This document describes the implementation of a practicum intervention designed to improve the analytic abilities of academically above-average fifth and sixth graders in a class that emphasized academic excellence. When students were tested on the development of complex thinking abilities, several areas needing improvement were identified. A…

A study examined the relationship of positive and negative evaluation statements to specific evaluation criteria, student characteristics, and type of writing. Subjects, 27 fifth-grade students, were asked to read samples of their own writing and writing attributed to a fictional peer. During tape-recorded interviews, the subjects were asked to…

This teaching unit is composed of six parts: (1) a content outline, (2) unit goals, (3) objectives, (4) activities, (5) evaluation procedures, and (6) an annotated bibliography. The content of this unit focuses on the personal attributes, education, interests and skills which go into choosing an occupation; the types of occupations; education and…

A study was conducted to examine the task-related help-seeking behavior of 85 third- and fifth-grade boys and girls of varying scholastic ability. Participants, white middle-class children, were blocked into high- and low-ability groups on the basis of word comprehension subscores on the California Achievement Test. Children were presented with 16…

Two studies investigate the way in which children make sense of a play and the visual, aural, and psychological components of theatre which contribute to this comprehension. In the first study, 32 fifth graders saw "Don Quixote of La Mancha." In the second study, 45 third graders saw "Monkey, Monkey" (about the Chinese Monkey King). The day after…

To examine the relationship between spelling and reading using full graphemic cues, a study administered tests of oral reading, verbal IQ, reading comprehension, knowledge of letter-sound correspondences, and spelling achievement to 47 fifth-grade students. In addition, data was collected relative to gender and time spent reading outside the…

A study examined whether students already know the meanings of reading vocabulary presented as "new" vocabulary in their basal readers. Subjects, 142 second and fifth grade students from two midwestern school districts, were asked to complete a yes/no test and a multiple choice test of vocabulary in their basal readers at their grade level and at…

This study, which was designed to identify factors contributing to children's construction of temporal relationships, investigated 10-year-olds' thought and understanding of historical time. A total of 10 children 10 years of age were interviewed on videotape and asked to construct a time line of historical events and persons. In interviews,…

In order to assess the level of science education in the pre-high school grades in New York City, citywide science surveys were developed and administered for the second year in May, 1985, at Grades 5 and 8. These instruments were designed to provide school, district, and citywide information about student achievement in the basic science…

The study-in-progress examines the treatment of the U.S. Constitution in U.S. history textbooks at the fifth, eighth, and eleventh grade levels. The study focuses on how textbook authors treat: (1) the background and historical setting from which the U.S. Constitution emerged; (2) the writers of the Constitution and the process they went through…

Sixty fifth grade students participated in a study that investigated how children learn from a nonverbal film. The students were randomly assigned to one of four conditions where they were presented individually with (1) a film story, (2) a silent version of the film, (3) a descriptive audio version of the film's content, or (4) the same story…

The effectiveness of the learning cell, or student dyad, for the acquisition of principles of probability was explored in Grades 5, 9, and college age. Analysis indicates that student's evaluations of the learning cell was unrelated to achievement. (Author/DEP)

Investigation aided by a grant from the Foundations' Fund for Research in Psychiatry.