Learning style is the foundation of successful teaching and teaching for thinking. The recent conceptualization of the brain as a complex system for processing and storing information can be meaningful to educators. Too many schools, however, rely on a rather mechanistic approach to learning. Future school administrators must be taught to…

A study determined the perceptions of Indiana public school superintendents regarding their role in influencing the development of a community of readers in Indiana middle-grades schools. In 1993-94, subjects, 292 out of a total of 297 public school superintendents, completed surveys related to 10 selected reading issues, including students'…

Building and implementing a school master schedule is one of a school administrator's most crucial tasks. A master schedule can either create opportunity or hinder teaching students. This is particularly true in middle-level schools, many of which are using information about the learning characteristics of early adolescents to reexamine how…

Findings of a study that examined middle-level school practices and the educational needs of Illinois youth aged 10-14 are presented in this report. A questionnaire mailed to all junior high/middle schools (576 schools) and K-8 schools in Illinois (705 schools) elicited response rates of 75 and 42 percent, respectively, or a total of 774 usable…

A study established the extent to which certain program materials and teaching methods were being utilized in elementary and middle grades schools in South Dakota. Each district that operated an elementary grades school, a middle grades school, or both was sent a two-part survey to complete. A total of 117 of 248 surveys were returned, for a…

This appendix was created to minimize aspects of the data analysis carried out for the quantitative study of Transition Years Initiatives in Ontario (Canada) schools. Technical appendices for the multivariate statistical procedures used in this analysis were needed for chapters 5 through 9 of the main report. The bulk of these appendices are path…

Data collected during the 1989-90 school year reveal that middle schools in Guam exist in name only, with one notable exception. F. B. Leon Guerrero Middle School has implemented an interdisciplinary team model boasting many of the salient features of true middle schools. Leon Guerrero teachers rated the extent their school provided for students'…

An elementary school administrator designed and implemented a 12-week summer program for school-age children that provided educational, recreational, and cultural opportunities. Each week of activities centered on a specific theme. Recreational opportunities included sports activities, outdoor games, organized indoor games, free play, swimming,…

This practicum was designed to encourage middle school science teachers to utilize computer technology as an enhancement in order to provide students with an additional means of addressing their basic skills areas. The primary goals were to provide information on the ease of utilization of appropriate computer-managed software through networking…

An action research project was developed and implemented using student self monitoring of higher order thinking skills and task management to improve the music skills of a fifth grade beginning band (n=30) from a small middle school located in a rural midwest village. Evidence of the problem was documented with a performance test, a written test,…

This report intends to describe a program designed to enhance reading comprehension. Reading comprehension relies on skills that enable students to remember facts, draw out main ideas, make inferences, and relate reading to personal experiences. The focus group consisted of middle and high school students in a metropolitan area in northern…

This report describes a program designed to empower students through the use of the democratic classroom to improve students' attitudes toward school. Targeted population consisted of sixth grade students in a growing middle class community, located in a major midwestern city. The problem of poor student attitude was documented through data…

This study describes a program designed to improve reading achievement. The targeted population consisted of primary and middle school students in two communities in northern Illinois. Both communities were suburbs of a major metropolitan area and the status of family incomes ranged from low to middle levels. Evidence for the existence of the…

Describes a naturalistic case study involving a class of urban, ethnically diverse eighth graders who had studied the exploration and British colonization of North America. Most had considerable difficulty reconstructing what they had learned and explaining why they were studying history. New history education standards may help students connect…

In the United States, nearly two-thirds of all deaths among young people aged 10-14 years result from only five causes: motor-vehicle crashes (23.4%), other unintentional injuries (15.7%), cancer (12.5%), suicide (7.2%), and homicide (5.2%). Across all age groups in the United States, the leading causes of illness and death are related to the…