There are multiple pathways for students with and without disabilities to learn new vocabulary terms. However, the number of empirically tested and validated multimedia options is surprisingly limited. In this study, researchers tested a commercially available app (InferCabulary) to evaluate the impact on vocabulary performance of fifth-grade students with and without disabilities. A key practice that can take many forms while maintaining its core characteristics is explicit instruction. Therefore, researchers paired the functionality of the app with explicit instruction to evaluate its impact on student learning. Based on a counterbalanced design across 6 alternating weeks accessing the app or teacher-led business-as-usual instruction, students scored higher on weeks when they used the app plus explicit instruction to learn new terms. Implications for future research are included.

Effective professional development (PD) for teachers should be directly and intricately linked to their teaching practice. One way to link PD to practice is for administrators or coaches to provide performance feedback based on classroom observations, accompanied by reflection and coaching. This type of PD can be time-consuming and difficult to manage in practice, but technology offers ways to facilitate performance feedback. This article highlights a multimedia observation tool capable of documenting teachers’ instructional moves in real time with the intent of providing a teacher with unbiased, descriptive data used to fuel coaching conversations. Additional multimedia options are provided for observing instruction and providing critical performance feedback with the intent of improving student learning outcomes.

All teachers need ongoing coaching that helps them recognize areas of strength and need for teaching students with disabilities. Unfortunately, the amount, quality, and speed with which teachers receive feedback from coaches, administrators, mentors, or other instructional leaders on their academic and behavior management practices is limited. In this article, we describe a multimedia professional development option for documenting teacher practice, generating feedback, and delivering targeted instruction.

This study, which was reviewed through the Registered Report process, examined the initial efficacy of the Scientific Explorers program (Sci2) on second-grade students’ science achievement. Sci2 is grounded in the growing body of empirical research on science instruction, embedding principles of explicit instruction within a guided inquiry-based design framework. Eighteen second-grade classrooms were randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions. A cluster randomized controlled trial was employed, with 294 students nested within classrooms and classrooms nested within condition. The Sci2 program was implemented for a total of 10 lessons (5 hr) in treatment classrooms, whereas control classrooms provided business-as-usual science instruction. Overall treatment effects were observed on three of four science outcome measures. The reported effects were moderate to large, with effect sizes (Hedges’ g) ranging from 0.48 to 0.94. Moderation analyses indicated that science knowledge at pretest did not moderate Sci2’s effects. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

Singer et al. (2022) argue that the current lexical shift within autism research towards more neutral terminology hinders accurate scientific description of the wide range of autistic experiences, particularly within clinical and medical contexts. In this Letter to the Editor, we present an examination and criticism of these claims. This letter is authored and co-signed by a diverse group of autistic researchers, scholars, clinicians, and self-advocates with a wide range of clinical presentation and support needs, as well as non-autistic researchers, scholars, clinicians, and loved ones of autistic people.