and judgment within the culture of the organization rather than standard characteristics seen as desirable in a leader. The distinction between leadership and management is also examined.

This study explored how past students who attended the Learning Support Zone (LSZ) in Maltese secondary schools perceived their attendance at the LSZ and its impact on their home and work environments. In-depth interviews were conducted with eleven adults who attended the LSZ when they were in secondary school. Thematic analysis was used to elicit a set of themes. The findings highlight the multiple struggles that students with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD) face. The narratives highlight the positive impact of the LSZ and its staff, but the families of these students were hardly involved. Social skills, independent living skills, and emotional literacy taught at the LSZ are believed to have helped these youths enhance their motivation and perceived self-worth and deal with adversities more effectively both at home and at work. The key recommendations of the study are the re-evaluation of inclusive policies within schools, consideration of the perspective of the students, better understanding, and monitoring of students with SEBD within schools, and more active involvement of all relevant stakeholders, especially families.

While doctoral leadership programs have widely adopted Improvement Science (IS) as a signature pedagogy, few studies have examined how to best equip doctoral students with the knowledge and research skills they need to utilize IS in practice. More specifically, research is needed to determine the most effective and meaningful pedagogy for preparing doctoral students to understand, analyze, and apply statistical theory and quantitative research designs in coursework and as part of the IS Dissertation in Practice. This essay focuses on the systematic, iterative, and reflective approach of one faculty member to develop and refine a Doctor of Education program's primary applied quantitative methods course to help students across three cohorts develop the theoretical and practical knowledge and skills they need to lead change.

Instructional leadership is widely recognized as important for school improvement and a significant tool for creating an effective teaching and learning environment. The British Council is committed to promoting and developing instructional leadership and is offering programmes to develop it in several African countries, including Tanzania. These programmes focus on developing and improving instructional leadership in schools. The programme is provided by British Council facilitators to school leaders and is delivered over a period of six to nine months, including time for a school-based project. Previous research shows that leadership in many sub-Saharan African countries, including Tanzania, is primarily administrative and that instructional leadership is often neglected. Data were collected with 20 participants of the British Council programme, all primary school leaders, chosen through volunteer and purposive sampling. The findings show many reported gains from participation, notably greater understanding of key concepts such as vision and missions distributed leadership, and instructional leadership processes, notably classroom observation.

The rapid evolution of digital technologies has led to significant transformations in various industries, including higher education. This study explores the role of Agile Enterprise Architecture (AEA) in supporting digital transformation initiatives within Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). AEA provides a flexible, adaptive, and iterative framework to manage the complex and dynamic nature of digital transformation. We conducted a qualitative study using a multiple case-study approach, investigating four HEIs that implemented AEA in their digital transformation initiatives. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and participant observation. We employed thematic analysis to identify the key factors contributing to the successful implementation of AEA in these institutions. Our findings revealed that AEA plays a crucial role in facilitating digital transformation by providing a holistic, systematic, and adaptive framework. The AEA approach enables HEIs to effectively manage the complexities of digital transformation, enhance their agility, and respond to changing stakeholder needs. Key success factors include strong leadership, effective communication, a skilled workforce, and a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement. The study contributes to the understanding of AEA's role in promoting digital transformation in higher education and offers practical implications for HEIs looking to leverage digital technologies for improved performance and stakeholder satisfaction. Further research is needed to explore the generalizability of these findings to other contexts and industries.

Autistic adults often experience health problems and a range of healthcare barriers. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate barriers and explore how primary care providers and autistic adults want to improve their primary healthcare. Semi-structured interviews with three autistic adults, two parents of autistic children and six care providers, were performed to evaluate barriers in Dutch healthcare. Next, in a three-round Delphi-study, 21 autistic adults and 20 primary care providers rated barriers in primary healthcare and assessed recommendations based on usefulness and feasibility. In the thematically analysed interviews, 20 barriers in Dutch healthcare for autistic people were identified. In the Delphi-study, the primary care providers rated the negative impact of most barriers lower than the autistic adults. The Delphi-study resulted in 22 recommendations to improve primary healthcare for autistic adults, focused on: primary care providers (i.e. education in collaboration with autistic people), autistic adults (i.e. improvement of preparation for general practitioner-appointments) and organization of general practice (i.e. enhancement of continuity in care). In conclusion, primary care providers seem to assess healthcare barriers as less impactful than autistic adults. With the use of the Delphi-method, useful and feasible recommendations to improve primary healthcare for autistic adults were identified, based on the needs of autistic adults and primary care providers.

