A Web-based teaching tool called WebCAPSI was modified and tested as an online treatment for social anxiety. Two-Hundred and Seventy-Seven Introductory Psychology students at the University of Manitoba participated in the study. Twenty-eight participants were excluded from the study, resulting in 121 participants in the control group and 128 in the treatment group used for the final analysis. All participants received written materials on treatment for social phobia via WebCAPSI; however, the material was broken down into discrete units with assigned study questions for participants in the treatment condition. Participants in the treatment condition answered specific questions within the WebCAPSI program whereas participants in the control condition answered questions unrelated to the content of the materials. Further, participants in the treatment condition were given the opportunity to serve as peer reviewers. Results of this study indicated significant differences in post-treatment anxiety scores on two anxiety measures between groups, higher treatment expectancy scores in the treatment group, and higher baseline anxiety scores predicting greater reduction in anxiety post-treatment. Peer review did not appear to have a significant effect on post-treatment anxiety scores. These results indicate that the WebCAPSI program may be a useful tool to present information on the treatment of social anxiety.

A Web-based teaching tool called WebCAPSI was modified and tested as an online treatment for social anxiety. Two-Hundred and Seventy-Seven Introductory Psychology students at the University of Manitoba participated in the study. Twenty-eight participants were excluded from the study, resulting in 121 participants in the control group and 128 in the treatment group used for the final analysis. All participants received written materials on treatment for social phobia via WebCAPSI; however, the material was broken down into discrete units with assigned study questions for participants in the treatment condition. Participants in the treatment condition answered specific questions within the WebCAPSI program whereas participants in the control condition answered questions unrelated to the content of the materials. Further, participants in the treatment condition were given the opportunity to serve as peer reviewers. Results of this study indicated significant differences in post-treatment anxiety scores on two anxiety measures between groups, higher treatment expectancy scores in the treatment group, and higher baseline anxiety scores predicting greater reduction in anxiety post-treatment. Peer review did not appear to have a significant effect on post-treatment anxiety scores. These results indicate that the WebCAPSI program may be a useful tool to present information on the treatment of social anxiety.

Research has shown that social interaction and the development of friendships is important in promoting academic, personal and emotional development. Social interaction is a core difficulty for children and young people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). An increasing number of pupils with ASD are being educated within mainstream school where it is hoped that they will benefit from social opportunities with their peers and that the professionals working with them will be confident to support them (Keen and Ward, 2004). There is however growing evidence that school staff do not feel confident in supporting these pupils (House of Commons Education and Skills Committee, 2006; Robertson, Chamberlain and Kasari, 2003) and that this population of children are vulnerable to experiencing significantly poorer academic and social and emotional outcomes than their peers (Department for Education, 2012a; Humphrey and Lewis, 2008; Howlin and Goode, 1998). Teaching assistants (TAs) are often employed by schools to support pupils with ASD however research has suggested that the deployment of TAs might actually compound social interaction difficulties (Humphrey and Symes, 2011; Blatchford et al., 2009). TAs are in a unique position to support the social interaction of the pupils they work with however there is limited research into how TAs can be best utilised to facilitate social interaction between pupils with ASD and their typically developing peers within the classroom. This study piloted a researcher developed intervention, Better Together and conducted a process and outcome evaluation in order to investigate potential outcomes for TAs and pupils and examine systemic factors which might support or impede the intervention’s implementation and sustainability. The Better Together intervention aimed to train TAs to facilitate social interaction between pupils with ASD and their mainstream peers. The study involved three TA: pupil pairings within a single mainstream primary school and a single project coordinator. An evaluation of the ‘Better Together’ intervention package was undertaking using a fully mixed, sequential, dominant status design. Information pertaining to TA confidence levels was gathered pre and post intervention through semi-structured questionnaires. Structured observations were undertaken pre and post intervention and after a school term to gather information about the rate, range, maintenance and success of facilitative strategies used by the TAs. Semi-structured interviews with the TAs and project coordinator were carried out in order to obtain information about the implementation and outcomes of the intervention. The Social Inclusion Survey was administered at three time points to ascertain whether any changes in the social inclusion of target pupils had occurred.13Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. The findings from this small scale study suggest that the TAs had an increased rate and range of facilitative behaviours following the intervention and that there was a simultaneous increase in student interactions between pupils with ASD and their peers. These gains were sustained over time. The intervention was valued by staff and plans were made to extend the principles to other schools within the area through the establishment of a TA network of support. Core facilitators and barriers to the implementation of the intervention were explored and discussed and implications for future research and the role of the Educational Psychologist (EP) are considered.

