This study investigated the effects of digital storytelling on student achievement, social presence, and attitude in online collaborative learning environments. Students in one middle school course were randomly assigned to one of the two treatment groups after they received initial general instruction regarding teamwork skills. The "digital…

The number of women studying STEM careers and pursuing graduate degrees has not changed in the last decade (National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, 2015; Science & Engineering Degree Attainment: 2004-2014). Most prior research to explain this problem has focused on the topics of identity, access, pedagogy, and choice (Brotman &…

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of Sport Education on the constructs that facilitate amotivation. A total of 78 amotivated secondary students were engaged in a 15-lesson unit of badminton taught using the Sport Education or skill-drill-game approach. Constructs that facilitate amotivation were assessed using the Amotivation…

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of problem-based learning (PBL) on student achievement and students' perceptions of classroom quality. A group of students taught using PBL and a comparison group of students taught using traditional instruction were studied. A total of 457 students participated in the study. Pre- and…

Understanding middle school students' perceptions regarding STEM dispositions, and the role attitudes play in establishing STEM career aspirations, is imperative to preparing the STEM workforce of the future. Data were gathered from more than 800 middle school students participating in a hands-on, real world application curriculum to examine the…

This article presents early evaluation data on the effectiveness of an ethics-based sex education program, the Sexual Ethics for a Caring Society Curriculum (SECS-C), which strives to develop adolescents' thinking about sex so that they might act ethically in relation to other people and reflect ethically upon sexual messages and events in the…

Multimedia learning environments facilitate the construction of certain forms of representations and allow users to combine forms of representation that address different modalities. A promising approach entails having students construct representations of the domain. The process of constructing a representation elicits self-explanation effects…

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the experiential learning of electronics subject matter is effective in the middle school open learning of robotics. Electronics is often ignored in robotics courses. Since robotics courses are typically comprised of computer-related subjects, and mechanical and electrical engineering, these…

The purpose of this study was to explore cooperative learning and the impact on middle school students overall academic achievement. The study included 47 students from a small private school, ranging from grades sixth through eighth. The researcher examined student perception of cooperative learning, implementation process and the overall impact…

This article reports results from a study investigating the efficacy of a proportional problem-solving intervention, schema-based instruction (SBI), in seventh grade. Participants included 806 students with mathematical difficulties in problem solving (MD-PS) from an initial pool of 1,999 seventh grade students in a larger study. Teachers and…

Youth civic engagement is recognized as an essential component necessary for the preservation of democratic practices; however, inadequate levels of civic participation persist among young people. Past research has shown that young people are more likely to participate in politics when they are informed. We present survey data collected from…

Differences were examined between groups of sixth grade students? spatial-scientific development pre/post implementation of an Earth/Space unit. Treatment teachers employed a spatially-integrated Earth/Space curriculum, while control teachers implemented their Business as Usual (BAU) Earth/Space units. A multi-level modeling approach was used in a…

This article provides the results of a small exploratory pilot study that tested for the influence of a positive self-review intervention of the successful production of English via a tablet computer on Japanese junior high school students' EFL motives. The Language Learning Orientations Scale-Intrinsic Motivation, Extrinsic Motivation, and…

The authors' purpose was to examine adolescents' reading motivation in relation to standardized assessments of reading comprehension and fluency. After a reading pretest, 60 ninth-grade students (M age = 14.9 years) were randomly assigned to two groups. Compared to those in the control condition, those administered brief oral feedback intended to…

This study investigates whether consistent effects on students' environmental attitudes, awareness, and behavioral intentions could be discerned in an initiative that supports environmental education (EE) designed at the classroom level. Students of grades four, five, and seven participated in an assessment at the beginning and end of the school…