Poonam Kumar

A Cross-Cultural Examination of Typically Developing Children's Attitudes toward Individuals with Special Needs.

This study explores childrens attitudes toward individuals with special needs in Greece and in the United States. A total of 196 kindergarten‐age children participated in the study. Childrens attitudes were examined using the Acceptance Scale for Kindergartners‐Revised (ASK‐R) and were further explored with the use of an open‐ended interview. In addition, the Inventory of Disability Representation (IDR) was used to collect information about how individuals with special needs are represented in school and classroom environments through books, displays, materials and curriculum. The results indicated that children in Greece and the United States were accepting of individuals with special needs. Also, children attending inclusive kindergartens held more positive attitudes when compared with children attending non‐inclusive kindergartens. Results from the interviews provided further information that contributes to the understanding of childrens perceptions of people with special needs and the reasons why children become more or less favourably disposed towards individuals with special needs. Finally, IDR results indicated that the classrooms in Greece had low representations of individuals with special needs compared with US classrooms, which had moderate and high representations of individuals with disabilities in the classroom and school environments.

Selling Sales Factors Influencing Undergraduate Business Students’ Decision to Pursue Sales Education

With a better understanding of the typical sales student, sales educators can design and deliver curriculum with a more customer-oriented approach. In order to better understand the decision to pursue sales education, more than 500 undergraduate business students at a large Midwestern university participated in a survey that examined the factors influencing their decision to pursue sales education within a business major. The findings indicate that the choice of sales education is driven by students’ appreciation for creativity and people skills and their own interests and abilities, but the students’ school advisors (either college or high school) have significant influence as well. In today’s data-driven world, sales jobs depend on the use of analytical and intensively quantitative skills, yet our results indicate that sales students lack appreciation and enjoyment of the quantitative aspects of their major and potential career path.

Student opinions on web-enhanced courses

This study examined student satisfaction with technology enhanced traditional courses. Students were enrolled in two courses where the instructors used Blackboard to supplement the course content. Student responses indicated that students were very satisfied with the technology-enhanced course and liked the availability of lecture notes, links to additional resources and online discussions. Students also provided feedback about face to face and online discussions. Students who preferred online discussions, liked the flexibility and convenience of the medium of communication. Students who preferred face to face discussions felt that online discussions lacked personal touch. Implications of the results for instructors and future research are also discussed.