Every great shooter in the game of basketball has one thing in common: a routine. To help increase basketball shooting accuracy, this article presents a series of progressive drills that any aspiring middle school basketball player can use to develop their own routine and improve their game.

The importance of adequate risk management is growing, whereas quality management unifies all managerial processes to direct and manage activities toward the achievement of organisational goals. The goal of this study is to validate the relevance of the link between the application of quality management principles and risk management maturity. This paper constitutes a critical literature review and an analysis of the latest scientific articles, published in international databases, and other scientific sources over a period of 15 years. In summary, organisation can attain a higher level of risk management maturity through the synergistic application of all seven quality management principles. The findings practically are beneficial for all types of organisations that seek to successfully implement risk management processes.

Employment interviews can be challenging for autistic people. In addition to standard interview procedures often being inaccessible, features associated with autism (including atypical emotional expression, eye-contact, and gestures) may lead to negative first impressions. Research using vignettes and 'thin slices' of communication indicate that perceptions of an autistic individual can be improved when their autism diagnosis is disclosed. Here, we examined the impact of diagnostic disclosure on judgements of autistic adults undergoing an entire mock employment interview. A total of 119 participants (known as 'raters') watched a video of an autistic candidate's mock employment interview, after which they provided overall impressions of the candidate on factors such as confidence, motivation, and knowledgeability. Raters were either (1) unaware of the interviewee's diagnosis, (2) aware of their diagnosis, or (3) aware of their diagnosis and provided with information about autism. Results indicate that diagnostic disclosure improved perceptions of autistic candidates across all dimensions compared to when raters were unaware of their diagnosis. The provision of additional information about the diagnosis did not further improve ratings. The findings have important implications for employers and autistic people, who should consider the potential impact of diagnostic disclosure prior to interviewing for a role.

Purpose: This paper aims to examine the roles of quality managers at community colleges, their experiences balancing accountability and improvement and their insights into the future of quality assurance. Design/methodology/approach: This phenomenological, qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with eight community college quality managers to investigate their roles, experiences and perspectives. A reflexive thematic approach was used to analyze the interview data. Findings: Four themes were identified from participant responses: quality managers frame and enable program quality, quality managers drive program change, quality managers cultivate a culture of quality and quality managers seek system change. The findings illustrate the roles played by quality managers as they work to improve college education at program, institution and system-wide levels. Research limitations/implications: The decision of participants to accept the recruitment invitation might reflect particular attitudes, perspectives or experiences. Practical implications: Quality assurance has emerged as a key mechanism for ensuring postsecondary programs are current, relevant and meeting the evolving needs of students and employers. This study advances the understanding of how quality assurance processes play out at the operational level and explores the experiences of quality managers as they navigate various quality tensions. Originality/value: Quality managers play key roles in leading, evaluating and influencing quality assurance processes in postsecondary education yet they are underrepresented in the literature. The findings of this study shed new light on the aspirational and influential roles they play in advancing quality assurance.

This study examined the adequacy with which instruction is being supervised, the quality of interpersonal relationships between supervisors and teachers and teachers' suggestions for improving the instructional supervision in Nigeria. The sample consisted of 361 teachers from the Delta Central Senatorial District, of Delta State, Nigeria. Frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation were used to compute and analyzed data collected. Findings from the study revealed that instructional supervisors are not performing their functions such as regular classroom visitation, monitoring of teaching method and teachers' logbooks, in public secondary schools in Delta Central Senatorial District and that adequate interpersonal relationships do not exist between secondary school teachers and instructional supervisors. The findings reflect the related and similar theme in research on conditions of service of teachers, particularly the lack of adequate support from those charged with instructional supervisory responsibilities. Based on the findings, recommendations were made that more resources should be devoted to instructional supervisors to strengthen their supervision capacity.

