The research aim was to examine the effects of a Critique-Driven Inquiry (CDI) intervention on primary and secondary school students' critical thinking and scientific inquiry competency. Twenty-five 4th grade Taiwanese students from a typical primary school were selected to participate in experimental group 1 (EG1), while 28 7th grade students…

We assessed the influence of genre-specific discourse knowledge and writing goals on the persuasive writing of 4th and 6th grade students with and without learning disabilities (LD). Students were first interviewed about their knowledge of persuasion and persuasive writing. They then wrote a persuasive essay about a controversial topic after…

The participation of large numbers of countries in current international assessments involving reading literacy--40 in PIRLS 2006 (administered to students in Grade 4 in primary schools) and 57 in PISA 2006 (administered to 15-year-olds in post-primary schools)--suggests that governments and other bodies find the outcomes to be useful. This…

This article describes Project Athena, a Javits program funded by the U.S. Department of Education and developed through the Center for Gifted Education at the College of William and Mary. Project Athena seeks to find ways to help impoverished children develop advanced skills in reading comprehension, literary analysis, and persuasive writing. Its…