This study examined school-related strains that elementary school students encountered during the transition to middle school. A total of 120 students from two elementary schools completed the Early Adolescent School Role Strain Inventory during pretransition in the elementary school fifth grade, during early transition at the beginning of the…

Health education and health promotion should involve all school personnel. Schools must provide reliable health information and offer special relationships for each student with at least one caring adult, particularly in middle school. Caring relationships provide examples of personal relationships that schools expect students to exhibit when they…

Investigated efficacy of short-term cognitive-behavioral therapy, relaxation training, and self-modeling interventions for treatment of depression among middle school students (n=68). Self-report and interview measures of depression and self-esteem were used to assess treatment effects. Results indicated that all treatment conditions, relative to…

Middle schools must place high academic emphasis on health education and critical thinking skills which are developmentally important for young adolescents. Reasons why young adolescents should apply critical thinking to health issues include enhancing cognitive development, making health risk decisions, and preparing to be informed citizens. (SM)

In recent decades, immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers have sought a new way of life in large numbers, often leaving their countries of origin behind in search of places that offer a better way of life. The purpose of this study was to investigate how elementary and middle school students in state schools in Reading, England (primarily…

"National Science Education Standards" (1996), published by the National Research Council, recommends that students learn to explain Moon phases and eclipses by the time they graduate from eighth grade. It is clear from the research literature, however, that misconceptions about Moon phases and eclipses are widespread and resistant to change, even…

The Watershed Learning Center (WLC) was developed by the Brandywine Valley Association (BVA) to provide outdoor environmental lessons to schools on their own properties or on sites close by. Teachers are trained to take over the lessons by observing BVA instructors and attending workshops. The program was evaluated to discover how the WLC was…

This preliminary report examined the impact of W. Glasser's Reality Therapy techniques on teacher attitudes and the behavior of emotionally disturbed elementary and middle school students. A summary of Glasser's Control Theory and his recent revisions pertaining to Reality Therapy techniques is included as well as a review of the outcome…

This collection of descriptions of research at the Center for Research on Effective Schooling for Disadvantaged Students opens with the discussion of a synthesis of research on the effects of one-to-one tutoring programs used in first grade to prevent reading failure produced by Barbara Wasik and Robert Slavin. The synthesis reviews stringent…

The purpose of this publication is to assist educators in their efforts to improve students' thinking abilities. The book identifies and describes some common components of thinking skills programs and addresses the scope and sequence of purposeful thinking. In some respects, the content of thinking is described by offering a generic organization…

In a German study, students' descriptions of the processes in an electric circuit were related to the energy view as it is used in physics. (The representation of students' concepts describing the electric circuit is of importance because structured concepts may influence the perception and description of processes, the handling of electrical…

This summary provides an overview of Project OPTION, designed to reduce the influence of sex role stereotyping on student career choice; to increase student, parent, school, and community awareness of the negative consequences of sex bias; and to promote sex-fair and sex-affirmative teaching strategies. The materials include: (1) background…

The parent management practices to which a sample of 80 middle-school boys were exposed was examined. Boys were grouped by school adjustment as: (1) internalizers; (2) antisocials; (3) normals/controls; and (4) externalizers. Implications for parenting and the practice of school psychology are discussed. (SLD)

Describes a program that incorporates a variety of techniques to promote and foster dialog and open communication about puberty and sexuality. The program lasts about 2 hours and accommodates from 15 to 50 parent-child teams. It includes autobiographical presentation, film, and discussion. A list of resources is included. (SM)

Field observations of and interviews with 13 low-skilled 6th graders in physical education indicated that they all exhibited symptoms of learned helplessness. Students had knowledge of being low-skilled, and they experienced teachers communicating low expectations to them. Students were unwilling to expend effort to learn skills, so they were…