Oblique bifactor models, where group factors are allowed to correlate with one another, are commonly used. However, the lack of research on the statistical properties of oblique bifactor models renders the statistical validity of empirical findings questionable. Therefore, the present study took the first step to examine the statistical properties of oblique bifactor models through Monte Carlo simulations. Study 1 showed that the classic oblique bifactor "measurement" models had severe convergence issues in many conditions. Even for converged replications, both factor loading and group factor correlation estimates were severely biased. Study 2 further showed that the classic oblique bifactor "predictive" models still had serious convergence problems, and structural parameters suffered from issues of severe estimation bias and low power. Fortunately, the augmentation approach, where one or multiple indicators are specified to load onto only the general factor but not any of the group factors, was useful in ameliorating these issues in both oblique bifactor measurement and predictive models. Tentative recommendations regarding the selection between oblique and orthogonal bifactor models and the approaches to finding augmenting indicators were provided.

With the development of internet technology, big data has been used to evaluate the singing and pronunciation quality of vocal students. However, current methods have several problems such as poor information fusion efficiency, low algorithm robustness, and low recognition accuracy under low signal-to-noise ratio. To address these issues, this article proposes a new method for evaluating sound quality based on one-dimensional convolutional neural networks. It uses sound preprocessing, BP neural networks, wavelet neural networks, and one-dimensional CNNs to improve pronunciation quality. The proposed 1D CNN network is more suitable for one-dimensional sound signals and can effectively solve problems such as feature information fusion, pitch period detection, and network construction. It can evaluate singing art sound quality with minimum errors, good robustness, and strong portability. This method can be used for the evaluation and diagnosis of voice diseases, helping to improve students' professional abilities.

Combining methods from earlier content validity and more contemporary content alignment studies may allow a more complete evaluation of the meaning of test scores than if either set of methods is used on its own. This article distinguishes item relevance indices in the content validity literature from test representativeness indices in the subsequent content alignment literature. We then demonstrate that setting minimum thresholds for both types of indices in a sequential process can affect conclusions about test content representativeness, which are integral to validity evaluation. We illustrate this outcome using test item-to-target domain objective match data from subject-matter expert panelists who reviewed sixteen US state achievement tests. Although the illustration incorporates educational achievement test data, the process has broader applicability to development of survey questionnaires, workplace tests, and other instruments.

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of combined physical training (CPT) on social skills and physical fitness (PF) in children with ASD. Sixteen children with autism (age 6-10 years) were randomly assigned into two groups: CPT and control. The CPT group participated in a program involving ball game, rhythmic movements, and resistance training for eight weeks (three sessions per week). PF and behavior profile were assessed before and after training. CPT program had a significant effect on indicators of social skills such as stereotypic behavior and communication, as well as PF such as handgrip strength, upper and lower body power, flexibility, balance, and agility (P < 0.05). CPT in autistic children can improve indicators of social skills and PF.

Against the backdrop of high-quality development of the national economy, the development of each city is also facing transformation and upgrading. Cities need high-quality development, and high-quality talents are the key. The problem of attracting high-quality talents in domestic small and medium-sized cities in high-quality development needs to be solved urgently. This paper takes Huai'an, a third-tier city in China, as an example, to understand the intentions and confusions of college students when they seek employment. The qualitative approach of semi-structured interviews is employed. The study finds that in small and medium-sized cities, factors hindering college students from staying in local cities for employment include that the intensity of the government in publicizing high-quality development has not reached to most college students, the guide courses in colleges and universities meet difficulties in the process of delivery, and college students' own career planning are not guided well. In response to the above problems, this paper puts forward suggestions such as strengthening the positive interaction between schools and college students, enhancing the publicity of high-quality urban development among college students, and closely integrating college students' career guidance courses with local development. Quality development attracts more high-quality talents.

