Examined fourth through sixth graders' conceptions of academic and social ability. Found that conception of ability as stable to external forces heightened importance of competence, performance knowledge, challenge preference, competence perceptions, and self-enhancing attributions. Conceptions of ability as stable to internal forces were fostered…

Reports on research from the Novocherkassk State Technical University on ways that student groups with different social structures influence the climate of learning. Raises questions about the ability of students educated during the period of mass education to adapt to new methods of learning being introduced into Russian higher education. (DSK)

Examines the effects of open inquiry instruction on low achieving, marginalized high school students. Involves students with long histories of scholastic failure in question generation, experimental design, and argument construction as part of their General Science course instruction. Compares students' entrance and exit interview responses which…

Describes the development of the Readiness Inventory (RI), a measure of readiness for first grade. The RI was completed on 139 first-grade children and analyzed using a model of Item Response Theory. Findings indicate that behaviors dealing with academic skills are less indicative of readiness than abilities dealing with role-governed behaviors or…

Describes the Canadian Radarsat Satellite and remote sensing in order to demonstrate that teachers can incorporate this technology into the classroom. Maintains that third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students can understand and interpret remote sensing images and Landsat images. Provides a list of teaching resources other than the expensive…

Studies determinants of university dropouts, using a longitudinal data set on student enrollments at the University of Montreal. Variables explaining persistence and dropouts are related to a nontraditional class-size effect in first-year required courses and to type of university program. Strong academic performance influences student…

Like Chip Anderson, whose essay you read earlier in this issue, I was initially taught to use the deficit-remediation model with my students. Even in that negative context, though, and with no exposure at all to strengths-based education, I unconsciously based my early teaching on four of my five Clifton StrengthsFinder signature themes:…

Latent growth models estimated developmental trajectories for adolescents' math and English self-perceptions (perceived talent, success expectancies), values (intrinsic, utility) and task perceptions (task difficulty, effort required). A longitudinal cohort-sequential study included 1,323 participants spanning Grades 7 to 11, with Occasion 1 mean…

The main goal of this paper is to investigate cross-cultural factors that predict academic ability among mathematically gifted Olympians in Finland and the United States. The following two research problems are formulated: (1) What factors contribute to or impede the development of the Olympians' mathematic talent? and (2) Do the Olympians fulfill…

The ways boys and girls (N = 119) at different grade levels rated and explained their potential for improvement in mathematics and the mother tongue were compared in order to examine their subject-specific notions of the malleability of their academic ability. The findings indicate that children perceive their potential to improve their…

It is not surprising that many struggling learners have low self-efficacy for academics. They believe that they lack the ability to succeed. Consequently, they tend to avoid academics and give up quickly when difficulties arise. This article suggests practical solutions based on self-efficacy theory to improve the motivation of struggling…

The number of educational research studies involving pupils is increasing. Most studies are with pupils in a specific age group or concentrate on certain categories, such as special needs or the gifted and talented. However there have been few studies that involve pupils in the middle ability range of Key Stage 3. A research study into target…

In this study, the author examined two learning style measures that are available online, Felder's Index of Learning Styles and Jester's Learning Styles Survey. Most of the subscales contained in these measures were found to have poor reliability. Further, the author found that these measures exhibited little or no meaningful association with…

As a part of efforts to evaluate and monitor the increasing public investment in early childhood education, teachers are being asked to assess children's school readiness. In this study, preschool teachers and kindergarten teachers rated children's skills in three areas (kindergarten readiness, academic skills, and communication skills), and these…

Two studies explore the relationship between foreign language teachers' perceptions of their students' academic skills and affective characteristics and their native language skills, foreign language aptitude, and oral and written foreign language proficiency. In Study I (replication), students who scored significantly lower on native language and…