Algebra I is a crucial course for middle and high school students for successful STEM-related coursework. A key issue is whether students should take Algebra I in Grade 8 versus Grade 9. Large-scale policy studies show conflicting results, and there are few (particularly longitudinal) individual difference studies. In the study, 53 students were…

The psychometric qualities of the six- and eight-item implicit theories of intelligence scales that Dweck suggested were compared using a confirmatory factor analysis with data from 239 gifted students (100 students in Grades 5-7, 139 students in Grades 8-11). The results indicate that the six-item scale fits the data better than the eight-item…

This study utilized multilevel modeling to examine the student characteristics (gender and age) and school factors (private vs. public school, urban vs. rural school, socioeconomic status, curricular organization, resources, activities, and equipment) associated with individual and between-school differences in the verbal, numerical, and figural…

We studied developmental trends in 5 important reasoning tasks that are critical components of the operational definition of rational thinking. The tasks measured denominator neglect, belief bias, base rate sensitivity, resistance to framing, and the tendency toward otherside thinking. In addition to age, we examined 2 other individual difference…