This study examined whether three renovated academic library spaces encouraged group work as intended. Hourly observations and a questionnaire documented group work use, space preferences, and suggested improvements. Compared to the three renovated spaces, significantly more group work occurred in an unrenovated space that was more open, spacious, and visible. Questionnaire results indicated that noise levels, available space and furniture, lighting quality, location, and operating hours also influenced group work space preferences. Suggested improvements included designated quiet and talkative areas, reservable space, and additional tables. Findings offer insights to inform future library group work space research, design, and evaluation.

There is a growing consensus that existing arrangements for policy making in education are far from optimal. This paper is about policy making and the roles of--and relationships between--elected officials, civil servants and academics in the making of policy. It aims to open up a conversation about new ways of making education policy that make better use of academic expertise by shedding light on policy making from the perspective of a former policy broker. With specific reference to England, experiences of the world of policy are drawn on to provide an account of the following: the disconnect between academic research and policy; what good policy advice looks like; and, most significantly, what an expert policy advice mechanism in education could look like. The mechanism put forward is one possibility for further discussion within the academic community in the first instance: an independent group of diverse academic experts to provide trustworthy and transparent policy advice to the education ministry. It is envisaged that by bringing a set of insights together here, understandings of the world of policy making will be enhanced and further thinking and conversations about mechanisms for expert policy advice in education will be induced, starting with this flagship journal's readership. The subsequent accumulation of these discussions may then, in time, lead us towards better policy making.

Girls between the ages of 9 and 10 begin to experience physical, physiological, and hormonal changes that may lead to internal stress. At this age, children are struggling for autonomy; on the other hand, they may experience emotional instability, and for these reasons, they may be vulnerable in many ways. This experimental study aimed to investigate the effect of resilience training on assertiveness in student girls aged 9-10. Data were collected before, immediately after, and 1 month after the intervention in the control (n = 40) and intervention (n = 37) groups. There was a significant difference between the assertiveness of the intervention immediately (26.80 ± 3.73) and 1 month after the intervention (27.05 ± 3.73), and assertiveness significantly increased in the intervention group (p = 0.0001). Resilience training leads to improvements in assertiveness in student girls aged 9-10.

Following a rapidly changing external environment, internationalization has become an institutional phenomenon with strategic relevance for universities worldwide. However, the frequently reported gap between theory and practice remains. Engaging staff and achieving successful organizational implementation appears increasingly problematic with more stakeholders and disciplines involved. This study explores the long-time gap between strategy and implementation with Pettigrew's organizational change framework (1987). We conducted a systematic scoping literature review of articles about curriculum internationalization (N = 325) published in English in peer-reviewed journals between 2000 and 2022. Our study demonstrates that the organizational change perspective provides guidelines to improve and facilitate the process. Based on an organizational change perspective we developed a comprehensive framework that may contribute to more effective strategies for staff engagement and meaningful implementation outcomes for curriculum internationalization in higher education.

This is a retrospective case series of pediatric patients referred to the psychogenic nonepileptic events clinic (PNEE) who had comorbid diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or intellectual disability (ID). We describe 15 patients, nine with ASD and six with ID who had a telephone visit follow-up at 12 months. There were higher rates of male gender (40%) and comorbid epilepsy (53%) compared to the larger PNEE cohort. Eleven patients were available for follow-up and ten patients had improvement in events or were event-free. We report that patients with ASD or ID can develop PNEE and experience improvement from events.

The complex set of challenges that middle-aged adults encounter emphasizes a need for mental health interventions that promote resilience and positive outcomes. The present study evaluated whether an online, self-guided social intelligence training (SIT) program (8 h) improved midlife adults' daily well-being and emotion regulation in the context of their own naturalistic everyday environment. A randomized controlled trial was conducted with 230 midlife adults allocated into either a SIT program or an attentional control (AC) condition that focused on healthy lifestyle education. Intent-to-treat analyses examined two bursts of 14-day daily surveys that participants completed pre- and post-treatment. Multilevel models evaluated pre-to post-treatment changes in mean positive and negative affect, as well as daily emotional reactivity to stressors and responsiveness to uplifts. Compared to the AC group, those in the SIT program reported improvements (i.e., decreases) in mean negative affect, positive emotional reactivity to daily stressors (i.e., smaller decreases in positive affect on stressor days), and negative emotional responsiveness to uplifts (i.e., lower negative affect on days without uplifts). Our discussion considers potential mechanisms underlying these improvements, highlights downstream effects on midlife functioning, and elaborates on how online delivery of the SIT program increases its potential for positive outcomes across adulthood.

