Two studies examine the stability of existing friendships and the formation of new friendships during a school year, for children in Grades 1, 4, and 8. Most friendships present in the fall of the school year remained constant in the spring. The formation of new friendships varied consistently with age. (Author/NH)

Discusses the results of a study of the teaching and learning of mathematics in 21 countries, conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement. Reports that a clear distinction between support for broad educational objectives and for the learning of narrow skills did not exist among teachers. (SG)

The conceptual frameworks of Thai children (n=48) related to causes of health and sickness were analyzed using the "Interview-about-Instances" and the "Conceptual Profile Inventory" techniques. The results indicate that Thai schoolchildren hold considerable personal knowledge about the causes of health and sickness that does…

Identified are variables affecting performance of algebraic word problems for eighth graders. An appropriate readability level would seem necessary but not sufficient for student success. The structural variables used appeared to be good predictors of both the correct strategies and solving time. (Author/YP)

In spite of the continued focus on problem solving, American elementary and middle grades schoolchildren are perceived to be ineffective problem solvers. This paper reports the results of a survey of (n=744) kindergarten through eighth grade teachers and interviews and observations of a primary and an intermediate master teacher designed to answer…

Examines the similarities and differences in beliefs about the effective teaching of mathematics held by teachers from two different sociocultural backgrounds. Data were collected using a part of the Teacher General Classroom Process Questionnaire of the second IEA Mathematics Study. (Author)

Compares relative test anxiety of urban seventh- and eighth-grade students in North America and Chile. Finds the following: high-SES students from both cultures had lower test anxiety than low-SES students; Chileans had higher test anxiety than North Americans; low-SES females in both cultures had more test anxiety than low-SES males, but high-SES…

To determine how the difficulty of print materials affected elementary school students' sight copying accuracy and productivity and to explain correlate variance related to copying, 149 students in grades four, six, and eight were assigned materials to copy for three minutes. All subjects copied passages at grade level and at two grades above and…

The National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) is the most recent in a series of longitudinal studies conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics at the United States Department of Education. The NELS:88 began with a baseline assessment of school experiences, with the purpose of relating these experiences to current…

Knowledge about the structure of arithmetic expressions enables people to reason effectively about such expressions, including an ability to judge equivalence under transformations. This paper reports an empirical study of six middle-school children who judged the equivalence of three sets of three-term arithmetic expressions with an addition and…

Reports on student attitudes toward science-technology-society (STS) after visiting a science-technology museum and considers what variable factors of the visitation impacted these attitudes. Results indicated that significant differences in attitudes were present between visiting and nonvisiting students and between grade levels. (TW)

This study examined differences in predicting achievement by sex on the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) from the verbal, quantitative, and nonverbal scores on the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT). The sample (n=10,000) consisted of all students in Grades 2, 5, and 8 who completed both tests in fall 1984. Examinations of means and standard…

In general, studies investigating sex differences in mathematics performance have empirically analyzed students' responses from standardized tests. This paper reports a study to extend the investigation of sex differences related to mathematics performance by examining cognitive and motivational factors as well as standardized test scores. Boys…

The purposes of this study were to examine the relationship between academic achievement and demographic and school background variables for school districts and school buildings and to develop from these relationships a basis for comparing achievement at similar schools. The sample consisted of Iowa public school districts that participated in…