The study examined the extent to which a highly qualified interpreter remained parallel with or diverged from the original classroom discourse in her interpreting for a 3rd-grade deaf student in science, social studies, and resource room. The interpreter's signed and verbalized expressions were compared to the class participants' expressions for meaning equivalence. Parallel interpreting, occurring 33.2% of the time, closely matched the content of the speaker's message. Divergent interpreting, whereby the interpreter added or dropped elements of meaning, occurred 66.8% of the time. Qualitative analyses of classroom footage as well as interviews with the interpreter and the teachers revealed how, when, and why the interpreter diverged from the message. While the interpreter often made intentional reductions and additions to the discourse to achieve greater student understanding of language and course content, there was little awareness of these changes among individualized educational program team members.

A group of Year 6 pupils (aged 10–11 years) at Newbarns Primary School, Barrow-in-Furness (4 boys and 2 girls, all identified as highly able by their class-teacher) took part in a project using MTa PASS (2002) materials in order to help them develop their learning skills. The activities they undertook as part of this project were known to them as ‘challenges,’ and the main focus of the evaluation was to examine the extent to which pupils were applying the skills they had learned from these ‘challenges’ to their wider learning. MTa PASS materials are designed to help participants find out about their skills and abilities, develop constructive attitudes to learning, and improve their intra- and inter-personal skills. The package contains 17 different activities (many of which bear repetition), based around a set of constructional equipment. The activities are graded for degree of difficulty, but no specific sequence has to be followed. Collaborative small group work is central to all the activities, as is a significant plenary element, involving high levels of review and reflection.