Prior research has demonstrated beneficial outcomes for learning new skills in older adulthood, including increased cognitive and functional abilities, which help prevent age-related declines and foster healthy aging. However, these studies largely have included participants not typically considered at risk for cognitive and functional decline (i.e., White, highly educated, higher income). Cognitive and functional disparities exist among minoritized racial and ethnic individuals, particularly Black and Latinx populations, because of a lifetime of inequalities associated with low socioeconomic status, low education, and discrimination. This theoretical paper proposes a potential pathway in which such disparities could be mitigated by increasing cognitive and functional abilities via novel skill learning in these at-risk populations in middle and later life to prevent decline. We also discuss indirect barriers (e.g., financial and health issues), direct barriers (e.g., limited learning opportunities), and motivational barriers (e.g., self-beliefs, values) that these adults may encounter. We further highlight that addressing these barriers to novel skill learning by providing appropriate resources is necessary to maximize the feasibility and potential effectiveness of this pathway. Lastly, we encourage future research to test this pathway and help inform policymakers and existing learning programs to implement better ways of promoting lifelong learning in an inclusive and equitable manner to prevent decline.

Autistic individuals report barriers to accessing and receiving healthcare, and experience increased morbidity and mortality. This systematic review synthesizes 31 research studies evaluating interventions implemented to improve the healthcare experiences and/or access of autistic persons. Interventions were most commonly patient-focused (58.1%), focused on supporting the autistic individual to engage with, tolerate, or anticipate medical procedures, care, or settings. Fewer studies were provider-focused (48.4%) or organization-focused (6.5%). Interventions were typically evaluated using measures of reactions (45.2%) or behavior (48.4%), and outcomes were predominantly positive (80.6%). Further research is imperative and should look to how providers and organizations must change. Future research must be inclusive of the autistic community, must measure what matters, and must offer complete detail on interventions implemented.

The purpose of this study was to develop an understanding of how work experiences in rural Hawai'ian communities can be sustained and improved for youth with disabilities. Employing a basic qualitative research design, this study captured the perspectives of rural community members who provided work experiences for youth with disabilities. Data analysis revealed key factors to sustain work experience partnerships between schools and community members: (1) effective communication; (2) competent personnel; and (3) the dispositions of students. The findings also revealed that there were missed opportunities for youth with disabilities during their work experiences because schools did not fully disclose the work needs and goals of students. The community members and their work sites could have been more effective if disability training and support was provided. The findings provide valuable insight into how work experiences can be sustained and improved for rural youth with disabilities.

Preverbal communication means any social behavior that occurs before children communicate verbally. Generally, these communicative behaviors are categorized into two ways: as behavior regulation (BR) or joint attention (JA) skills. BR, also referred to as requesting, involves the use of behaviors to gain something or receive assistance (Mundy et al., 1992). Examples include reaching toward a parent with extended arms to be picked up, sounds and eye contact indicating a desire, or pointing to an object to get it from another person. JA involves the coordination of attention between interactive partners and objects or events to share awareness or interest (Mundy et al., 1992). Both BR and JA develop naturally in children who are typically developing. Most importantly, JA is strongly related to developing spoken language (Anderson et al., 2007). Just as an infant learns to move, scoot, and crawl before they walk, children need preverbal communication skills to build to verbal language. Children with ASD (autism spectrum disorder), however, develop BR and JA later and often need significant support to learn and use preverbal communication skills (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Although preverbal communication skills develop later in all children with ASD, there is a subgroup, those with complex communication needs (CCNs) and with co-occurring significant cognitive challenges, where these delays can make it especially difficult for them to learn from their natural social environment. The purpose of this article is to describe one such approach: Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBI). NDBI are evidence-based and are a framework to create lessons to teach preverbal social communication in a classroom context. The goals of this article are to provide educators an overview of the basic principles of NDBI, to offer a practical developmental assessment, and to provide a framework to develop lesson plans for early social communication goals in inclusive early education contexts for students with ASD and CCNs.

