This report examines the most recent middle school data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to investigate how selected dimensions of instructional practice are related to higher-order learning of middle-grade students. In particular, the paper: (1) outlines the theoretical basis for prescribing middle level instructional…

Many previous studies have documented the importance of time needed for learning and time spent in learning as parameters of educational achievement. However, most of this research has not considered the different types of tasks students are asked to learn. This study examined differences in student learning rates, amount of information acquired,…

The psychological mechanisms that underlie human question asking and answering during comprehension and complex learning were studied. The transcripts of 83 tutoring sessions on research methods for college students and 22 algebra tutoring sessions for seventh graders were collected and analyzed. It was estimated that student questions were about…

This 10-chapter report provides detailed information on a study which examined what combinations of teacher, student, and curricular variables were associated with more effective life science instruction at the intermediate level. The conception of effectiveness was guided by the normative framework of scientific literacy and by student growth on…

Scholastic achievement tests and mental ability tests normally consist of a set of multiple choice items, all of which are assumed to measure school-relevant cognitive abilities. The presumption, in a given test situation, is that the answers/solutions to the given tasks represent cognitive capabilities on the part of the examinees. The purpose of…

This study hypothesized that items in the one-question-per-passage format would be less easily answered when administered without their associated contexts than conventional reading comprehension items. A total of 256 seventh and eighth grade students were administered both Forms 3A and 3B of the Sequential Tests of Educational Progress (STEP 11).…

A culturally and economically diverse group of 361 urban seventh graders rated their perceptions for liking and difficulty of core academic subjects and their attributions for mathematics test performance. Results suggest that boys and girls are not significantly different in their perceptions and in their attributions for lack of success. (SLD)