Student differences in attributions and motivation toward the study of high school Regents Earth Science were investigated through a naturalistic classroom study. Subjects were 72 ninth-graders in a rural New York high school. A shift in student attributions regarding success or failure in the class was facilitated by introducing an instructional…

Using the Biomedical Sciences Preparatory Program (BioPrep) for illustration, this paper discusses an approach to educational improvement through the development of curriculum that emphasizes experiential learning and the involvement of students in real-life problems. Opening sections describe BioPrep, a program designed to prepare rural high…

A study examined student-teacher writing conferences in a ninth grade English class to uncover what significance this form of instruction has both as a collaborative methodology and as a factor in individualizing the process of learning to write in the secondary school. Subjects included a successful ninth grade English teacher at a public high…

The use of confirmatory factor analytic procedures to examine the dimensionality of writing skills as measured by a large-scale direct writing test was illustrated. Internal construct validity evidence about the nature of writing skills measured by the test was provided. Data used were scores assigned by about 100 trained professional raters on a…

The reading program model developed at Ypsilanti High School (Michigan) is described in this paper and is suggested as a method of solving reading problems encountered by high school students. The first section of the paper contains an overview of the content area reading program, including descriptions of the program's philosophy, components,…

This paper reports results of a large-scale, descriptive study of correlates of attitudes toward the mathematical, natural, and social sciences. Objectives of this study were to: (1) examine the levels and direction of attitudes toward the sciences as a function of grade level; (2) probe into possible causal determinants of these attitudes; and…

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)

A questionnaire attempting to define adolescence from the adolescent's view was administered to 300 students, 50 males and 50 females in each of 3 grades (grades 6, 9, and 12). The questionnaire examined (1) ages perceived as dividing points between adolescence, childhood and adulthood; (2) tasks seen as most important in advancing from one period…

The encoding and processing components of moral judgment-making responses were investigated by using a "thinking aloud" response mode to Rest's Defining Issues Test (DIT) of moral judgment. Three subject groups were asked to "think aloud" as they took the DIT: (1) 30 male and female graduate students from a philosophy…

This study addressed whether "reading-as-the-reader" can improve fifth- and ninth-grade students' abilities to compose descriptive writing consistent with their readers' informational needs. There were 206 participants: 154 writers (78 fifth graders and 76 ninth graders) and 52 ninth-grade readers. The study adapted the referential…

Four grade-9 mathematics teachers in Canada were studied over one year as they implemented destreaming (detracking), which was an externally induced reform in their school system. Implementation of the destreaming had an immediate negative effect on teacher expectations of their own efficacy, but their beliefs rebounded over the year. (SLD)

This paper describes a computerized environment for teaching the conceptual patterns of critical literacy. While the full implementation of the software covers both reading and writing, this paper covers only the writing aspects of R-WISE (Reading and Writing in a Supportive Environment). R-WISE consists of a suite of computerized…

A study examined the effects of coauthoring, also referred to as collaborative writing, on student learning. Subjects were 24 students in a ninth-grade English class. Data were collected over the first 9-week quarter of the year. Eight collaborative writing triads were formed with a primary criteria in establishing heterogeneous groups in gender,…

Although numerous cross-sectional studies have documented the coping responses of young adolescents of different ages and of both sexes, few studies have tracked the developmental stages of coping within adolescents. A longitudinal study of adolescent coping was conducted in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. During the 5-year study, 168 students…

A study examined the influence of coauthoring on the writing process in the classroom. Subjects were 24 students in a ninth-grade English class at a racially and socioeconomically diverse high school located in a medium-sized Midwestern city. Data was collected over the first 9-week quarter of the year. Eight collaborative writing triads,…