Limited guidance is available for families of youth with ASD (YASD) to prepare for invasive medical procedures. This study examined caregiver perspectives regarding YASD's gastrointestinal endoscopy (GE) experience to improve the endoscopy experience for YASD. Thirty-four caregivers of YASD, (M = 9.85 years, SD = 4.6) who underwent GE at Rady Children's Hospital, San Diego between May 2018 and July 2019 (identified via electronic health record) participated in a structured phone interview. Caregivers reported a positive experience due to the procedural team's responsiveness to the needs of YASD and appropriately answering/addressing questions/concerns. Caregivers reported a need for ASD-specific information on how to prepare for GE. Specific recommendations are discussed. Study findings offer strategies to improve the care experience of YASD undergoing GE.

Objectives: Improving performance to meet strategic priorities, such as teaching balanced with increased applied research activities, has developed into a central, though contentious, discourse for faculty in Ontario colleges. The aim of this article is to analyze and better understand why faculty are not engaged in applied research practices. Method: This article draws from social cognition theory and a social constructivist perspective. The literature review examines the evolution of colleges in Ontario, including the political factors and symbolic artifacts that shape values and organizational practices. This study sought to explore how a conceptual continuous improvement (CI) framework might advance our understanding of the policy shifts between applied research discourses within Ontario colleges in Canada and barriers that faculty face to enact applied research practices. Results: Underpinned by a set of simple principles, including improving through communication, learning through collaboration, and changing through coordination, the conceptual CI processes and systematic method provide opportunities to bridge the different contexts and unveil the varied on-the-ground realities of faculty teaching and research tasks. Conclusions: The findings reveal developmental needs and adaptive institutional challenges related to applied research practice changes have been influenced by political, cultural, and socio-cognition contexts and tasks. Implication for Practice: The inventive conceptual CI framework provides a viable means to analyze the fragmented state of applied research practices across Ontario colleges, which may ignite conversations and inform decision-making as well as suggest approaches to change at other global postsecondary education institutions. The innovative conceptual CI framework analysis tool will be of interest to faculty, institutional leaders, faculty unions, and policymakers.

"Development" is a kind of growth that leads to the transformation of social and official organisms including innovation in cultural values, worldview, and consumption and behaviour patterns. Accordingly, development is a living organism as indicated by developments in many fields such as economics, science, art, sports, education, democracy, and freedom to improve prosperity. Since development begins with innovation in human resources and national development processes depends on regional and urban development, education, and educational institutes can be accepted as one of the initiatives and accelerative factors of development. Therefore, the role of city universities is important in the development of cities and countries. The purpose of this study is to determine the contribution of four major universities in Ankara to the social, cultural, and economic development of the city. The data were collected by a structured questionnaire, which was developed by the researchers to be used in interviewing with vice rectors of these four universities. Three of those vice rectors are from state universities, and one of them is from a private university. The qualitative data were analyzed by descriptive analysis. On the basis of results, it is concluded that universities in Ankara play their "third mission" by contributing to the development of their surroundings.

Positive creativity is creativity that makes the world a better place--that makes a positive, meaningful, and potentially enduring difference to the world. Positive creativity can be a bit of a slippery concept in that, what is positive to one person or one group may be neutral or even negative to another group. Much of teaching young people for positive creativity, therefore, involves providing the tools to decide what positive creativity means to them, and teaching them how to defend their decision. This essay focuses especially on alternative conceptions of what positive creativity means. It considers a variety of approaches, such as definitional models--objective and subjective betterment; ratings, including from layperson and experts; philosophical models--utilitarian and categorical-imperative models; decision-theory models--minimax, maximin, and maximax models; psychologically based models--a Four-C model and a model based on wise creativity. The essay also discusses steps toward teaching explicitly for positive creativity.