The aim of this study was to carry out a preliminary validation of "Motivational Climate in Physical Education Scale" in Greek educational context and specifically in relation to elementary school students. The participants of the research were 184 (101 male and 83 female) students of grades 5th and 6th from four elementary schools, in…

The author examines the benefits of journaling in his fifth-grade classroom. Reviewing student journal data from the past 25 years, he shares an effective method for preparing a classroom for daily journaling, one that minimizes teacher-issued prompts and implements procedures for sharing and reflecting. Positive effects include insights into…

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of extrinsic motivational factors on upper elementary students who are reading at least two grade levels below their current grade. Research was conducted using a mixed methods approach to examine the perceptions of 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students who have difficulty in reading. A purposeful…

Academic underachievement, as measured on standardised assessments, is commonly reported among students on the autism spectrum. However, little is known about the factors that predict academic (under)achievement, limiting the development of effective and targeted interventions. This study explored teacher ratings of academic skills and enabling…

This study investigated whether students' motivational beliefs about learning science (i.e., self-concept in science and intrinsic value of science) varied significantly across grade levels and genders. The study also examined the relations between students' motivational beliefs about learning science and their science achievement by grade level…

The promotion of an adequate understanding of science is a central goal of science education, even in elementary school. In this study, we analyzed the effects of a recently developed science intervention program aimed at fostering the understanding of science as well as the motivation of elementary school--aged boys and girls. In prior research,…

The present study performed a systematic comparison of DSM-5 and ICD-11 diagnostic criteria for reading disability. We quantitatively investigated the consequences of using DSM-5 or ICD-11, and of the different ways of implementing each diagnostic criterion on the prevalence of reading disability. We did so in a representative sample of the…

Becoming a proficient writer is a core competency for effective communication and central to college and career readiness for learners. Despite broad adoption of more rigorous standards and a push to incorporate writing across the curriculum, the majority of U.S. students across different grade levels fall short of grade-level expectations in…

This study tested whether writing skills, knowledge, motivation, and strategic behaviors (within the context of robust writing instruction) each made a statistically unique contribution to predicting fifth-grade students' (123 girls, 104 boys) composition quality and length on a persuasive writing task involving source material, after variance due…

Students around the United States continue to struggle in areas of literacy. The problem addressed by this study is that fourth-grade students in the United States are scoring below proficiency in reading levels including areas of comprehension and reading fluency (Leon, 2015). The purpose of the mixed method study was to examine fourth-grade…

Scientific inquiry is an often misunderstood concept in many elementary classrooms. On the inquiry spectrum, teacher-directed (TD) scientific inquiry is prevalent in schools. From a critical and social constructivism framework, TD inquiry programs affect students' original/unhindered questions, called primal inquiry (PI), and processes in science…

This study investigated the relations between bilingual students' amount of talk during classroom discussion, motivation, and self-reported bi-literacy skills (i.e. reading, writing skills in their native and school languages). Sixth-grade Spanish-English bilinguals in the United States (N = 121; M age = 12.119 years old; SD = 0.358) reported on…

The purpose of the study is to examine the effect of unplugged coding activities carried out with middle school students on their computational thinking skills. This study employed nested-mixed design, which is a mixed research method; the data were supported by including the qualitative phase into an experimental study. In this frame, a group of…

The goal of this research was to explore cognitive, self-determined learning and autonomous motivational effects in the context of a mobile science exhibition (N = 256) in Finland. The pupils were sixth-graders with an average age of 12 years 6 months. Autonomy experience, as measured by the Relative Autonomy Index (RAI), had an effect on how the…

Reading for understanding is a challenging task for many upper elementary struggling readers, and their attitudes toward such challenges can make a difference in their subsequent engagement and reading achievement. Mindset and achievement goals provide a useful explanatory framework for understanding struggling readers' engagement and reading…