Examines the line graphing ability of middle/high school students (N=625) to provide baseline data on the mastery of line graphing subskills. Results show that seventh- and eighth-grade students were less successful in graphing than high school students, suggesting that graphing skills should be introduced and emphasized in earlier grades. (JN)

Ordering theory was used in two studies to empirically determine hierarchies of developmental precedence for Piaget's 16 logical combinations. In study 1, subjects (N=94) responded to statements about odd and even numbers; in study 2, 30 subjects responded to statements about line segments. Results are reported and discussed. (Author/JN)

During the 1960s and early 1970s two educational movements were the evolution of the middle school and the structures of disciplines approach to social studies. These movements involved school organization, curriculum development, and methodologies incorporating the inquiry or conceptual approach. Learners had trouble with the conceptual approach,…

Construction, field testing with children with disabilities, and analysis of the preliminary version of the Preadolescent Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (PA-HOME) are described. The paper concludes that the assessment is a reasonably reliable scale with moderate correlations with other measures of the family environment.…

While evidence exists that a person's peripheral temperature responds to his state of arousal or stress, it also responds to other environmental factors. Wrist temperature has been found to vary with ambient temperature, and to increase during the school day. Before wrist temperature can be established as a valid measure of anxiety, stress, or…

Glossometric measures of tongue positions of 10 normal hearing and 10 profoundly hearing-impaired children (ages 11-15) were compared during production of the 8 vowels. Compared to controls, the HI subjects produced vowels using a reduced vertical range and singular flat, high-back tongue shape. (Author/JDD)

Students with (n=45) and without (n=60) mild mental retardation were compared on nine measures of syntactic complexity in writing at three grade levels (grades six, seven, and eight). Multivariate analysis of variance revealed significant differences for group but not for grade level or group by grade level. (Author/DB)

Normal students (N=65) in fourth, sixth, and eighth grades were compared to 17 learning-disabled ninth graders on learning derivational morphology and spelling derived forms. Disabled students' knowledge of derivational morphology was equivalent to that of normal sixth graders, but spelling of derived forms was equivalent to that of fourth…

Students from 15 intact classes in grades 6 and 7 (N=142) from suburban schools in Perth, Australia, were used to investigate their time on task and achievement in process-oriented lessons. One finding noted is a positive relationship between achievement and student reasoning ability and engagement in planning and collecting tasks. (JN)

Reading-disabled children (n=36) in grades four through eight were matched for reading comprehension and placed into two groups based on listening comprehension. Poor readers with normal listening comprehension had average or above intelligence quotients, conforming to the traditional definition of dyslexia and contrasting with poor readers with…

Student questioning within the Search, Solve, Create, and Share (SSCS) problem solving instructional model was investigated. The results suggest that the SSCS problem-solving instructional model increases student questioning in the presence of the teacher (n=22) when compared to a teacher-directed laboratory instructional model. The implications…

This study, with 48 students (including 16 eighth graders with learning disabilities (LD), 16 age level peers, and 16 reading level peers), found that all groups, but especially LD students, benefited from experimenter activation of prior knowledge on reading comprehension tasks testing inferential reading ability. Experimenter activation of prior…

Recent classroom environment research has investigated the association between students' cognitive and affective learning outcomes and their perceptions of psychosocial characteristics of their classrooms. The findings of these studies suggest that student outcomes can be improved by creating environments that are conducive to learning. This study…

Designed to be used along with a multiple-choice instrument for further assessment of the immediate and delayed comprehension of a 1,300 word expository passage on the Kalahari Desert, the instrument is a 35-item posttest, divided into five clusters, each composed of six to eight lettered phrases. Twenty verbatim phrases from the passage are…

This study addresses three questions: (1) whether sex is related to ability and interest in computers; (2) whether a relationship exists between the presence of a computer in the home and a child's ability and interest in computing; and (3) the combination of factors that account for students' perceptions of success in developing programming…