Middle Years students often do not see mathematics as useful. Authentic and real mathematics tasks and artefacts are frequently advocated as arresting this situation. However, often such experiences are contrived and lack authenticity. This paper reports on how a group of Middle Years students used mathematics and technology to engage in a real…

Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) has gained increasing acceptance since it provides learners with abundant resources. Most researches confirm the beneficial effect of CALL on English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners' cognitive, metacognitive, and affective developments. However, the diversity of students' intelligence is associated…

This empirical study involves three types of "tests": values, interests, and cognitive abilities useful for learning science. It also involves three methods of test-battery construction or use: ipsative (forced-choice), non-ipsative ("normative"), and ipsatived (i.e., normative scores changed to ipsative ones). Scores from ipsatively constructed…

The Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) I is designed for use with juniors and seniors in high school as part of the college admissions process. Of the nearly 3 million students who took the SAT I in 1998-1999, more than 130,000 were seventh and eighth grade students (more than 110,000 in 1997-1998). While most of these students take the SAT I as…

This study investigated whether the van Hiele model accurately describes the geometric thinking of gifted students in the 6th through 8th grades prior to a formal course in geometry and made comparisons with what has been found with other populations. The results from 120 students who completed a 25-item multiple choice paper-and-pencil test,…

A 16-item questionnaire concerning independence and 3 divergent thinking tests were administered to 3 groups of preadolescent boys (N=91) and their mothers as part of an ongoing longitudinal study of exceptional giftedness. Results indicate significant correlation of mothers' and boys' independence scores with divergent thinking test scores. (TJH)

This investigation examined the perceptions of competence in various domains that academically talented seventh-graders hold in comparison with peers of the same and opposite gender. Subjects included 1,294 participants in the Duke University Talent Identification Program Talent Search. A Likert-type scheme and multifactor repeated measures were…

Individual differences in achievement orientation are compared with differences in gifted students' use of feedback on a classroom exam. The achievement orientation of 57 seventh- and eighth-grade gifted students was measured using the Motivational Orientation Scale (MOS). There were 33 males and 24 females. As part of their regular classroom…

Presented in outline form, this paper describes a special program for gifted and talented students at a Massachusetts junior high school. Some of the topics discussed include goals of the program, design, implementation, evaluation, use of teachers as mentors, and identification of gifted students. (Author/LD)

This document discusses an investigation describing attitudes about school for a national sample of academically talented seventh graders. In particular, it considered how much students liked selected school subjects and how much they thought they would like particular college majors. The purpose of the study was to compare the attitudes of males…

A mentor-assisted enrichment program was initiated in the 1981-82 school year for gifted/talented (GT) 6th and 7th graders in a public elementary school in Vancouver. The mentors were 11 pre-service teachers who used a "Four Phase Enrichment Model" to assist pairs of students to plan, carry out, complete, and then present an enrichment project to…

This paper describes the efforts of the Talent Identification Program (TIP) of North Carolina to relate American College Testing (ACT) Assessment and Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores of academically talented seventh graders. The study was also designed to interpret the results in the context of "concordance" studies that have been…

This document reports on an investigation that described patterns of interests in specific careers for academically talented seventh grade girls and boys. This study represents a step in addressing the unequal distribution of males and females in many occupational fields, most notably the low involvement of females in scientific and technical…

A student project was designed to promote the development of critical reading, critical thinking, and study skills in seventh grade honors students in a developmental reading program. Inherent within the design of the project was the notion that the students would select a topic of interest to research, thereby enhancing student motivation and…

This is a record of the proceedings of the 30th annual conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (MERGA). The theme of the conference is "Mathematics: Essential research, essential practice." The theme draws attention to the importance of developing and maintaining links between research and practice and…