Tested influence of ability, time, quality of instruction, motivation, and academic coursework on high school students' (n=25,875) achievement. Intellectual ability and academic coursework had powerful direct effects on achievement, and homework had smaller direct effect. Indirect effects of quality of instruction and motivation were stronger than…

Examines the perception that, first, one can distinguish among different types of reasons for help avoidance in the classroom and, second, that attribution of help avoidance will be associated with qualitatively different help-seeking behaviors when pupils encounter difficulty on an academic task. Results of two studies show that help seeking was…

Identifies the structure and composition of profile types most representative of the 2,200 children comprising the normative sample for the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children--Third Edition. Provides a case example using the method recommended for "everyday" decision making. (Author/MKA)

Compared the retention of academic skills of elementary students in traditional and alternative calendar schools over the summer months using curriculum-based measurement. Students completed mathematics, spelling, written expression, and reading probes in the spring and fall. Results indicated that retention of academic skills in the different…

The diversification of higher education systems into "first tier" and "second tier" institutions raises the issue of who gets to study where. The diversity approach suggests that the institutional enrollment of students will be mainly influenced by their social origins, whereas the stratification approach underscores the role…

Whether they are the outcome of global immigration trends, residential living patterns, or educational reform efforts such as detracking, heterogeneous classrooms pose considerable pedagogical challenges for educators. This article describes a systemic approach to restructuring the classroom with the goal of establishing and maintaining an…

When individuals are identified, especially children, as gifted in one or more domains, what they know about the domain (e.g., school achievement) and their ability to learn about that domain more rapidly or more thoroughly than other individuals (e.g., school aptitudes) is often the focus of concentration. But gifted adults are usually identified…

This article reviews the validity of models based on (a) aptitude--achievement discrepancies, (b) low achievement, (c) intraindividual differences, and (d) response to instruction for the classification and identification of learning disabilities (LD). Models based on aptitude--achievement discrepancies and intraindividual differences showed…

Action research is a process that classroom teachers undertake to reflect upon and improve their own teaching. This study followed an elementary teacher's two-year experience with an action research project in which her middle school students played mathematical-related games. Through the teacher's involvement in this project, her core beliefs…

In a line of research employing a survey instrument, the "Critical Thinking Belief Appraisal", teachers supported critical-thinking (CT) activities more for high- than low-advantage learners, likely exacerbating a "rigor gap" implicated in persistent achievement gaps. Such beliefs were less likely to be espoused by expert teachers than randomly…

Ninety-four gifted children and 200 nongifted children (aged 9 to 13 years old) were involved in the present study. Their self-concept was assessed by the Revised Song-Hattie Self-Concept Inventory (Zhou & He, 1996). Academic self-concepts pertaining to abilities, school achievements, and grade concepts and nonacademic self-concepts pertaining…

While a great deal of research has examined students' critical thinking skills, less is known about students' tendencies to use these skills. Specifically, little is known about what factors contribute to students developing a disposition to think critically or what impact this disposition has on college students' academic achievement. Perceived…

Purpose: This was a Time II survey of outcomes for children, now ages 9 to 13 years, who were almost 4 years old on average when they were adopted from the former Soviet Union. Method: As part of a larger study (see T. McGuinness, R. Ryan, & C. Broadus Robinson, 2005), parents of 55 children (M age = 11 years) were surveyed regarding their…

This study describes pre-kindergarten teachers' use of kindergarten transition practices and examined the extent to which these practices were associated with kindergarten teachers' judgments of children's social, self-regulatory, and academic skills upon their entry into kindergarten. Participants were 722 children from 214 pre-kindergarten…

This study provides a model of academic identity development for college students with learning disabilities from the integrative self-determination themes of persistence, competence, career decision making, and self-realization. Nineteen self-determined and high-achieving participants were interviewed. The participants' stories illustrate how…