Even though supports are a major part of the daily lives of children with special educational needs who participate in general education schools, little attention has been paid to how children experience supports. Six children and their peers who were interviewed appreciated supports because they remove restrictions in activities due to the…

Gifted children often complain about waiting in class to learn. A qualitative study of 16 children in elementary and middle school in grades 1-8 revealed that sitting and waiting was a universal ingredient of being gifted in those regular classrooms. Children experienced 3 kinds of waiting: school/classroom, instructional, and assignment. Grounded…

Each spring, the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) surveys 4th, 7th, and 10th grade students about their perception of various aspects of their school experience, measuring students' impressions of their school, school safety, teachers, academics, future ready skills, and technology. The 2013-14 results indicate that elementary school…

Addressing the impact of peer bystanders on school bullying, this cross-sectional study examined whether student responses to bullying that they witnessed varied as a function of sex and grade. In a school-based survey regarding social experiences at school, Grade 4 to 11 students (N = 9397, 51% male) who reported witnessing bullying (68%) rated…

The main purpose of this study is to develop a valid and reliable instrument for measuring the "attitudes toward science class" of fourth- and fifth-grade students in an Asian school culture. Specifically, the development focused on three science attitude constructs--science enjoyment, science confidence, and importance of science as…

As part of a pilot program, the researchers sought to develop an instrument that would effectively measure the nature awareness of students. With this information, the researchers correlated nature awareness scores and science averages. According to Salomon and Perkins' theory of transfer, experiences in one situation can influence experiences in…

As a group, African American males face some pervasive obstacles to school success. Collectively they are expelled, suspended, disciplined, retained, and referred to special education at disproportionately high percentages when compared to their peers. As a result of this persistent treatment, African American males have a tendency to disidentify…

Two experts on education offer a rich and diverse selection of children's literature and teaching strategies for the K-8 mathematics classroom. To date, a vast majority of classrooms continue to fall short in the implementation and direction of NCTM Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (PSSM), in part because most of these classrooms…

We tested a model considering the manner in which mothers' use of their own social relationships and efforts to facilitate their children's school-based social relationships were associated with two distinct types of school-based competence: academic achievement and levels of stress experienced within the school environment. Fourth grade children…

In this article we investigated 4th, 6th, and 8th grade students' misconceptions about light, sight, vision, source of light and examined students' conceptual development of these concepts at different grade levels. Data collection was done using five two-tiered test questions with one open-ended question, an interview about concepts and a drawing…

Sometimes it is important to put aside the research journals, political commentaries, and popular news about the state of education and stop long enough to listen to a voice of a 9-year-old. In this article, the author shares letters from her 9-year-old daughter Lina, who expresses her perspective on what matters most in a classroom. Lina's…

This study compared youth development outcomes of participants in a physical activity-based extended day program to the same outcomes during their school day. The extended day program, called "The Coaching Club," was offered to ten inner city fourth and fifth graders who attend an elementary school in a large metropolitan city. The program was…

This article presents a case study of a fourth grade boy's experiences in writing, preceding and following a story he wrote about a boy whose struggles in writing led directly to his death. We explore how Max's writing experiences related to his identity, specifically his sense of himself as a writer, his struggle to communicate his ideas, and his…

Colleges are increasingly interested in ways to better engage students in their academic careers. This article reports 20 college students' experiences as mentors for at-risk fourth-graders through a mentoring program called The Learning Connection (TLC), run by the Community Services Office at Moravian College. The study describes students'…

This paper presents case studies of four students' experiences with writing in a fourth/fifth grade classroom. The paper focuses on the following questions: What is the relationship between children's social and intellectual identities and their successes or struggles in writing? How do writing instruction and assessments mediate that…