This study explored the effects of high-stakes testing and accountability on the fundamental practices associated with middle school philosophy. Participants were middle school educators, including administrators and teachers, from Pennsylvania middle schools. An online survey was used to collect data for this study. The survey addressed the…

Standardized testing is a reality with which all educators must contend. Although the laws enforcing such assessments do so under the premise that students will thereby be assured an equal opportunity for academic success, they overlook a critical point--students are human beings with needs that reach beyond what is measured on a test. In this…

Discusses the emotional and intellectual needs of adolescents and suggests that a testing program should address itself to the developmental needs of students and to the contributing environment. For example, testing could involve both an oral approach and an audiovisual component. (KC)

This paper presents a synthesis of what is currently known about the nature and development of scientific reasoning and why it plays a central role in acquiring scientific literacy. Science is viewed as a hypothetico-deductive (HD) enterprise engaging in the generation and test of alternative explanations. Explanation generation and test requires…

Basic principles of instruction to effect cognitive change are examined, particularly within the context of South African higher education. Principles include: creating and engaging in conflict between existing knowledge and demands of an unfamiliar task; empowering learners to address the unfamiliar; scaffolding between learner and task; testing…

Provides evidence to support the conclusion that relationships exist among Piagetian levels of intellectual development, intelligence quotient, content achievement, and inquiry skills in ninth and tenth grade biology students (N=92). (DS)

Reexamined Piagetian stages of males (N=182) and females (N=176), ages nine to eighteen, using cluster analysis, and sought information concerning occurrence of stages and influence of different tasks and gender on cluster patterns. Findings, among others, indicate that deviation from Piagetian stages was influenced by gender and type of task.…

Purposes of this study were to (1) develop an instrument requiring several classification activities; (2) investigate the correlation between classification ability and intelligence scores of junior high school students (N=365); and (3) determine if classification ability differs with age and gender. Findings included a significant correlation…

Determined if certain variations in the format of Inhelder and Piaget's Equilibrium in the Balance task have any effect on how students (175 undergraduate and 32 ninth graders) are classified. Suggests that researchers allow subjects to experiment with the apparatus to insure proper classification of stage of development. (Author/DS)