This article is a cross-case study exploring two young African-American adolescent girls' experiences with school mathematics and the impact of the socio-cultural context upon their motivation and mathematical identity. Based on repeated in-depth interviews and ethnographic observation of their mathematics classroom, the researcher portrays…

In order to determine students' achievement, science teachers have to develop their own assessment tools. This study attempts to find out the relationship between the teachers' assessment tools and students' cognitive development according to the teachers' teaching experiences. Six open-ended survey questions were developed and delivered to 59…

This book examines the influence of state schooling on Tibetan students' ethnic identity. Zhiyong Zhu has developed a case study of Changzhou Tibetan Middle School after a preferential educational policy was put in place by the Chinese government in the early 1980s. By examining and analyzing student diaries, Zhu has developed a theoretical model…

This paper presents an examination of the use of Rasch modelling in a major research project, "Improving Middle Years Mathematics and Science" (IMYMS). The project has generated both qualitative and quantitative data, with much of the qualitative data being ordinal in nature. Reporting the results of analyses for a range of audiences necessitates…

The purpose of this ethnographic study was to analyze seventh grade students' and teachers' perceptions of literacy learning in language arts and reading classes. This paper includes a report of a section of this study that focused on discussions about literature. The impact of this diverse school culture on teachers' literacy instruction and…

Based on a one-and-a-half-year ethnographic study of a desegregated urban middle school, this article investigates the ways in which administrators, students, and teachers multiply constructed race through a network of policies, pedagogies, and practices. Using a framework of cultural production theory and critical race theory, the article not…

Most research on the positive effects of class-size reduction (CSR) has occurred in the elementary level (Word, Johnston, Bain, Fulton, Zaharias, Lintz, Achilles, Folger, & Breda, 1990; Molnar, Smith, Zahorik, Palmer, Halbach, & Ehrle, 1999). Is CSR an important variable in improving education in the middle grades? Can small classes be…

Students experience many forms of victimization at school, yet few studies address more than one form of victimization. In this study, we explored the incidence of multiple forms of peer victimization, including direct verbal and physical, relational, and sexual harassment victimization among urban middle school students. We examined the overlap…

This article examines how gender construction and the literacy experiences of Black adolescent females can be shaped and motivated by their interaction with specific multicultural texts. This discussion further explores how current theories of race, identity and gender construction, and literacy learning in English language arts classrooms inform…

Many students struggle academically because of their persistent reading problems. Active student responding is a practice that has been demonstrated to improve student achievement with a variety of important skills, including reading. One form of active student responding effective for increasing reading performance is repeated readings. When…

The purpose of this study was to examine the acquisition of the van Hiele levels and motivation of sixth-grade students engaged in instruction using van Hiele theory-based mathematics curricula. There were 150 sixth-grade students, 66 boys and 84 girls, involved in the study. The researcher employed a multiple-choice geometry test to find out…

This paper synthesizes research findings from a performance analysis of teacher tasks and the implementation of performance technology. These findings are aligned with design and implementation theories to provide understanding of the complex factors and events that occur during the implementation process. The article describes the necessary…

This article describes how a group of fifth-grade mathematics students measured irregularly shaped objects using geometric probability theory. After learning how to apply a ratio procedure to find the areas of familiar shapes, students extended the strategy for use with irregularly shaped objects, in this case, leaves. (Contains 2 tables and 8…

For the thirty-fifth year, the Research and Theory Division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the national AECT Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. The Proceedings of AECT's Convention are published in two…

The purpose of this study was to examine how prospective middle school science teachers understood and identified types of scientific knowledge in a presented vignette. Also, their definitions and views of the relationships between types of scientific knowledge (i.e. scientific facts, concepts, generalizations, theories, and scientific laws) were…