Two studies involving 253 Norwegian sixth and eighth graders found that self-defeating ego orientation was associated with high anxiety and negatively related to achievement and self-perception. Self-enhancing ego orientation was positively related to achievement, self-perception, and intrinsic motivation. (SLD)

A class inventory and two creativity measures were administered to 350 sixth-grade students in three Caribbean territories (Barbados, Grenada, and St. Vincent). Analyses indicated that Barbadian schools have a more favorable classroom learning environment for creative production than the other two territories. Barbadian students also demonstrated…

Presents a sixth-grade, interdisciplinary activity in which students investigate the physical size of the Roman Empire. (MKR)

Shares detailed episodes of children's work in repeatedly partitioning geometric shapes to highlight the process of recursion, which can lead to a deeper understanding of imagination and beauty in children's mathematics. (MKR)

Using a comprehension-monitoring model, 192 skilled and less skilled readers from 3rd and 6th grade read stories containing inconsistent information. Half of the students constructed a storyboard representation of the stories and half only read the text. Results reveal that storyboard construction enhanced the integration of text propositions and…

Assesses "theory of mind" (ToM), or social understanding, in preadolescents (N=128) and examines individual differences in the relations among social understanding, self-concept, and language competence. Results reveal positive associations between children's social understanding and self-understanding; self-perceptions of behavioral…

Investigates 55 6th grade students' conceptions of "invention and patent processes". Suggests that students have few or simplistic conceptions of invention and patent processes and prior exposure to invention instruction, or previous experiences with inventing did not appear to have an impact on students' conceptions of invention. (Contains 70…

Emotional difficulties, and especially depressive symptomatology, constitute a serious and relatively frequent childhood problem which are often overlooked. Teachers' responses to pupils' depression seem to be related to their understanding concerning the causes of this problem. Thus, the aims of the present research are: (a) to estimate the…

Evaluates a method for teaching hypothesis formation to sixth-grade children. Results showed that hypothesis formation can be taught under the described conditions, and that the ability to hypothesize correlates with intelligence, sex, reading ability, and grade point average. (MLH)

A study was conducted to test the hypothesis that high-variability rehearsal more effectively facilitates word recall than does low-variability rehearsal. Third-grade and sixth-grade students were asked to memorize a list of 20 common words. A read-aloud rehearsal procedure was used so that rehearsal could be experimentally controlled. One word…

In order to assess differences in social behavior patterns among ethnic groups, videotapes were produced of eight brief social episodes that occur commonly in elementary schools, each taped once with Black actors and once with Mexican-American actors. These were shown to 127 Black and Mexican-American boys and girls from third and sixth grade…

The relationship between musical aptitude and musical environment in sixth-grade students is studied. Forty-one students from a suburban middle school were administered a 21-item Music Environment questionnaire which determined whether they or their family played a musical instrument, attended symphony, country-western, and/or rock concerts, had…

Presents the results of a research study which was designed to determine gains or losses in reading proficiency during summer vacation, investigate the characteristics of those students whose proficiency increases or decreases, and aid in planning summer reading programs which maximize gains and minimize losses. (RB)

This paper describes the instructional design activities used to create ThinkAbout, a video series meant to teach fifth and sixth graders skills essential for learning, i.e., inquiring, analyzing, synthesizing, seeking alternatives, and creative problem solving. Two basic tenets or underpinning statements served as guidelines for the development…