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The authors combined virtual reality technology and social robotics to develop a tutoring system that resembled a small-group arrangement. This tutoring system featured a virtual teacher instructing sight words, and included a humanoid robot emulating a peer. The authors used a multiple-probe design across word sets to evaluate the effects of the instructional package on the explicit acquisition and vicarious learning of sight words instructed to three children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the robot peer. Results indicated that participants acquired, maintained, and generalized 100% of the words explicitly instructed to them, made fewer errors while learning the words common between them and the robot peer, and vicariously learned 94% of the words solely instructed to the robot.

The present study aimed to examine the effectiveness of a multi-component intervention on cooperative behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In this study, three dyads comprising six boys aged between 4.5 and 7 years with ASD participated, following a randomized multiple baseline design. The participants were asked to construct models together using toy sets. The visual analysis and randomization test ( p  < .01) showed that the intervention increased cooperative behaviors for all six participants, and improvements were maintained after the intervention components were terminated. Four participants in two dyads demonstrated generalization to three new toy sets. For the remaining two participants, the interdependent group contingency was reintroduced in order for them to demonstrate cooperative behaviors.

Providing group instruction with high levels of opportunities to respond, including unison responding, is critical to maximize the educational instruction of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in public schools. Direct Instruction (DI) has shown promise in teaching skills to students with ASD. DI is generally taught to small groups of students and relies heavily on unison responding; however, research on DI has not provided the detail needed to support unison responding implementation with students with ASD who exhibit interfering behaviors. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of systematic task breaks and proximity fading on unison responding during small-group DI with four students with ASD. Results indicated a functional relation between the intervention and student responding. One student, an English-language learner, required a Spanish directive to increase her responding to an acceptable level. A discussion of limitations, future research, and practical implications is included.

Students often struggle to comprehend complex text. In response, we conducted an initial, year-long study of Quality Talk, a teacher-facilitated, small-group discussion approach designed to enhance students' basic and high-level comprehension, in two fourth-grade classrooms. Specifically, teachers delivered instructional mini-lessons on discourse elements (e.g., questioning or argumentation) and conducted weekly text-based discussions in their language arts classes. Analysis of the videorecorded discussions showed decreases in teacher-initiated discourse elements, indicating a release of responsibility to students, whereas students' discourse reflected increased critical-analytic thinking (e.g., elaborated explanations or exploratory talk). Importantly, statistically and practically significant increases were evidenced on written measures of students' basic and high-level comprehension, indicating the promise of small-group discourse as a way to foster individual student learning outcomes.

In this article, we review research on the outcomes of diverse reading programs on the achievement of struggling readers in elementary schools. Sixtyfive studies of 51 different programs met rigorous standards. Eighty-three percent were randomized experiments and 17% quasi-experiments. Outcomes were positive for one-to-one tutoring and were positive but not as large for one-to-small group tutoring. There were no differences in outcomes between teachers and teaching assistants as tutors. Whole-class approaches (mostly cooperative learning) and whole-class/whole-school approaches incorporating tutoring for struggling readers obtained outcomes for struggling readers as large as those found for all forms of tutoring, on average, and benefited many more students. Technology-supported adaptive instruction did not have statistically significant positive outcomes for struggling readers, however. In agreement with findings of previous reviews, in this synthesis, we found that substantial impacts can be obtained for struggling readers, with interventions aligned within a Response to Intervention network.

During small group instruction, two groups of children—each group comprised of one child with a disability and two without disabilities—were taught to read words using a progressive time delay procedure (PTD). Apart from the children with disabilities, two typically developing peers in each group were taught to comment on tokens given for correct responding. Academic responding was similar to that in previous studies including older children, but observational learning of peers’ words was variable within and across participants. Although adequate baseline comparisons were not possible and experimental control was not demonstrated, peers and one participant with a disability exhibited variable but increasing levels of commenting over time. Commenting increased over time in one generalization context (generalization across adults) and remained at low levels in the other (generalization across materials).

