This paper presents research on the effects of a cognitive acceleration intervention in science lessons on low socioeconomic students in a government high school in regional Western Australia. "Thinking Science Australia" is a programme currently being implemented in Australian junior high school classes. The research was conducted for…

Over the past 30 years the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) has conducted three international studies of mathematics at the 13-year-old level. In the three studies, in addition to mathematics achievement tests, students were required to respond to an attitude questionnaire concerning their attitudes…

Shows that the "highly creative" group did not differ significantly from the control group on measures of ego strength or nonconforming achievement. Indicates that the highly creative group was more conforming than the control group in their need for achievement. (Author/RL)

Little evidence has been presented to support the claim that writing enhances learning in mathematics. Presents a scheme for coding the parts of written mathematical presentations. Describes a study done with eighth-grade students, the findings of which reveal that the writing closely resembled the style of the typical mathematics textbook used by…

Used qualitative research methodology to interpret 126 adolescents' responses to questions about their views on peace. Eighth grade students in Australia, Canada, and the United States identified underlying causes and behavioral indications of potential for war and provided prescriptions for peace. Subjects viewed skills in interpersonal…

Reports a study examining the relationship between affect and achievement for grade eight students in Australia (n=390). It was found that affect is related more strongly to previous than subsequent achievement and that much of the common variance can be attributed to students' perceptions of their competence in science. (PR)

The fourth in a series concerning some implications of a learner's cognitive style for the development of reading competence, this paper reports on a study of the oral reading miscues of field dependent and field independent above-average eighth grade readers on content area materials. Results reported indicate that field dependent below-average…

Outlines an approach to teaching science to a group of 15 eighth-grade special needs students who are either intellectually impaired or have specific learning disabilities. Approaches to issues such as appropriate content and behavior management are described. (DDR)

Assessment of general reasoning processes, elementary algebraic understanding, and novel problem solving of (n=147) seventh- and eighth-grade students found that abilities to generalize from patterns and tables of data and understanding variable constructs contributed significantly to application of algebraic concepts and processes. Questions…

This paper reports the results of a longitudinal study of the relationship between affect and achievement in high school science. The conceptual model for science-related affect proposes that students' enjoyment in, and enthusiasm for science are determined by their perceptions of their past performance in science, their expected future…

Relationships between student affective and cognitive learning outcomes and their perceptions of classroom environment as measured by the Classroom Environment Scale (CES) were investigated for a sample of 1,083 students in 116 science classrooms. It was found that CES scales displayed satisfactory internal consistency and discriminant validity,…

This paper discusses a study of learning retention among junior high school students involved in a field trip in a geography course. The study was based on a model of memory proposed by Robert Gagne and R.T. White. This model of cognitive processes, postulated on the belief that recall of any element is a function of its degree of interlinking in…

This study examined the generalizability of the internal/external (I/E) frame of reference model of academic self-concept development. The "external" component of the model refers to comparing one's achievement with one's peers; in LISREL causal modeling, this external comparison is presented as positive paths. The "internal"…

Structural equation models were used to examine the paths from school grades and self-concept to subsequent course selection for 246 male 8th- and 10th-grade Catholic school students in Australia. Specific components of self-concept were more strongly related to course selection than were grades, a finding with implications for the study of…

The study focuses on the gendering of Australian school students through their participation in school. Specifically grades 7, 8 and 10 were studied. The initial group of 112 middle class students was studied by an ethnographic investigation of schooling practice in four classes of senior elementary school students for one year. Fifty-two students…