Reports results of a study of fourth-grade students in Nigeria. Examines the relationship between parents' willingness and ability to provide financial and psychological support and the academic achievement of Nigerian students. Concludes that parental support influences academic achievement along with other factors such as parental occupation and…

Written and spoken language samples for 13 students with hearing impairments (HI) attending special classes in Tel Aviv, Israel, and 9 normal hearing students were analyzed for grammatical deviations. HI students exhibited significantly more deviations in written than spoken language samples, especially failure to supply morphological markers,…

A study involving 633 Grade five Chinese students in Hong Kong found significant sex and popularity group differences in peer-nominated creativity and popularity group differences in teacher-rated creativity. Overall, peer status and perceived creativity were highly related. Students perceived boys as more creative than girls. (DB)

This study examined the effect of three aspects of the testing context--physical privacy, anonymity, and offers of help from a tester--on children's expectations. Performance of 96 11-year-old boys and girls on a pictorial recall memory task in a simulated test was evaluated. The subjects were divided into eight different groups varying on the…

One important finding from recent research on multiplication word problems is that children's performances are strongly affected by the nature of the multiplier (whether it is an integer, decimal larger than 1 or a decimal smaller than 1). On the other hand, the size of the multiplicand has little or no effect on problem difficulty. The aim of the…

A study was conducted to evaluate the level of difficulty of textbooks (French and Sciences) written in French for use with sixth grade students. A cloze test was administered to a sample of sixth grade students in two francophone districts in the province of New Brunswick, Canada, and the Henry readability formula was applied to the same texts.…

Conducted an ethnography to evaluate the usefulness of the notion of community of practice in classroom settings. Documents how collectively available knowledge of a classroom community was transformed as resources and practices were adopted by more and more members. Discusses implications for the organization of classroom environments that…

The debate about possible tradeoffs between quantity and quality in schools has been confused by using available data as a basis for conceptual definitions. Under certain conditions expansion of enrollment or class sizes will have either no influence or a positive influence on the the quality of learning. The conventional wisdom about tradeoffs…

This study had three purposes. First, to develop and validate a criterion-referenced test to measure science knowledge of students who finished the second cycle of the Basic General Education (6th grade). Second, to assess the performance of the entire Costa Rican population of sixth graders and, third, to analyze the results according to some…

This report reviews the Values, Influences, and Peers (VIP) program in the Peel, Ontario schools. Originally developed as a joint initiative of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of the Solicitor General, the VIP program was first introduced in Peel in 1983 as a pilot initiative in one school. Launched as a response to an increase in…

Test components and results of the Grade 6 Social Studies Achievement Tests in Alberta, Canada administered to 28,566 students are described in this booklet. All questions were drawn from three prescribed topics: Topic A--"How People in Earlier Times Met Their Needs"; Topic B--"How People in Eastern Societies Meet Their Needs…

Describes a study of 14 fifth graders concerning their understanding and attitudes toward the Persian Gulf War. Finds that the public school served as a significant socialization agent during the war, although television was even more important. Concludes that patriotic issues and activities overshadowed any attempts to have students think…

The difficulties that younger students experience in understanding concepts related to the use of variables in computer programming are examined through descriptions of two studies: (1) detailed case studies of six highly intelligent children--three fourth graders and three sixth graders--who learned to program in BASIC during 60 hours of…

This report discusses findings from a research project examining the demands made on students and teachers by the "investigations" (or research) required of students in social subjects in Scottish schools. Students and teachers in six secondary schools in Scotland were interviewed, and it was found that teachers were seriously concerned…

This research was concerned with the clarification of the role that the external representation process (e.g. drawing) plays in children's solving of complex arithmetic problems. Fourteen children in the 10- to 12-year-old age range were asked to represent and solve five complex arithmetic problems (three with temporal organization of data, two…