Several studies were conducted to investigate the nature and development of creative social problem solving among older and younger children in Sweden and the United States. First, the behaviors of older children were investigated formally in a large-scale experimental study of California 10-year-olds. Results indicated that children receiving…

The Science Reasoning Level Test (SRLT) was developed and administered to elementary school students in Poland and the United States, in order to determine whether a multiple choice test based on a Piaget model of the development of thought processes could be used to study the development of scientific reasoning. The relationship between reasoning…

Project surveyed (1978-81) appreciation/attainment of school educational goals by nearly 60,000 Finnish students/university students, teachers, parents, educators, and administrators. Parents and teachers valued goals most, university students and administrators valued them least. Overall personality and mental health goals, ethical-social and…

This study examined the effects of social class background on children's oral language development. The study focused on children's oral vocabulary knowledge because such knowledge provides a good summary of language skills, is easily measured, and is very consequential for later schooling success. Using a large national data set, the study…

Academic risk taking--the selection of schoollike tasks ranging in difficulty and probability of success--was examined for 602 students in grades 4, 6, and 8 in Taiwan. Results of a self-report measure of tolerance for failure and a risk-taking task are discussed concerning self-enhancement versus self-assessment goals, metacognitive skills, and…

To explore question-answering strategy differences between young "good" and older "poor" readers, 60 fifth and sixth grade good readers and 60 ninth and tenth grade poor readers responded to questions about passages read and reinspected. Strategies used were inferred through analysis of response errors. Implications for reading…

The reliance of 12, 18, and 22 children in grades 2, 4, and 6, respectively, on context- versus word-based information was studied. Factor analysis of error scores yielded a structure reflecting 3 information sources: graphophonic information; context to identify words; and comprehension monitoring. Age differences in decoding strategies were…

A total of 196 Latino bilingual students in grades 4, 6, and 8 were asked to give the Spanish equivalent for English words, some of which had derivational and inflectional suffixes. The results indicated that the students' ability to translate cognates increased with age above and beyond any increase in their vocabulary knowledge in Spanish and…

A study with 28 fourth graders, 30 eighth graders, and 30 college students demonstrates that the relationship between knowledge of the requirements of a globally coherent essay and the ability to produce such an essay generally remains statistically significant when the effect of grade level is removed. (SLD)

This study examined the long-term correlates of victimization in school with aspects of functioning in adult life, using a specially designed Retrospective Bullying Questionnaire, which also included questions about short-term effects (e. g. suicidal ideation and intrusive memories) and victimization experiences in adulthood. Current relationship…

Purpose: To examine a tobacco prevention elementary school project completed in 2000 in one rural state in the southeastern USA. Design/methodology/approach: Initially, 721 public school fourth through sixth grade teachers across Mississippi attended (for reimbursement) a tobacco prevention workshop that included curriculum-integrated material;…

This study investigated construct validity and factorial invariance of a performance assessment of reading comprehension and writing proficiency through a multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) structure using confirmatory factor analysis. The performance assessment was administered to 1,023 fifth and sixth graders. Interrater reliability was examined for…

The 3-year research and development project described in this paper was conducted (1) to develop new knowledge about sex equity in classroom interactions, and (2) to develop successful techniques for reducing or eliminating sex-biased interaction. Two interventions were developed to train teachers in more equitable instructional behaviors. In the…

Evidence suggests that a significant proportion of school children consider themselves lonely and isolated from peers. However, less data exists as to (1) the accuracy of children's perceived loneliness when compared with their reported popularity with peers; (2) specific behavioral attributes that might contribute to popularity; and (3) stability…

This paper investigates the formation and evolution of friendship cliques among preadolescent youth in elementary and junior high grades 4 through 8. Two sets of data were collected: the first set consisted of cross sectional data from 51 classes (grades 5 through 8); the second set contained sociometric data collected from 11 classes (grades 4…