The present study investigated the extent to which 18 dyads in 5th and 6th grade, who experienced low levels of social challenge, differed from 12 dyads who experience high levels of social challenge in terms of the quality of their written assignment, as well as the frequency and sequential pattern of their cognitive, metacognitive, relational,…

This paper describes a unit designed to promote the development of narrative writing skills among 5th grade students through the use of LEGO robotics. Over the course of four, two and one-half hour sessions (one day per week for four consecutive weeks), the students learned how to construct and program robots, write and present a proposal to…

There has been a longstanding assumption that gifted, high-ability, or high-performing students prefer working alone; however, this may not be true in every case. The current study expanded on this assumption to reveal more nuanced learning preferences of these students. Sixty-nine high-performing and community-school students in Grades 5 and 6…

A Fully Integrated Educational System practices collaborative learning among all peers. The study summarized in this report (Zhang, X., Anderson, R. C., Morris, J., Miller, B., Nguyen-Janiel, K. T., Lin, T., Zhang, J., Jadallah, M., Scott, T., Sun, J., Latawjec, B., Ma, S., Grabow, K., & Hsu, J. Y. (2016). "Improving children's competence…

This research examined the influence of contrasting instructional approaches on children's decision-making competence. A total of 764 fifth graders, mostly African Americans and Hispanic Americans, from 36 classrooms in eight public schools serving children from low-income families completed a six-week unit on wolf management, using either direct…

Academic writing, whether individual or cooperative, is an essential skill for today's graduates. However, motivating and helping students to learn to write effectively, either in cooperative or individual scenarios, poses many challenges, many of which can be overcome by technical means. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of using…

This article reports the results of interview research examining writing instruction and assessment practices in 216 Grades 4-8 classrooms across the 10 Canadian provinces and 2 (of 3) territories. Researchers found that participating teachers scheduled daily time for writing, either in language arts classes or through integrating writing…

This case study aimed to determine the nature of student interactions in small groups in an elementary classroom utilizing the Science Writing Heuristic approach. Fifth grade students were audio-recorded over four units of study while working in small groups to generate knowledge claims after conducting student-directed investigations. Analysis…