Although democratic decision making offers the best hope for public support of schools, simple majority rule is not enough. Deliberation is needed for long-term community engagement. A Washington State elementary school's broad-based site leadership team sets school direction and handles issues influencing student learning. This team successfully…

Describes techniques that help students become reflective about their learning. Describes how involving students as coresearchers who examine collectively the workings of their classroom supports the goal of learning to reflect, and allows teachers and students to learn to work together. Describes how this worked in a 12th-, 5th-, and 2nd-grade…

Concepts of human differences were studied among 5th and 11th graders in the United States, Japan, and China. Relative to their peers, more American students noted differences in appearance/attractiveness and material resources; more Japanese noted various physical features, and more Chinese noted specific behaviors. With increasing age, Americans…

Assesses fifth- and sixth-grade children's relationships with teachers, bonds with schools, and social and emotional adjustment. Analyses of responses reveals that students with disabilities have greater dissatisfaction with their relationships with teachers, poorer bonds with school, and perceived higher school danger than students without…

Evaluates the effectiveness of a parent-child drug education program through a study of 1,447 4th-, 5th-, and 6th-grade students and 2,036 of their parents. Results indicate the program produced changes in the responses of children and their parents to questions concerning attitudes, use, perceptions of use, and intended use of drugs. (KW)

This study investigated the role of talking-to-learn in small- and large-group discussions about a knowledge object and writing-to-learn in individual time after collaborative reasoning and arguing. The study involved a fifth-grade class in Italy studying ecological concepts, and results show that by sharing cognition students constructed more…

Fifth-grade teacher describes her experience teaching Chippewa-Cree children at Rocky Boy Elementary School on the Rocky Boy reservation in Montana. (PKP)

Examined ways three fifth-grade teachers facilitated student notebook writing as part of an inquiry of electric circuits. Found that teachers promoted notebook writing through explicit instructions and prompts. Teachers provided frequent opportunities for writing, and checked that students had documented procedural aspects of investigations.…

Maintains that children's literature broadens students views and understanding of the past while also offering teachers a means for integrating the elementary curriculum. Provides an integrated unit using a literture-social studies connection that focuses on the Great American Prairie during the pioneer period and gives a list of supporting…

Offers an interdisciplinary lesson for fifth-grade students where they study the history of the Puritans and the Mayflower while creating a picture of the Mayflower. Uses the "wet on wet" water color wash technique for the background and describes the process for creating a collage of the Mayflower. (CMK)

Examined whether fourth- and fifth-grade children's social goals and strategies in friendship conflict situations are predictive of their friendship adjustment, after accounting for level of peer acceptance. Found that children's goals were highly related to their strategies and that children's goals and strategies were predictive of their…

Compared standardized test scores in reading and mathematics for second- and fifth-grade students from two similar technology-rich elementary schools in Florida. One school implemented Project CHILD (Computers Helping Instruction and Learning Development) as its instructional model, and that school scored higher on all test comparisons.…

Two videotapes were created of a child communicating with a voice output augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device. In one the child communicated using formal English only and in the other the child communicated using formal English and age appropriate informal terms. Children in grades 4 and 5 viewed either the formal English only…

This study developed a Pupils' Nature of Science Scale, including the subscales of the invented and changing nature of science, the role of social negotiation on science, and cultural context on science, to assess early adolescents' views about the nature of science. More than 6,000 fifth and sixth graders in Taiwan responded to the Scale. The…

Given that affective and cognitive processes interact in writing, it is important that interventions for developing writing ability focus both on strategies for developing motivation and cognitive processes. This article provides evidence for the efficacy of an instructional program that combines training in composition processes with strategies…