A study with 28 fourth graders, 30 eighth graders, and 30 college students demonstrates that the relationship between knowledge of the requirements of a globally coherent essay and the ability to produce such an essay generally remains statistically significant when the effect of grade level is removed. (SLD)

Contends that tracking students by assumed ability level does not substantially benefit high achievers and that it tends to put low achievers at a serious disadvantage. Further asserts that tracking in primary and secondary schools stigmatizes and inhibits opportunities of success for disadvantaged and minority students. (24 citations) (VWC)

Describes factors that hold promise for recruiting and retaining minority students in gifted education programs, including having equitable, culturally sensitive screening and identification instruments and procedures; providing minority students with a quality education; addressing problems that interfere with minority students' achievement; and…

Traces the development of artistic ability in a six-year-old boy with autism and mild mental retardation. Addresses questions concerning autism and artistic development including whether intellectual realism is a necessary precursor to visual realism and whether a two-dimensional photographic memory is used as opposed to three-dimensional…

This eight-week descriptive study examined the impact of the incorporation of a Life-Application Learning Methods Program on struggling middle school readers. Two questions were explored: 1) How did incorporating life-application learning into the middle school curriculum impact reading motivation?, and 2) How did incorporating life-application…

Background: This study examines differences between the three subtypes of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), inattentive (I), hyperactive-impulsive (H), and combined (C), in a heterogeneous sample of 248 boys (ages 6 to 10 years) with emotional and behavioral problems who were recruited for participation in a diagnostic study.…

"Stereotype threat" refers to the risk associated with confirming a negative stereotype based on group membership. We examined this effect in a sample of African-American high school students. Stereotype threat was manipulated by presenting a visual spatial reasoning test as (a) diagnostic of mathematical ability or (b) a culture and…

Embedded in the contemporary issue of gifted education is the contentious notion of ability grouping. The debate surrounding appropriate educational provision for gifted students continues to argue the cognitive and affective influences of ability grouping on gifted students. While recognising the various forms of intellectual giftedness, analysis…

This study reviewed the distance education and self-regulation literatures to identify learner self-regulation skills predictive of academic success in a blended education context. Five self-regulatory attributes were judged likely to be predictive of academic performance: intrinsic goal orientation, self-efficacy for learning and performance,…

We use quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate the links between participation in adult learning and self-efficacy, particularly for the subgroup of adults who had low levels of achievement at school. We focus on self-efficacy because it translates into a range of wider benefits and because it may afford protection from depression and…

The purpose of this study was to examine how young children's homes and preschool programs influence kindergarten achievement by being "ready environments." Ready environments provide opportunities for cognitive and social growth through culturally and developmentally appropriate activities, interactions, and materials. This study used…

This paper examines the extent to which family wealth affects the race-child achievement association for young children based on data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. We found little evidence that wealth mediates the black-white test scores gap. However, liquid assets, particularly holding in stocks and mutual funds, are positively…

Claude Steeles' stereotype threat hypothesis posits that when there are negative stereotypes about the intellectual capacity of certain (stigmatised) groups, members of that group suffer aversive consequences; group members who are most strongly identified with the stigmatised domain in question (e.g., intellectual or academic ability) are those…

This ongoing investigation was concerned with why some children were labeled gifted while others of identical measured ability were not. Each labeled "gifted" child was matched for age, sex, and socioeconomic status (SES) with two others in the same school class. The first matched child had an identical Raven's Matrices raw score, and…

The IEA Preprimary Project is a longitudinal, cross-national study of preprimary care and education designed to identify how process and structural characteristics of the settings children attended at age 4 are related to their age-7 cognitive and language performance. Investigators collaborated to develop common instruments to measure family…