In this paper, I map important "messy" elements that I learned from my five-month small-scale research project, one that was designed around pivotal works on online social research. I used computers and the Internet with Minan, a young man living in Guinea, West Africa, in order to examine his perceptions surrounding the value of these…

"Mathematics is more than skills... it is also the excitement of discovery." This is how Derek Holton, one of the contributing authors to this book, defines mathematics. His enthusiasm and energy are echoed throughout by many of the other writers. This is a book to delight mathematics teachers at all stages: experienced and inexperienced;…

Serious depression in parents and caregivers can affect far more than the adults who are ill. It also influences the well-being of the children in their care. The first joint Working Paper from the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child and the National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs summarizes recent evidence on the…

This study examines relationships among weight status, weight perceptions, and dieting behaviors in South Korean adolescents. As perceptions of an ideal body for teens in Korea have changed over time, it is important for school nurses to understand these relationships to help students achieve health. A cross-sectional survey of 3,191 8th and 2,252…

Research has illustrated that school counselors "do not" provide Latina/o students with sufficient information about higher education (Immerwahr, 2003; Zalaquett, 2005), high expectations (Martinez, 2003), and individual counseling and guidance (Vela Gude et al., in press). Because school counselors are supposed to play an important role in…

The present article presents a didactic proposal oriented to teaching notions of semiconductor physics in secondary education. The methods and the results of a pilot study designed to analyse the effectiveness of a teaching sequence on the topic are also described. The subjects were 60 students, aged 14-15 years, of a secondary school in Seville,…

Background/Context: Educational researchers have long sought to understand the factors that enable or constrain persistence in non-formal family literacy and adult education programs. Scholars typically posit three sets of factors influencing persistence: situational (learners' life circumstances), institutional (programmatic factors), and…

This article traces the historical coverage of the gender issue in the criminological literature. It also provides contemporary empirical evidence about differences and similarities between girls and boys with respect to juvenile crime and to processing by the juvenile justice system, by analyzing several national juvenile crime data series, all…

The aim of this study was to elicit students' conceptions about big bubbles in boiling liquids (water, ethanol and aqueous CuSO[subscript 4] solution). The study is based on twenty-four students at different ages and grades. The clinical interviews technique was conducted to solicit students' conceptions and the interviews were analyzed to…

The exponential function model of radioactive decay and the concept of a half-life are used in nuclear experiments that appear in introductory and intermediate laboratories. In our interactions with students, we have found that students at all levels have significant confusion about both the term exponential and what is meant by a half-life as…

Using data provided by the Council of International Schools and a literature review to contextualize the subject, this article examines the topic of international school finance. It is suggested that postgraduate programmes are not doing enough to supply financial training for teachers turned administrators, and that a lack of understanding of…

When students enter the classroom, they often hold prior knowledge or conceptions about the natural world. These conceptions will influence how they come to understand what they are taught in school. Some of their existing knowledge provides good foundation for formal schooling, but other prior conceptions, however, are incompatible with currently…

Playing Indian is one of the oldest and most pervasive forms of American cultural expression, indeed one of the oldest forms of affinity with American culture at the national level. This form of expression is "central to efforts to imagine and materialize distinctive American identities." Enacting redface has historically aided European Americans…

This article presents the text of Joanne Yatvin's presidential address, delivered at the NCTE Annual Convention in New York City in November 2007. The title of her presidential address, "Where Ignorant Armies Clash by Night," was taken from Matthew Arnold's (1867) poem "Dover Beach." Yatvin states that the federal government…

The present study focused on investigating the effectiveness of instruction via newly developed teaching materials based on cooperative learning when compared to a traditional approach, on ninth grade students' understanding of metallic bonding. Fifty-seven ninth grade science students from two science classes in the same high school participated…