In the middle years of schooling, spanning grades four to nine, it is common practice for generalist teachers to deliver integrated arts education. Research confirms that teacher effectiveness with the arts is influenced by their sense of efficacy, which is derived from a coalition of factors including confidence, competence, subject mastery and…

Middle years' teachers in primary schools are increasingly required to teach curriculum-specific subjects at a depth requiring considerable content and pedagogical knowledge, as well as a detailed understanding of the particular literacy requirements specific to each subject. Science teaching, in the latter years of primary schooling, is…

Educators have long recognized that parental and community supports are important underpinnings for children's success in school. With respect to the teaching of writing, however, little research has been conducted to provide evidence of effective practices teachers use to involve parents and communities. As part of a national Canadian study of…

Background: The objectives of this study were to (i) determine the prevalence of and characteristics associated with tobacco smoking; (ii) identify the factors associated with tobacco smoking; and (iii) evaluate the association between tobacco smoking and khat chewing among intermediate and secondary school students in Jazan Region, Saudi Arabia.…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of age on learning English in Saudi Arabia. It aims at encouraging the learning of English as a foreign language at an early age in KSA. The populations of the study are English language teachers and Saudi students in elementary schools compared with intermediate school students in Dawadmi…

The concept of partnerships between schools and practicing scientists came to prominence in the United States in the mid 1980s. The call by government for greater private sector involvement in education to raise standards in science achievement saw a variety of programmes developed, ranging from short-term sponsorships through to longer-term,…

This study was designed to explore children's understanding of formative assessment and its effects on their learning, in order to establish what learners perceive as important to help them improve their learning. The study found that children have a good understanding of the concepts of feedback, and can articulate clearly the elements most…

This article focuses on a multicultural, low socioeconomic, intermediate school that over the 4 years of this longitudinal, qualitative, case study made substantial positive shifts in developing a more effective learning environment and improving students' reading achievement. The study found that the factors appearing to have the most influence…

A three year longitudinal intervention study is presented where two conditions of reading instruction are compared. In a base condition six teachers--four in the experimental groups and two in the control groups--and their students in grade 4-6 discussed expository texts during a regular lesson. The discussions, which took place in small groups,…

The recently elected National Government has proceeded, under urgency, to pass the Education (National Standards) Amendment Bill, legislation that seeks to provide specific information for both schools and parents about how well every primary and intermediate school student (Years 1 to 8) is progressing in literacy and numeracy compared with other…

Relations among social preference, perceived popularity, social intelligence and two types of aggressive behaviour were studied. Peer-estimation techniques were used to measure all major variables. Altogether, 403 Greek schoolchildren from fourth-through sixth-grade classrooms participated in the study. Both overt and relational aggression were…

Culturally deprived (N=70) and middle-class (N=64) Israeli sixth graders were tested for creative responses to visual, aural, and verbal stimuli. Nondeprived Ss performed better on 16 out of 27 measures. The gap was not equally wide in all subtests, and verbal expression was an inhibiting factor. (CL)

Canadian fourth, fifth, and sixth graders (n=300) were given either resource-based instruction (RBI), nonintegrated library instruction, or no library skills instruction. Sixth graders in RBI outperformed sixth graders given no instruction. There were no significant differences between nonintegrated and no instruction. Maximum learning growth…

Analyzes and compares children's interpretations of metaphors used in a science text and their teacher's use of explanatory metaphor to identify key processes in metaphor understanding and to suggest factors that contribute to successful use of metaphor in learning science. Adopts a Vygotskian socio cognitive approach to metaphor in discourse. (BT)

Examined the psychometric properties of a French version of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC; C. Spielberger and others, 1973), administered to 288 French Canadian children in intermediate grades. Findings show that the STAIC is psychometrically sound. (SLD)