This paper tries to explain why all the students of a same class who have got the same teaching do not go so far in their conceptual change. Here we have studied the students' conceptual change about volcanoes in a French 5th grade. The different students' preconceptions before teaching have been categorized and related to the well-known…

The marked increases in standardized achievement testing have raised concerns of the educational community regarding the value of standardized testing programs and their potentially harmful effect on students. This study incorporated student perceptions and their views of standardized testing and combined this information with their performance on…

The current study is an examination of how support from siblings relates to academic competence in early adolescence, with a focus on the compensatory effects of sibling support. Participants were 694 African-American, European-American, and Hispanic-American students, ranging in age from 11 to 15. Participants were interviewed in school regarding…

The Freedom from Distractability Index (FFD) on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children- Third Edition (WISC-III) is an index score comprised of the sum of the scores on the Arithmetic and Digit Span subsets. Although the FFD is often interpreted as a measure of attention and concentration, there are a number of other possible explanations…

In current mathematics reform, assessment is integral to effective instruction. However, accurate assessment of over three million limited English proficient (LEP) students in today's schools is of great concern. How does students' language proficiency affect the accuracy of teachers' assessment of students' mathematical understanding? This…

In the Hypothesis-Experiment-Instruction (HEI) method students are presented with a problem with three or four answer alternatives, which leads them later to recognize the distribution of choices, discuss a variety of ideas among them, and integrate distributed pieces of information. This study examined the effects of presenting a problem with or…

This paper presents research conducted as part of the field test of the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project's (UCSMP) curriculum, Fifth Grade Everyday Mathematics. The UCSMP curriculum is one of the current reform programs funded by the National Science Foundation to implement the Standards of the National Council of Teachers of…

In this classroom a child introduced the word "split" when he was asked to describe his mental activity in performing the addition of two numbers; the teacher initiated a spatial representation using a broken line. Subsequently, the children used their own pictorial representations. The paper presents an analysis of the numerical diagrams used by…

Fifth grade children's (n=16) understandings of simple fractions such as 1/2, 1/3, and 1/4 were investigated. The study identified three alternative conceptions of fractions: (1) 1/"N" is one of "N equal" parts, (2) 1/N is one of "N equal" parts, and (3) parts must fit together to form the whole. In addition, many…

This paper presents "popcorn story frames"--holistic outlines that facilitate comprehension when reading and writing stories, useful for outlining stories read and for creating outlines for original student stories--that are particularly useful for elementary and intermediate school students. "Popcorn" pops in a horizontal…

The novels of Robert Lipsyte are excellent for use in a middle school or secondary school classroom. His 1967 classic, "The Contender," and its sequel, "The Brave," are both strong on characterization, plot, and theme. Focusing on "The Contender," students can explore contending characters, forces, and themes. Related…

This study was an investigation of the influence of word-problem context--the nonmathematical, verbal aspect of a problem--on fourth- and sixth-grade students' preferences for and problem solving performance on word problems. Problems were parallel in mathematical structure but differed by major context category--fantasy and real-world.…

The investigation involved a comprehensive descriptive analysis of the reading and writing behavior of 13 upper elementary level learning disabled students. Data were collected on student responses to 11 language tasks, including drawing; forming letters, numbers, and their names; being read to; reading; and answering questions about reading and…

Self awareness of academic skills by 9 primary age and 15 intermediate age mildly mentally handicapped (MiMH) students in a special class and 14 intermediate age learning disabled students in a resource room was measured. Ss completed a modification of H. Myklebust's Pupil Rating Scale. Results indicated primary MiMH Ss consistently rated…

A study evaluated the effectiveness of a direct instructional paradigm for teaching children to comprehend main ideas of prose passages. Subjects, 69 children in three fourth grade classes, were randomly assigned to an experimental "strategy" group receiving direct instruction in main ideas, an experimental "basal" group…