The objectives of this exploratory study were to determine: (1) the approach to learning of physics students (N=142) at John Abbott College (Quebec, Canada) as determined by the Study Process Questionnaire; (2) the intellectual demands of quizzes, tests, and final exams in physics using a scheme derived from Bloom's taxonomy; and (3) the…

Articulation of mathematics and science education is advocated in the official documents of several professional organizations. To assess the benefit of curriculum integration, a national indicator needs to be developed from a correlation study of performance scores between the two subjects. In this study, a correlation analysis was conducted at…

Background: This study made use of the "Model of Academic Choice" by Meece et al. (1982). It is a general model of academic choice, expectation and value of attitude leading to achievement. The model links achievement with constructs of expectation of success on a task and the subjective value of the task influencing the attitude of…

The use of the method of self-explanations to gain knowledge on students' conception of the chemical equilibrium concepts is reported in this paper. The analysis provides information on: (1) a general indication of students' understanding of materials related to chemical equilibrium, (2) a deep investigation of problem solving skills associated…

Using the international database of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), this study estimated the effect of class size on student performance in 18 countries, combining school fixed effects and instrumental variables to identify random class-size variation between 2 adjacent grades within individual schools. Conventional…

An innovation-focused Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) study of 13 nations participating in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) found universal unhappiness with the state of mathematics and science education. There was no link among successful test scores, improvement goals, or satisfaction of…

Investigated the effects of student motivation, attitude, and academic engagement on eighth graders' mathematics and science achievement. Data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 supported the positive effects of the two motivation factors, attitude, and academic time on mathematics and science achievement. The strongest effects…

Introduces the articles of this theme issue, which cover a wide variety of questions and problems relevant to research using findings of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). The articles have in common that most try to determine the degree to which certain factors influence student achievement. The focus is on five…

Uses data from the Second International Science Study to examine the effects of school entry age, grade, age, and enrollment ratios on science achievement among tenth and twelfth graders in Papua New Guinea. Compares findings with those from Thailand, the Philippines, and industrialized countries. Contains 13 references. (SV)

High school physics students (n=41) were exposed to both massed and distributed practice on two different physics topics. Results suggest that using distributed practice in high school physics classrooms can lead to higher student achievement. (11 references) (Author/MKR)

Describes the achievement of high- and low-reading-ability students in an introductory college biology course after they received and used teacher-provided questions or learned to generate and use their own questions. Discusses the ecological validity or applicability to classroom use of question generation. (KR)

The children of the Southeast Asian boat people excel in the U.S. school system. A review of the factors underlying this achievement suggests that the U.S. educational crisis is more social than academic. (KR)

Examines differences in student math and science achievement between rural and urban schools in Western Australia, after controlling for student background variables. Using multilevel modeling techniques, shows that school location significantly affected student achievement, with students attending rural schools not performing as well as those…

Examines learning from texts with embedded monitoring (questions) and regulating (prescriptive feedback) features relative to pretest, posttest, and retention science achievement; time-on-tasks; and efficiency (learning or retention gains per time-on-task). (Author/CCM)

Chartered in 1990 by a consortium of 14 universities an colleges in the Chicago area, the Teachers Academy for Mathematics and Science aimed to improve the inservice training and professional development of K-8 math and science teachers. The accompanying Comprehensive School Development Process has four phases: readiness, instruction,…