Adolescents in the urban public school system experience childhood trauma that sometimes makes it difficult to focus on learning. Even more so, sometimes trauma experienced by youth manifests in disruptive behaviors in the school setting. Traditionally, urban public schools have focused on teaching and learning academics, generally neglecting the…

In this article, we report on findings from a study that explored perspectives of Grade 10-12 learners from two rural secondary schools in the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa on the nature of mathematics prior to and at the end of a year-long mathematics mentorship programme. We use Ernest's (1994) orientations about the nature of…

The education of today more and more encounters the teaching and learning problems of young adults therefore it is topical to find out how to make the teaching/learning of the Millennium generation meaningful. This issue is especially important in STEM education. The survey involved Grade 10-12 students of Latvia, in total 256 students. Spearman's…

A widely used instrument was implemented to ascertain the mathematical modelling competency displayed by a cohort of South African learners in grade 10 and grade 12 of the school mathematics programme in South Africa. The cohort comprised 471 grade 10 and 200 grade 12 learners from schools serving learners from low socio-economic status…

We examined developmental changes in self-esteem from late childhood to late adolescence in African American girls (N = 124), comparing skin tone groups. Girls completed a measure of self-esteem when they were in Grades 5, 7, 10, and 12, and in Grade 12 their skin tone was rated on a 3-point scale (1 = "Light," 2 = "Medium," 3…

Background: The Pennsylvania Youth Survey (PAYS) is administered biennially to adolescents; it covers knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors about risk and protective factors. Purpose: This study explored 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students' attitudes and beliefs about current trends regarding drugs, alcohol, and mental health. Methods: We asked…

Information literacy--i.e. obtaining, evaluating and using information--is a key element of scientific literacy. However, students are frequently equipped with poor information literacy skills--even at university level--as information literacy is often not explicitly taught in schools. Little is known about students' information skills in science…

Although many facets of social status (i.e., socioeconomic status, gender, race) are fairly stable, limited work has assessed how youths' identification with their status changes over time. Subjective social status (SSS) refers to one's perception of standing or rank relative to others, and for youth status is generally in the context of society…

Purpose: Persuasive communication skills are vital for achieving success in school, at work, and in social relationships. To facilitate assessment of persuasive discourse, we developed a clinically feasible persuasive speaking protocol and used it to compile a database of language samples. This database allowed us to describe the properties of…

This study examined the relationships among effective literacy instruction, student perception, and student motivation. Today's educators must be to be equipped with proven instructional strategies that engage and motivate students in literacy activities resulting in positive impacts on academic outcomes. Study participants included teachers and…

Research study on students' conceptions of irrational numbers before entering university is of importance in order that the construction of the real number field introduced at the university level will have the desired effect. The aim of the present study is to analyze the way students approach the question of the existence of irrational numbers.…

This paper evaluates the impact of extension of the school day in the context of Brazil's "Mais Educação" Extended School Day Program. Using school level longitudinal data, we find that the program reduces the dropout rates of students in all grade levels, raises the enrollment of students in grades 6-9, but reduces the enrollment of…

This occasional paper presents national demographic subgroup data for the 1975-2021 Monitoring the Future (MTF) national survey results on 8th, 10th, and 12th graders' use of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco. The study covers all major classes of illicit and licit psychoactive drugs for an array of population subgroups. The 2020 subgroup data presented…

Cross-lagged relationships between academic achievement and perceived parental educational expectations were examined by using panel data from 5,312 students from the National Educational Longitudinal Study from when they were in Grades 8, 10, and 12. Three hypotheses were tested: (1) academic achievement would precede perceptions of parents'…

The aim of this study was to investigate the predictors of academic success of South African students. The study focused on 164 first to fourth year students. The extent to which students' grade 12 performance, the type of high school they attended and their academic self-concepts contributed to their academic success during the entry and…