A ten-year study of television viewing and content found that middle level students watch more television than any other age group. They are exposed to violence, sex, use of drugs, and sex role socialization in many programs. Schools can help students become discriminating consumers of television. (MLF)

Discusses the importance of trust in leadership and organization in the middle level. Analyzes and measures school climate from the perspectives of organizational health on the teaching, administrative, and institutional levels. Subjects were 86 middle schools with data collected at regular meetings. Results indicated that trust and health…

Claims that what matters in classroom writing instruction is an authentic, supportive audience. Shares results from a study of a combined grades 5-6 classroom. Finds that students felt successful as writers when peers evaluated their prose positively. States that the students' knowledge that their writing evoked emotional response from their peers…

A study of fifth and sixth grade public school students in Israel suggests that grades and other norm-referenced methods are less effective than task-involving evaluation methods in enhancing student performance, interest, and motivation. This article consists of two commentaries on the findings, with suggestions for implementing task-involving…

Procedures from educational policy research were used to produce three conceptual models for determining teacher effects in classrooms. The use of a system of equations, as developed for these models, shows promise for theory building in teacher education and instructional design. (Author/GSK)

Outlines Piaget's late ideas on categories and morphisms and the impact of these ideas on the comprehension of the inclusion relationship and the solution of arithmetic problems. Reports a study in which fourth through sixth graders were given arithmetic problems involving two known quantities associated with changes rather than states. Identified…

Discusses a model that suggests that popularity and friendship are linked to different forms of adjustment and emotional well-being and emphasizes that friendship is an important mediator between popularity and loneliness. Results of a study that involved 169 early adolescents in fifth and sixth grades supported the model. (BB)

Reports on the findings of a study that examined the writing behavior of eight fifth graders as they composed original mathematics story problems. Reveals strategies and techniques employed by students to accomplish this task. Analyzes student story-problem writing behavior. (HB)

Presents results of a study which interviewed sixth graders from three North Carolina schools to determine what they think of their school librarians. Results indicated that children's perceptions are affected by personalities and behavior of individual librarians. Sidebars focus on how the study was conducted and what students noticed most about…

The issue of how a child constructs higher order, logical mathematical intelligence within the context of a multiple-intelligences classroom is explored in this story. Teacher journal observations of one 5th-grade child are woven with selected literature on multiple intelligences and research trends in elementary mathematics education. The story…

Concludes that teachers at the middle school level need to be better prepared in classroom management. Shows that, if preservice middle school math teachers were given specific training for managing classes at that level, their mathematics knowledge would be more fully and effectively communicated to their students. (SR)

A comparison is made between six state-adopted fourth-grade California history textbooks dating from 1940-1965 and seven textbooks adopted since 1980. The author's observations suggest that although overall changes between older and newer texts have been dramatic, the new books vary widely among themselves. Changes between older and newer texts…

Fifty fifth and sixth grade students participated in a study attempting to document motivational differences that may be associated with two approaches to classroom writing instruction. Thirty of the students were involved in the process-oriented approach where students are encouraged to write multiple drafts of assignments, attending to issues of…

Discusses a model of television interpretation processes regarding the influences of alcohol advertising and describes a study that tested the model with preadolescent at-risk students. Highlights include perceptions of alcohol use at home and on television; social norms; perceived realism of commercials; and intent to drink. (41 references) (LRW)

Presents the results of a study of two fifth-grade reading groups, one comprised of all girls and the other of mixed gender. Discusses results in a reflective essay format, suggesting that the group of girls was more emotional in their observations and the mixed group was more action and plot oriented. (TB)