Background Case-Based Learning (CBL) in medical education is a teaching approach that engages students as learners through active learning in small, collaborative groups to solve cases from clinical patients. Due to the challenges afforded by the COVID-19 pandemic, small group learning such as CBL, transitioned quickly to include technology-enhanced learning to enable distance delivery, with little information on how to apply pedagogical frameworks and use learning theories to design and deliver online content. Methods To extend understanding of online CBL a scoping review protocol following the PRISMA-ScR framework explored the literature that describes the use of online CBL application in medical education and the outcomes, perceptions, and learning theories. A literature search was conducted in January 2022 followed by a subsequent review in October 2022. After peer review using the PRESS guidelines, the CASP appraisal tool was used to assess the rigor of each study design. Results The scoping review identified literature published between 2010 and 2022 ( n  = 13 articles), on online CBL in the field of medical education with 11 observational studies describing student and facilitator perceptions and two randomized controlled studies. Positive perceptions of online learning included a flexible work-life balance, connection with learners, and improved accessibility. Negative experiences of online CBL included poor internet access, a distracting learning environment, and loss of communication. In the studies that collected student performance data, results showed equivalent or improved outcomes compared to the control. The CASP appraisal tool highlighted the deficiencies in most study designs, lack of framework or learning theory, and poor reproducibility of the methods to answer the research questions. Conclusion This scoping review identified literature to describe the academic outcomes, and student and facilitator perceptions of online CBL in medical education. However, the CASP tool uncovered deficiencies in study descriptions and design leading to poor quality evidence in this area. The authors provide recommendations for frameworks and learning theories for the future implementation of online CBL.

Providing contingent or adaptive support (i.e., scaffolding) is effective. Yet it is unclear how it promotes students' learning. In this mixed-methods study, we investigated to what extent the effect of contingent support for students' learning is mediated by the extent to which students take up teachers' support in subsequent small-group work. We define contingent support as support that contains adapted levels of teacher control or regulation based on the learner's level of understanding. To explore the research question, we analyzed all interactions from 35 lessons of 7 secondary social studies teachers and 7 small groups of students. Logistic multilevel mediation analyses showed that the likelihood of students formulating accurate answers during small-group work was higher when students applied the teacher's support in subsequent small-group work (as opposed to ignoring that support). However, the contingency of a teacher's support did not affect students' uptake or the accuracy of their answers. Additional qualitative analyses showed that students' uptake of contingent support was sometimes hampered by untimely fading of the support. Moreover, we found that contingent support that was then gradually faded was the most effective in fostering students' uptake of a teacher's support.

In this study, we conducted a review of reading intervention research (1988–2019) for upper elementary struggling readers and examined intervention area (e.g., foundational, comprehension, or multicomponent) and intensity (e.g., hours of intervention, group size, and individualization) as possible moderators of effects. We located 33 studies containing 49 treatment-comparison contrasts, found small effects for foundational reading skills (g = 0.22) and comprehension (g = 0.21), and decreased effects when considering standardized measures only. For intervention area, only multicomponent interventions predicted significant effects for both comprehension and foundational outcomes. For intensity, we did not find systematic evidence that longer or individualized interventions were associated with larger effects. However, interventions implemented in very small groups predicted larger comprehension outcomes. Overall, more research examining the quality of school provided reading instruction and how the severity of reading difficulties may impact effects of more intensive interventions is needed.

This rigorous literature review analyzed how 28 U.S.-based research studies conducted between 2001 and 2015 have defined, described, and measured changes in teaching practices related to implementation of Differentiated Instruction (DI) in P-12 classrooms. Research questions examined frameworks that defined DI, classroom operationalization of DI, key barriers and facilitators, and how changes in teacher practices across studies did not lead to a common definition of DI. Extracted data were analyzed by study type, DI purpose, theoretical framework, research questions, methodology, analysis method, expected/reported change in teacher practice, expected/reported impact on student learning key barriers, facilitators, contextual factors, and implications for teaching and research. Findings demonstrated how the many different frameworks used to define DI shaped a variety of changes to teacher practices and roles. The purpose of DI varied widely from a systematic response to policy to informal teacher perception of student differences. Barriers included the DI decision source (institution vs. teacher). Facilitators focused on teacher view of time, resources, control, and dispositions toward differences and ambiguity. The need for systematic replicable studies with greater methodological rigor is discussed and a more integrative defininon of DI focused on teacher instructional reasoning and decision making is proposed for future research.