Using a critical interpretive framework, the authors utilized semi-structured interviews to understand the experiences and perceptions of two college students living with disability concerning their use of accommodations, modifications, and adaptations in program requirements, classroom instruction, and testing. The central research questions were: “Are accommodations perceived as effective in supporting students with disabilities in their academic and social pursuits? Do students perceive that accommodations allow them maximum engagement and participation in their educational experiences?” and “To what extent are accommodations perceived by the participants as leveling the playing field for students with disabilities?” And, finally, “What do the participants perceive as the biggest obstacles to success for students with disabilities?” An understanding of the participants’ perceptions will enhance the overall awareness and appreciation for the experiences of students living with disability and will have direct implications for faculty-student interactions, student-to-student interactions as well as larger interactions within society.

Collaboration is the foundation for innovative discoveries, as individuals with different backgrounds come together and combine their unique expertise. In the current article, an educational researcher and two neuroscientists relate their experiences in establishing a successful collaborative effort. The marriage of neuroscientific findings with educational research has begun to further advance educational approaches. Initial functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) findings indicate that direct interplay between educational interventions and brain-based measures of sensory, motor, and cognitive processes provides an important link among cognitive processing and psychometric measures. If neuroimaging results support existing theoretical constructs of brain organization, then testable hypotheses may be designed to determine which educational interventions will be effective. The neuropsychological approach may provide school psychologists and teachers with an extensive array of fMRI-based, developmentally appropriate instructional strategies for enhancing the functional organization of the developing brain of children. Promising suggestions and strategies for educational researchers, school psychologists, and neuroscientists are included. C 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

No abstract

No abstract

This chapter examined the increasing reliance on contingent faculty in U.S. higher education as an administrative problem ripe for continued investigation. The specific purpose of this inquiry was to gain a better understanding of the impact of employing contingent faculty from the viewpoint of a departmental chair of a medium-sized Midwestern research university who routinely hired many contingent faculty. Within the context of these interviews, the chair discussed various aspects of his leadership style, his experiences and responsibilities in the job, his organizational philosophies, his departmental vision and his concerns related to the changing landscape of higher education. As Bolman and Deal's (2003) four-frames model suggests, effective leaders draw from all four frames to make the best decisions and to come to the most productive solutions. The results of this examination revealed this leader's propensity for leading with the human resource frame and then blending in the remaining frames when thinking and acting on issues related to contingent faculty.