Reports the results of a broad-based study of 11- to 16-year-old students' interests in physics and technology. Results indicate that the subjects students find most interesting are under-represented in the physics curriculum, while those they find the least interesting are over-represented. Draws conclusions regarding instruction which arouses…

Changes in intelligence among Swedish 13-year-olds during a 20-year period was studied. Results show: (1) the average of spatial and reasoning intelligence has risen; (2) verbal intelligence increased during the 1960s, but declined thereafter; and (3) by the 1980s girls surpassed in verbal ability and equalled in spatial ability. (Author/LMO)

Using third, sixth, and ninth grade students of Anglo, Black, and Hispanic ethnicity, a study examined their use of the conjunctions "and,""but,""because," and "even though." Results indicated that for all groups, correct use of conjunctions was correlated with reading comprehension. (HOD)

A study of elementary and secondary schools in Montana addressed the relationship between school size and student scores concerning the individual and society, e.g., fitness, citizenship, careers, and environmental issues. Although few correlations were significant, the majority of the results indicated that smaller schools received higher scores…

Describes the development of a method of identifying motivational and educational attributes through student reports of what they like and what they perceive they are learning. Applications of the method to microcomputer software and traditional classroom activities are compared. (23 references) (MBR)

The multifaceted structure of sentence-completion test items was analyzed to explain verbal comprehension. The three stimulus constituents were technical, logical-semantic, and associative-contextual. Guttman's facet and order theories and smallest space analysis were used. Results confirmed the multiple skills involved in solving these tasks.…

Examines the negative outcomes of the mandatory external primary school-leaving certificate examination administered to Irish sixth-graders, 1943-67. Concludes that the Irish experience should warn American educators of the possible dangers of using minimum competency tests as the sole or primary determinant of decisions concerning grade-to-grade…

Middle school students consolidate their understanding of integers and rational numbers, increasing their facility with fractions, decimals, and percents and encountering proportionality. This book shows how students can explore these important ideas in such diverse activities as exchanging currency and using area models to develop algorithms for…

Sixth grade marks the transition to middle school and, for many students, the transition to early adolescence. The sixth-grade classroom is a place where problem-solving and abstract thinking skills can flourish as teachers devise creative ways to integrate language arts with effective content-area instruction. This book walks the reader through…

This study investigated the effects of maternal employment on beliefs and attitudes of suburban and urban middle school students in addition to their comparative levels of self-esteem. A 5-part survey, including demographic information, beliefs about consequences of maternal employment of children; information about the mother's work status;…

In the present research we examined variations in the after-school experience of young adolescents as a function of family background characteristics and the extent to which after-school activities were associated with behavioral adjustment at school. After-school time use was assessed through telephone interviews with 438 young adolescents…

Year-to-year rater variation may result in constructed response (CR) parameter changes, making CR items inappropriate to use in anchor sets for linking or equating. This study demonstrates how rater severity affected the writing and reading scores. Rater adjustments were made to statewide results using an item response theory (IRT) methodology…

With consistently low levels of academic performance and high rates of absenteeism (Bourke & Rigby, 2000), the students in this study are the most educationally disadvantaged group in Australia with respect to mathematics. This paper reports on a study undertaken with Years 5-7 students in a Queensland aboriginal community to determine their…

One mathematics lesson was planned by two Grade 2 teachers together. Their separate teaching of it was videotaped, and each teacher was interviewed before and after her lesson. The "same" lesson resulted in different sets of worthwhile learning outcomes. In this research report, the notion of situated cognition is used as a tool for analysis of…

We examine aspects of flexible mathematical thinking in middle school students and its contribution to the growth of their mathematical understanding. We inductively analyzed data collected from video-episodes of an interactive, problem-solving based after-school mathematics class. Flexibility is essential in such classrooms since students must…