This paper summarizes a study that assessed the effects of an extended case study that focused on wetland issues with seventh and eighth grade students. The extended case study is an instructional methodology that incorporates the issue investigation/evaluation and action training model. A modified pretest-posttest nonequivalent control group…

Many students are not actively engaged in learning in mathematics classrooms. The purpose of this study was to develop understandings about student engagement with the mathematics curriculum and its influence on student engagement. The research was conducted in two seventh-grade classes taught by the same teacher, who used direct instruction. The…

Science process skills are described as a set of broadly transferable abilities, appropriate to all of the science disciplines and reflective of the true behavior of scientists. While science process skills have gained wide acceptance as an integral part of the science curricula, the development of valid and reliable instruments to assess those…

This paper summarizes a formative evaluation of a developmental project designed to maximize the potential use of computers in mathematics instruction through the use of volunteers. The project was conducted using a 7th-grade class at an intermediate school in Utah. Data were analyzed for 12 students in a special class for students not having the…

This paper presents the results of two studies which were performed to assess the effects of the practice of an interactive video game on spatial visualization test scores. The first study used 70 Laval University undergraduate students as subjects, while subjects for the second study were 101 seventh grade students from the area of Quebec City.…

The verbal interaction between a laboratory school class of sixth/seventh grade students and their teacher during 18 social studies discussions was analyzed in order to identify teacher techniques relevant to student discourse and student passivity. Classroom discussions were taped, transcribed, and analyzed according to an adaptation of the…

A study examined multiple outcomes of relaxation training simultaneously in seventh grade classrooms. "Project Relaxation" measured cognitive (achievement) and affective (discipline, attendance, tardiness, and self-concept) changes with a program of relaxation training for 532 seventh grade students in 10 private and public middle schools in South…

The effectiveness of a strategy for remembering words from a word list was investigated in subjects who were high in test anxiety versus subjects who were low in test anxiety. Sixty seventh-grade volunteers from two urban junior high schools were assigned to the strategy training group or the control group. The strategy group was instructed to…

This study examined the characteristics of family environment and its relationship to attitudes toward science. Data were collected from over 800 seventh-grade and over 1,400 tenth-grade students during a longitudinal, multi-dimensional study of the relationship between the variables of home, school, and self as related to attitudes toward and…

This report was part of the total scope of The Microcomputers and Middle School Problem Solving project. It employed representational models during problem solving in order to study: (1) observable patterns in self-directed use of representational models; (2) correlations between use of models and problem-solving ability; and (3) the motives of…

Social and affective objectives are being increasingly accepted as integral parts of the school curriculum. Generalization effects produced by a training program in classroom participation skills were analyzed for two classrooms of seventh-grade boys with reading, writing, and disciplinary problems. Subject, situation, and behavior variables were…

The cognitive preferences of 250 seventh grade students in social studies classes were examined, using the Cognitive Preference Profile (CPP). Each item in the CPP contains a stem statement and restatements of the stem that reflect memory, application, and questioning options. Pre- and post-test scores for the CPP were used as covariates with the…

Scores on mental ability and academic skills for 1958 and 1978 of representative sample of grade 4 and 7 classes in Saskatchewan were compared. The selected students were administered appropriate levels of the Otis-Lennon Mental Ability Tests, and the Canadian Tests of Basic skills in vocabulary, reading, language skills (spelling, capitalization,…

The Michigan Educational Assessment Program and its contribution to the improvement of education in the state are described in this report. The Program provides local and state educational decision-makers with necessary information on human and financial resources and student attainment of sets of performance objectives thought to be necessary for…

Differences in reading achievement of bilingual and monolingual groups of fifth, sixth, and seventh graders were investigated in several Texas schools where the Czech-American culture was significant. Sixty-three bilingual students were compared with monolingual students who had Czech surnames or Czech-American backgrounds, on the basis of…