One important finding from recent research on multiplication word problems is that children's performances are strongly affected by the nature of the multiplier (whether it is an integer, decimal larger than 1 or a decimal smaller than 1). On the other hand, the size of the multiplicand has little or no effect on problem difficulty. The aim of the…

A study was conducted to evaluate the level of difficulty of textbooks (French and Sciences) written in French for use with sixth grade students. A cloze test was administered to a sample of sixth grade students in two francophone districts in the province of New Brunswick, Canada, and the Henry readability formula was applied to the same texts.…

Developmental changes leading to mature judgments of the relative effectiveness of verbal memory strategies were examined in 60 subjects (20 each from second-, fourth-, and sixth-grade classrooms). Subjects viewed videotapes of a female child who was given the task of remembering a set of categorizable pictures. Demonstrations of four memory…

This study investigated the effect of similarity and reciprocity on dyadic friendship choices. Subjects were 34 third graders and 30 sixth graders. Reciprocal (mutual) and nonreciprocal (nonmutual) friendships were identified through use of the roster sociometric technique, whereby children choose their three best friends from an alphabetized list…

The expression of children's concepts of sex-roles was explored by examining changes in the masculinity and femininity of human figure drawings of males and females. A total of 106 sixth-grade students participated in two Draw-a-Person sessions. In the drawing task, persons to be drawn were either specified in terms of gender or unspecified as to…

Although recent survey findings have indicated a decrease in the percentage of teenage smokers, cigarette smoking remains the leading preventable cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. A social learning smoking prevention intervention, consisting of four sessions which occurred at 2-week intervals, was conducted with fifth and…

Questions designed to assess children's reactions to the ending of friendships were asked in structured interviews involving 64 children (30 third graders and 34 sixth graders). Subjects, divided almost equally by sex, were mostly white and primarily middle-class. Questions were specifically designed to elicit information regarding (1) why and how…

This study examined the effect of formal and concrete instruction upon science achievement and intellectual development of sixth grade students. Formal instruction, which emphasized oral and written language, included lecture, discussion, oral quizzes, written assignments, reading assignments, films, film strips, written tests, and quizzes.…

Only few studies have explicitly attended to the nature of the perceived underlying factors that prompt young adolescents' reflective thinking in association with K-12 learning environment. This paper focuses on an analysis of the factors that are perceived by young students as prompting their reflective thinking and how those factors apply to the…

This study had three purposes. First, to develop and validate a criterion-referenced test to measure science knowledge of students who finished the second cycle of the Basic General Education (6th grade). Second, to assess the performance of the entire Costa Rican population of sixth graders and, third, to analyze the results according to some…

Conducted in order to assess the equity of student access to instructional computing at the sixth-grade level in Wisconsin public schools in the spring of 1985, this study examined teachers' perceptions, attitudes, and opinions on the status of instructional computing and the potential effects of these viewpoints on student access to computers.…

Classroom decision-making was conceptualized within the framework of person-environment fit. A longitudinal sample of 2239 sixth graders in 117 mathematics classrooms were surveyed. The findings include: (1) students typically report fewer decision-making opportunities than they think they should have in their mathematics classrooms; (2) students…

In order to assess the quantity and quality of equitable access to computers in Wisconsin public schools, teachers' perceptions, opinions, and attitudes about instructional computing were examined during the 1984-1985 school year. Questionnaires containing closed- and open-ended questions were mailed to all 510 sixth-grade teachers in K-6…

In this study 27 third graders and 27 sixth graders were given varying degrees of practice in sorting salient, categorized word lists. The purpose of the practice conditions was to encourage different levels of grouping strategies in a subsequent free recall task using similar categorized materials. Children in a Materials Only condition were…

A study examined students' ability to comprehend consistent or inconsistent text when activating relevant or irrelevant background knowledge. Fifty-five grade six students reading at or above grade level were randomly assigned to one of four treatment groups: activated/consistent, nonactivated/consistent, activated/inconsistent, and…