This paper reports the first part of a 2-year longitudinal study, which examined the impact of age of entry to school on the reading development of 60 summer-born boys during Key Stage One. The sample was drawn from 18 schools in six Local Education Authorities operating different admissions policies. Thirty-one had attended nursery part-time,…

A study on classroom based training of self-regulated learning was conducted with fourth grade pupils attending German public schools. The participating classes were assigned randomly to either a training group or a control group. The pupils in the training group received 5 weeks of training, as depicted by Zimmerman, Bonner, & Kovach…

This article looks at the use of art in developing students' prewriting ability. The activities, strategies, and objects used provide students with the background knowledge, motivation, vocabulary, structure, and fluency they need to compose and rehearse written pieces. The article describes research conducted on the effects of combining art with…

Wouldn't your job be easier if students were just more interested in learning? Now, here's a book that will open your eyes to where the desire to learn actually comes from and what teachers can really do to activate it. Using stories from classroom teachers, counselors, administrators, and students, Bob Sullo explains why the desire to learn is…

This paper reports a research study into the effects of rich, sustained visual arts instruction on 103 inner city 9-year-olds in two major US cities. We use the lenses of social learning theory, theories of motivation and self-efficacy, and recent research on artistic thinking to investigate the programs' effects on children's self-beliefs and…

In this article, the author presents an activity which allows students to construct various rhythm patterns in 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4 meter by using M&Ms and pretzels as an extrinsic motivation. Rhythmic notation is a foundation for learning music concepts. Engaging students in representative modules helps them to learn and recognize note values and…

According to self-determination theory, when teachers establish an autonomy supportive climate in the classroom, students demonstrate high levels of self-determination and are intrinsically motivated. The aim of this study was to identify factors leading teachers (N=336) to report that they create such a climate. We conducted a path analysis in…

The purpose of this article is to describe the results of an action-research, service-learning project aimed at increasing and enhancing urban students' knowledge and motivation to learn. The project was an extension of the students' classroom experience through a community-based, service-learning project. The study sought understanding of how…

Background: Most studies have investigated college and high school students' epistemological beliefs in Western contexts, with few studies examining how beliefs about learning are related to children's strategies and comprehension in the Chinese cultural context. Aims: The present study investigated Chinese elementary school children's beliefs…

We examined the differential effects of the social cognitive model of sequential skill acquisition (SCM intervention) and the self-regulated strategy development model (SRSD intervention) for writing. One hundred and twenty-one 5th- and 6th-grade Spanish students with learning disabilities (LD) and/or low achievement (LA) were randomly assigned…

This paper begins as an initial rejoinder to the ideas expressed by Ross (2000) in The Promise and Perils of E-Learning: A critical look at the new technology. In his article, Ross supports the traditional practices of pedagogy at the primary school level--face-to-face pedagogy--and then critiques what he describes as a "fetishisation"…

The aim of this study is to design and develop a Physically Interactive Learning Environment, the PILE system, by integrating video-capture virtual reality technology into a classroom. The system is designed for elementary school level English classes where students can interact with the system through physical movements. The system is designed to…

The objective of this article is to investigate the computer animation and virtual reality technologies for developing a virtual marine museum. The museum consists of three exhibition areas. The first area displays fishes in freshwater, including creeks, rivers, and dams in Taiwan. The second area exhibits marine ecology and creatures of different…

Members of "Primary Science Review" Editorial Board explain what drew them to science. Alan Peacock, "PSR" Editor, emphasises the need to preserve children's sense of wonderment about the world. Robert Collins, a science educator in the Faculty of Education, University of Strathclyde, thinks people are "secret science…

In this paper, we review findings from Project Competence on the nature of personality development from middle childhood through the early adult years and place these findings in the context of current research on temperament and personality traits. In a series of studies using data drawn from the Project Competence longitudinal project, we have…