The research question asked was "Will those children ages three and four who have intensive play experiences in play-based preschools and who can perform at high levels of LEGO building as constructional play also show high levels of mathematical achievement later in formal school settings?". Thus, this study attempts to establish a…

A 5-year federally funded substance abuse prevention program targeted 426 high risk middle-school youth from 4 school districts in Nassau County, New York. Combining a child-centered model with a systemic approach, the program's goal was to prevent or delay the onset of alcohol and other drug use. High-risk youth were identified by school…

This paper reports the effects of thematically integrated mathematics instruction on achievement, attitudes, and motivation in mathematics among middle school students of Mexican descent. A school-university collaborative effort led to the development and testing of a thematic approach undertaken as a means of contextualizing instruction for…

A pilot study with 17 middle school science teachers at 15 schools was conducted to determine how to use interactive videodisc technology to develop student ability to use visual skills in processing science information, thereby improving science achievement. The first year's progress is described in identifying how visual images seem to affect…

In the summer of 1989, Summer Home Learning Packets in mathematics and language arts were distributed to seventh and eighth graders at Calverton Middle School (Maryland). The packets contained review exercises for students to complete with the help of their parents. In the first of the two studies reported in this document, "Reactions of…

The plight of students learning language simultaneously with content material, particularly math, spurred this study of the power of socioculturally based pedagogy, such as Instructional Conversation (IC), to increase Spanish-speaking minority students' acquisition of English math lexicon and concepts. This article describes a series of four ICs…

Describes a study that brought together university faculty and seventh-grade teachers to design and implement an instructional intervention to enhance academic learning opportunities for at-risk Hispanic students. Results show a consistent positive comparative academic outcome in reading comprehension, vocabulary, language mechanics, and language…

The authors assessed a cohort of 2,335 students from the Minneapolis, Minnesota, area to identify predictors of violent behavior and to determine whether the predictors varied by gender. The sample was 76% White; boys and girls were equally represented. The majority lived with two parents. A measure of violent behavior collected at the end of the…

The situations in which young adolescents identify anger and the strategies they use in response to anger were studied with students from a midwestern urban middle school health class. The sample included 53 sixth graders, 41 seventh graders, and 41 eighth graders. Responses to a one-page survey indicated that students reported more anger…

This practicum was designed to address the problem of middle school students reacting to and handling conflict situations with violent behavior in an urban environment. These responses affected the well-being and safety of all middle school students at the school. The major goal was for middle school students to increase their awareness of…

Presents ways of learning through movement. Discusses the beginning of the systems approach, contents of the systems class, and connections to mathematics, social studies, English, science, and physical education. Focuses on the interconnectedness of basic core learning to other subject areas. (DLH)

This study reports on CHAMPS, a youth tobacco and prevention program intervention that focused on peer-led educational activities. Nineteen schools implemented a CHAMPS tobacco prevention program in grades 5, 6, and 7. Six schools served as nonintervention comparison sites. Baseline and follow-up questionnaires were completed by 1,412 students.…

The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of a revised state-of-the-art drug prevention program, Project ALERT, on risk factors for drug use in mostly rural midwestern schools and communities. Fifty-five middle schools from South Dakota were randomly assigned to treatment or control conditions. Treatment-group students received 11…

The "No Child Left Behind" Act mandated the need for research-based interventions to increase and to improve learning and achievement for all youngsters. Research in computer-based instruction and intervention for learning basic skills and related achievements in content area subjects has documented the need for controlled investigations…

These proceedings contain the papers of the IADIS International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA 2013), October 22-24, 2013, which has been organized by the International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS), co-organized by The University of North Texas (UNT), sponsored by the…