This 9-week mixed-methods study aimed to examine the effect of online reciprocal teaching on fourth grade primary school students' (N = 30) reading comprehension skills and reading motivation. As data collection tools, the "Reading Comprehension Test" was used to determine students' reading comprehension levels, while the…

This technical report and user's guide is designed to provide researchers with an overview of the design and implementation of the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), as well as with information on how to access the PISA 2009 data. This information is meant to supplement that presented in Organization for Economic Cooperation…

A series of 28 15-minute video programs in mathematics designed for use in grade 4, It Figures uses a combination of drama and animation to focus on mathematical skills, ideas, and problem-solving strategies. This instructional television series has been used in the United States and Canada since 1982, and a survey of selected teachers using It…

This paper reports on the development of three self-efficacy questionnaires for use in studying the interaction effect among students, teachers, and principals within an educational situation. The Student Self-Efficacy Instrument was designed from a widely used questionnaire administered to children, the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility…

This study sought to: (1) identify and describe the interest patterns of fourth and fifth grade children as they pertain to the content and form of the short art film, based on preferences expressed by the children themselves after actually viewing the films; (2) compare the interest patterns of children according to sex and race/socioeconomic…

This study investigated the effects of heuristically based assignments and tests on adolescents' written responses to literature. In order to examine both tests and instruction, two separate but related experiments were conducted. Experiment 1 investigated whether the inclusion of guided prewriting on essay tests for two poems and two short…

The Connecticut Assessment of Educational Progress (CAEP) is modeled after the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and has been in operation since 1971. This report is the culmination of a multi-year effort by the Connecticut State Department of Education to make its CAEP program even more useful to classroom teachers and other…

The Education Resources Center (ERC) is a community-based organization that serves students from various elementary schools united by the Phoenix Coalition for Youth and Families (PCYF). The PCYF Project was authorized to organize agencies and schools in the lower socio-economic areas of inner-city Phoenix into one collaborative arrangement. This…

This study explored fourth-grade teachers' understanding of mathematical problem solving, an aspect of the Vermont portfolio assessment program that has been largely ignored. Teachers' conceptions of problem solving, their knowledge of problem-solving strategies, their selection and evaluation of problem-solving tasks, and their instructional…

In 1986 the United States (U.S.)-Japan Seminar on Mathematical Problem Solving convened to compare the state of problem solving in the classroom and in research in the two countries. The data and results given in this paper are the results of research conducted in the United States in response to the 1986 seminar. The U.S. and Japanese research…

The purpose of this practicum was to increase motivation and self-confidence of grade four students in mathematics achievement. Measured were the increase in the number of students displaying mastery of the times-tables, increase in the number of students making a gain on a math post-test, and increase in the number of students liking mathematics.…