This study examined 376 African American adolescents' perceptions about the presence of guns in school and responses associated with the perceptions. One-quarter believed that other students brought guns to school. Those perceptions related positively to their experiences of fear at school and behaviors of school avoidance and bringing weapons for…

Provides direction for developing appropriate, meaningful social studies instruction for the middle school. Identifies characteristics of early adolescents that have a direct relationship to curriculum design and the selection of appropriate social studies instruction strategies. Offers National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS)…

Attempts to explore, evaluate, and discuss the proposal to introduce English as a foreign language (EFL) in Saudi elementary public schools. The study compares the EFL achievement of private intermediate school children who studied English in elementary school with the achievement of their counterparts in the same school. (35 references) (GLR)

Determines whether global themes and supranational elements are contained in Greek educational legislation and social studies curriculum and textbooks. Analysis shows some existence of these themes and elements, but they have not been adequately adapted to correspond to the pronouncements of the Greek educational establishment and to the new…

This collection of papers brings together two lines of research about children's knowledge in physical education, one from the University of Massachusetts and the other from the University of Alabama. Both sets of research studies are grounded in a learning orientation, with researchers believing in the importance of studying children's knowledge…

Educating children in the development of positive attitudes toward health related fitness so that they are motivated to engage in lifetime fitness activities both inside and outside of the physical education class is an ongoing challenge for physical education teachers. This article presents several lesson ideas which have been developed to…

The Comic Book Project was launched originally as a way of putting into practice some of the most important educational research of the last decade--that is, the correlation between involvement in the arts and performance in academic subjects (Deasy, 2002; Fiske, 1999). This article is not necessarily about comic books; it is about children…

Often the victims of bullying are singled out because they are different from the majority. The fear of being bullied is a life-shaping fear that effects the lives of more than 160,000 students who miss school every day to avoid victimization by bullies. The damaging effects of bullying can lead to poor academic performance, low self-esteem, early…

"Candles in Our Windows"--also titled "Nightlights"--is a play developed for elementary and middle school students about how residents in Billings, Montana, took a stand against hate. Last March, the 6th-grade students of Woodland Elementary School in New Jersey performed an early version of the play based on a children's book,…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the "Corrective Reading Decoding B1" program on the basic reading skills, social adjustment, and treatment responsiveness of elementary and middle school students with high-incidence disabilities (N = 51). Students were provided an average of 3 40-45 min lessons per week over the course of…

Much interest exists among parents and researchers regarding the benefits and drawbacks of delaying kindergarten entrance to acquire academic advantage ("redshirting"). How evident is this assumed advantage at the kindergarten level and beyond? The authors evaluated large-scale test data from Grades K-8 to investigate the difference in performance…

There are many compelling reasons for introducing foreign language study at the middle school level. Adolescents are initiating new and higher levels of cognitive processing, their curiosity is high, and they are concerned with intellectual, philosophical, biological, sociological, moral, and ethical issues. A survey of 82 middle school foreign…

This is the second and final part of a review of educational research on children's ideas about gravity. The first part concerned students' understanding of how and why things fall. This article picks up the trail of research studies that address students' understanding of the more complex ideas of projectile motion and orbits and examines how the…

Middle school students need materials that encourage them to finish meaningful assignments without coercion or teacher intervention. Teachers who motivate middle school students to think and work on their own will allow students to express their feelings, have a part in decision making, and eventually share their product with other people. It is…

This booklet reviews research on the middle school environment, the characteristics of the middle school student, and the factors involved in teaching effectively at the middle school level, and then proposes a method that middle school teachers can use for analyzing their own classroom behavior and their instructional options. The booklet's first…