Gifted students' preference to work alone is widely espoused, but studies vary widely in their explanations. We re-examined this notion in terms of motivation and social constructivism among 247 school-identified gifted and high-achieving and regular-education students in Grades 4 through 12. Survey data assessed learning style, interests,…

This article examines the pedagogical practices of two science inquiry teachers and their students using a Web-based system called Web of Inquiry (WOI). There is a need to build a collective repertoire of pedagogical practices that can assist elementary and middle school teachers as they support students to develop a complex model of inquiry based…

Weather, with its built-in atmospheric laboratory, is a natural source of inquiry. The ever-changing nature of weather provides a constant source of questions to investigate and connects to a multitude of physical science concepts. The question, "How accurate are homemade weather instruments in measuring air pressure, rainfall, wind speed and…

Despite limited empirical evidence, there is growing concern that junk food availability in schools has contributed to the childhood obesity epidemic. In this paper, we estimate the effects of junk food availability on body mass index (BMI), obesity, and related outcomes among a national sample of fifth graders. Unlike previous studies, we address…

Collaborative professional development of science and special educators leads to improved access and inclusion of students with disabilities. Yet, despite poor science achievement of students with disabilities, their increasing presence in general education science classrooms, and research that demonstrates effective teaching strategies for…

Researchers have made convincing arguments for the benefits of a smooth transition to school. The passage through this significant social change may have a lasting influence on children's progress. For example, social, emotional and academic difficulties in the early years of schooling have been shown to persist through school and into…

Betty's Brain is a computer-based learning environment that capitalizes on the social aspects of learning. In Betty's Brain, students instruct a character called a Teachable Agent (TA) which can reason based on how it is taught. Two studies demonstrate the "protege effect": students make greater effort to learn for their TAs than they do…

Although positive peer relationships have been shown to promote healthy school involvement and academic achievement, subpopulations of perceived popular (i.e., socially prominent, high status), but aggressive, youth have been identified who exhibit poor school functioning. The objective of this study was to examine whether attainment of perceived…

This study investigates change in the home language environment of Language Minority (LM) learners between kindergarten and eighth grade, drawing on data from the National Center for Education Statistics' Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten (ECLS-K) Cohort. The analytic sample included 1,538 children whose parents reported a language…

Children's appraisals of conflict are a mechanism by which parental discord can lead to child maladjustment. The cognitive-contextual framework proposes that parent-child relationships may affect how children perceive conflict, but this idea has rarely been examined empirically. This study investigated relations between conflict appraisals,…

Current interest in promoting physical activity in the school environment necessitates an inexpensive, accurate method of measuring physical activity in such settings. Additionally, it is recognized that physical activity must be of at least moderate intensity in order to yield substantial health benefits. The purpose of the study, therefore, was…

The present study monitored a student-centred educational anti-smoking intervention with fifth graders by focusing on their cognitive achievement and intrinsic motivation. In order to assess the potential influence of the setting on self-directed learning, the intervention was conducted in two different learning environments: a classroom-based…

The focus of this study was the classroom climate for Grades 4, 5 and 6 students during mathematics classes in elementary schools in the Arab sector in Israel. The study included 3,786 Arab students. The use of a questionnaire indicated that five major factors related to classroom climate were Satisfaction and Enjoyment, Teacher-Student…

How to incorporate mobile students, who enter schools/classrooms after the start of the school year, into educational performance evaluations remains to be a challenge. As mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), all states currently require that a school is accountable only if the student has been enrolled in the school for a full…

We explored bullying and victimization experienced by third- to fifth-grade students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), by surveying students with ASD, their parents, and their teachers. A total of 25 triads, each including one student with ASD, one of the student's parents, and one teacher, were involved in data analysis. We found that all…