The present studies demonstrated that children as young as second graders could form prototypical representations from a set of highly similar stimuli. (Author/SB)

The purpose of this research is to compare the rural education practices of China, Taiwan, Canada and the United States. International comparisons of mathematics achievement find that students in Asian countries outperform those from the USA. Excluded from these studies, however, are students from rural areas in China. This study compares the math…

This is the second and final report for MDRC's evaluation of the Bay Area School Reform Collaborative (BASRC), a grant-making and support organization in San Francisco, California. BASRC is dedicated to improving student achievement in public schools and narrowing achievement gaps among different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups. BASRC…

Since the early 1600s, millions of people have came to the United States from all over the world. At that time, Native American Indians inhabited the land, but they too had come from elsewhere 30,000 years earlier. Why did they come and what was their arrival like? "Your Acting Company" (the class) has been selected to present a play at…

A study investigated the source of teacher frustration concerning their students' spelling abilities and whether or not word study increases retention as opposed to a traditional approach to spelling instruction. Subjects, 16 fifth-grade students at a public school in a suburban area of central Virginia, were formed into groups based on…

The Level 5 activity book is designed to help children learn that writing messages and stories will help them see the value of learning to spell. The workbook's program is based on the ideas that accurate spelling contributes to the clarity of written messages; spelling accuracy shows attention to detail, sending a positive message to teachers and…

The construct of parental support has been defined and measured from a variety of perspectives with little consistency across studies. The present study investigates the relationships among parents' self-reports, children's perceptions, and observers' ratings of parental support in order to assess the validity of each perspective. In addition, the…

This report describes a program for improving students' spelling skills through the use of effective teaching strategies. Because the literature review of solutions named these categories: using various instructional strategies, moving away from simple memorization, and supporting students with freedom to take risks in spelling, these researchers…

Designed for small group instruction, this fifth-grade classroom activity deals with the creation of a special edition newspaper commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The activity contains five roles for students (historian, journalist, cartographer/illustrator, biographer, scientist), and each group is to produce…

It is not complex to teach the algorithm for multiplying fractions so that children can multiply numerators and denominators to arrive at correct answers. However, it is a challenge to teach so that students build understanding of multiplication of fractions, extending what they have already learned about fractions and about multiplication of…

A study examined whether allowing students to make choices in their reading program significantly increased their self concepts as readers and the value they place on reading. The Motivation to Read Profile was administered to 20 fifth-grade students from a variety of socioeconomic families. After allowing the students to make choices in their…

Data indicate that the form of writing does affect both the kinds and the numbers of figurative language examples that will be found. Children do use all of the elements of figurative language, although there is no natural development of such language in grades 4 through 6. (JA)

The major finding of the present experiment was that children as young a 7 or 8 (second graders) were able to employ an induced visual-imagery strategy to facilitate paired-associate learning. (Authors)

To the authors' knowledge, this is the first conclusive demonstration that an observer's spontaneous verbalizations can interfere with vicarious rule learning. (Authors)