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Motivated primarily by a cognitive approach, with consideration of interactional processes from a sociocultural perspective, the present study examined the use of linguistic assistance and peer interaction to facilitate second language (L2) writing of young ESL learners. A total of 257 Year 5 children (age 10) from twelve intact classes (from six different schools) took part in this eight-week intervention-based study. Using a quasi-experimental design, the classes were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups or the control group. Pretests, interim tests, immediate posttests and delayed posttests were administered. As the study concerned both the processes and products of L2 development, peer interaction and children's written production were taken as the two primary sources of data for this study. For the written production, four criteria were used to rate learners’ writings: Quality of ideas, Story shape and structure, Vocabulary and spelling and Implicit grammar. Partial correlation was employed to examine if there were any statistical relationships between treatment and learners’ written performance while controlling for prior attainment. Results show that the provision of enhanced and basic linguistic assistance may have a positive influence on only certain aspects of L2 writing, while opportunities for peer interaction does not appear to have an impact on learners’ L2 performance. For peer interaction, a subset of 60 learners were selected from the two treatment groups which received basic and enhanced linguistic assistance, to compare their dialogic performance. Based on quantitative analyses of their recorded interactions, the findings suggest that the provision of varying degrees of linguistic assistance may affect, not the content of peer discussions, but how peer assistance is given during task. The results also show that through the provision of linguistic assistance, peer interaction mediates the participants’ performance on Quality of ideas, Story shape and structure and Implicit grammar in their subsequent individual writing.

The evolution of technology has brought several benefits in the world of education and many new teaching and learning methods are being implemented. In view of social media for learning is quite modern and interesting. Facebook as a social media is a networking site with functionalities that facilitate users to share information through internet connections with the aid of electronic devices such as computer, phones, and tablets. The number of active users on Facebook is growing fast in various fields including education field. Today students in higher education use Facebook to communicate and share ideas, cooperating and finding solutions. But different aspects need to be examined like how Facebook support student peers. This study was conducted at Linnaeus University and research participants were students from different departments,both bachelor and master levels.   The main purpose of this study is to investigate students’ perceptions of using Facebook to support peer interaction and educational learning, identify benefits and limitations associated to Facebook usage and provide suggestions that may improve peer interaction and educational learning on Facebook. Concerning to the purpose of the research questions “How students perceive using Facebook to support peer interaction and Educational Learning? and What are student perspective on the benefits and limitations of using Facebook in educational learning?” Were investigated. A qualitative interpretative research study was conducted and data was collected through interviews.   The main results include students who agreed that Facebook functionalities such as messenger, sharing, posts, like, pages and groups enable them to interact easily since students use Facebook more when compared to other social media. But factors like peers who are not active, unnecessary chatting, connection issue, inaccessibility, privacy and security that may arise on Facebook environment play an unfavorable role in perceiving learning.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of individualized video-modeled Social Story interventions on the social communication skills of three children with High Functioning Autism/Aspergers Syndrome (HFA/AS). Using a multiple-baseline across participants design, video-modeled Social Stories were implemented and direct observations of the participants identified target behaviors were collected two times per week during unstructured school activities (e.g., recess). Overall, data demonstrated that video modeled Social Stories were effective for improving the rates of social communication for the participants, though modifications to allow access to social reinforcement was needed in two cases. In addition, all three participants demonstrated maintenance of skills at a two-week follow-up. However, generalization of skills was only observed for one participant.The present research provides no definitive claims of the effectiveness of a combined intervention for children with HFA/AS, Rather, it adds preliminary evidence that a combined intervention that teaches social communication skills and provides for a model of appropriate behavior may be a beneficial method of remediating social skill difficulties for many children and youth with HFA/AS.

With the rapid development of information and communication technologies (ICTs), researchers have been engaging in exploring the potential of ICTs on educational settings. Game-based learning is an application of ICTs for improving learning performance. Simulation-based learning games are usually developed to create virtual worlds where learners can learn by solving the problems in relation to the real world. However, there are still many subjects which are difficult to be developed as simulation-based learning games; in order to provide the entertainment element for those kind of subjects, this study attempted to design non-simulation learning games instead. Two learning support mechanisms were proposed and examined in this study. One is game-feedback which provides useful information for learners to engage in further learning after the game stage. The other is peer-interaction which constructs an environment to facilitate learners interacting among each other. An experiment was conducted with a total of 80 students enrolled in Computer Networks course. The results show that the mechanism of peer-interaction has a significantly positive effect on learning performance, and the mechanism of game-feedback has a significantly positive effect on the intention toward using the developed system for their further learning. Based on the findings, implications on theoretical and practical aspects were discussed for further research directions and practical applications.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of individualized social story interventions on the social communication skills of three children with Asperger's Syndrome (AS). Using a multiple baseline across participants desing, three social stories were implemented and direct observations of the participants' identified target behaviors were collected three times per week during unstructured school activities (e.g, recess). Data revealed an increase in the social communication skills of two of the three participants when the treatment was implemented. In addition, maintenance of treatment effects was observed in two participants. These data support recommendations for using social stories to teach social skills to children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders.