Investigated individual differences in (n=100) 10th-grade students' forms of visual thinking and related intuitions in the context of mathematical problem solving. Results suggest that success at problem solving was related to logical operational ability but not to vividness of visual imagery. (29 references) (Author/SYB)

This study examined the continued gender imbalance in mathematics participation in senior high, which has implications for adolescents' future careers. It confirms persisting greater male participation in maths-related educational and occupational choices among this sample of Australian youth. Gendered course-taking in maths, along with…

Research focused on two factors that may be influencing females in choice of careers. Factors are role-specific self-concept in science and self-perception in terms of stereotypical masculine and feminine characteristics. Logical ability and mathematics and science courses were also examined as factors in career choice. Results of data for 177…

This paper addresses components of a 3-year longitudinal study in which 9th and 10th grade students in Australia, Canada, and Zambia participated in data-handling programs through networked learning communities. Of interest here are the students' responses to a selection of "ends-in-view" problems, which formed the major part of the…

High school students' subject preferences in 30 Australian schools, examined with Holland's typology of persons and environments, showed data consistent with Holland's model, suggesting a strong association between interest in school subjects and occupational interest as well as an empirical basis for classifying school subjects in terms of…

A traffic safety instructional package--"Science and the Road"--was assessed. It was designed by the Road Traffic Authority of Victoria (Australia) for use in tenth-grade science courses. Evaluation findings resulted in revision of the unit and implementation of more inservice courses for teachers lacking relevant biology and physics…

Shows that the task of keeping a journal, as defined within the writing-to-learn model, has two salient assessment features: (1) the journals differentiate between students at a particular grade level, and (2) they show a growth in sophistication over successive years. (14 references) (Author/MKR)

Surveys of 10th graders in public and private Australian schools found major sector differences in numbers of children who held positive attitudes toward teachers and toward school and personally valued schoolwork. Students from all groups were more likely to have positive perceptions of school if they attended private schools. (SM)

A study examined subject choice for 16-year-olds (year 10 students) in schools in New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The sample contained students from 10 NSW coeducational government schools, 8 of which were in the outer-metropolitan regions of Sydney and 2 in a country region. In all, 1,048 students (528 males) who reported they were continuing…

The study examines how social and cultural factors mediate the teaching and learning of science in an Australian high school. Grade 10 students, many of them new migrants, often transient and from circumstances of economic hardship, were taught a 5-week unit on chemistry by a teacher with social and cultural histories similar to those of most of…

While logical reasoning skills are related to success in science, the relationship between thought and formal logic is not clear. Propositional Logic Test (PLT), error patterns of students' interpretations of logical proposition, and developmental patterns of the error type are described. Examined is the relationship between logical reasoning…

Background: Teachers play a critical role in promoting interactions between students and engaging them in the learning process. This study builds on a study by Hertz-Lazarowitz and Shachar (1990) who found that during cooperative learning teachers' verbal behaviours were more helpful to and encouraging of their students' efforts while during…

Gender differences in mathematics learning continue to attract much research attention. Single-sex settings as the preferred option for improving schooling for girls have evoked fierce advocates as well as critics. This case study, undertaken in response to a specific request from a co-educational state school in the outer area of Melbourne,…

The Zuckerman Affect Adjective Check List (AACL) is used to measure trait anxiety and situation-specific trait anxiety relating to peer interaction, vocational aspiration, and the learning of English, mathematics, science and social studies. The subjects were 262 grade 10 students attending an Australian metropolitan high school. Additional…

Compared were the attributional patterns for success and failure in mathematics of 491 tenth-grade students in Papua New Guinea and Australia. Relatively few differences were found in the patterns of boys and girls or of high- and low-achieving students, but substantial differences were found between students in the two countries. (MNS)