Web site: www.everydaylearning.info
The major goal of the Everyday Children's Learning Opportunities Institute is the production
of materials that parents and practitioners can utilize to increase the use of everyday family
and community activity settings as sources of young children's natural learning opportunities.
The Institute staff has developed and evaluated the effectiveness of various methods and procedures
for facilitating parents' and practitioners' understanding of everyday learning opportunities and
how natural learning environments can increase the variety and frequency of learning opportunities
that are afforded to young children. The methods and procedures used to accomplish the Institute's
goal are guided by a conceptual and operational framework that investigates the ways in which
children's interests and assets support and strengthen competence in natural learning environments.
The Institute has been funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education
Programs, Research-to-Practice Division.
Web site: www.poweroftheordinary.org
Power of the Ordinary is a celebration of the rich array of powerful learning opportunities
occurring throughout the everyday lives of young children birth to six years of age. The everyday
moments of children's learning are shown in the Power of the Ordinary slide show—a photographic
journey of young children's everyday natural learning environments. Everyday Times, the colorful,
photographic discovery pages dedicated to children's everyday learning opportunities, can be used
to get ideas for making each and every moment filled with learning. The Power of the Ordinary
Public Service Announcement informs families and other community members about everyday learning
opportunities. Another way to take a closer look at everyday learning is with Power of the
Ordinary posters and video.
Web site: www.experiencethepossibilities.info
The major goal of Experience the Possibilities is the promotion of everyday family and
community activities as sources of learning, recreational, and leisure opportunities for
children birth to six years of age. Spotlight Bright Idea Pages are the principle means for
accomplishing this goal. Spotlights are richly illustrated and informative newsletters that
focus on one type of child interest and provide space for practitioners and program developers
to record family and community specific information about sources of learning and recreational
activities. Spotlights can be customized for use in early childhood and recreational programs
anywhere and anyplace. Printed "how to" assessment tools and video-tapes accompany the Spotlights newsletters.
The major goal of this practice-based research synthesis is to identify the characteristics of four adult learning strategies (guided design, coaching, accelerated learning, appreciative inquiry) that are consistent with the findings from the National Research Council's How People Learn research review of learning studies. Using the findings in this research report, a framework was developed to assess the extent to which each adult learning strategy emphasized different aspects of mastering key characteristics of effective adult learning. The project is funded, in part, by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, Research-to Practice Division.
The major goal of this line of research is to identify the characteristics of printed, video, and web-based information that increases the likelihood that practitioners will adopt evidence-based practices. Different formats and methods for presenting evidence-based information are being systematically evaluated to isolate those features and elements that are most preferred by early childhood intervention practitioners. A major outcome of this line of research is the development of guidelines and procedures that can be broadly used for bridging the research-to-practice gap.
The major goal of this research is to identify the best ways of promoting the availability of evidence-based practices using e-mail announcements as the means for increasing Web-site visits. Studies are being implemented using an e-mail database of more than 30,000 early childhood practitioners and programs in nearly all the United States. Multiple-baseline and interrupted time series designs are being used to evaluate the effectiveness of different ways of posting e-mail announcements. Special emphasis is being placed on how information is posted, increasing the likelihood that announcements are viewed among competing e-mails received by study participants.
The major goal of this study is to map the Web-site searching patterns of visitors in order to identify and isolate the ways in which Web-site information should be organized to maximize visitations to evidence-based practices pages. Research-to-date has found that products pages are the most visited and constitute the main reason or focus of visits to practice-based Web-sites. Future research will investigate preferences for research- or practice-based information and ascertain if searching patterns differ as a function of type of pages visited.
