The process of construction of meanings for the concepts of concentration and neutralization is explored in terms of "contextualizing practices" (Lemke, 1990, "Talking Science. Language, Learning and Values," Norwood, NJ: Ablex) creation of meanings through connections established among actions and their context. This notion is expanded to include…

This article discusses the importance of teachers integrating new educational research into their classroom instruction. The mandatory grade 10 History course in Ontario is used as an example of how such integration leads to improved teacher instruction and therefore student learning.

Questions about the suitability of cognitively-oriented instructional approaches for students of different academic levels are frequently raised by teachers and researchers. This study examined student participation in knowledge-building discourse in two implementations of a short inquiry unit focusing on environmental problems. Participants in…

The purpose of this research was to examine the effects of implementation of argumentation in a physics classroom on students' reasoning. This research is both quantitative and qualitative in nature. Experimental design was used for the study. For the quantitative aspect of the research, students' prior knowledge in the beginning of the…

We investigated the role of motivational climates, teacher autonomy support, perceived competence and autonomy on pupils' self-regulated motivation in physical education (PE) classes of Norwegian 10th-graders. Path analyses revealed that a mastery climate and teacher autonomy support both (a) positively influenced intrinsically regulated…

Background: When writing a text, students are required to do several things simultaneously. They have to plan, translate and review, which involve demanding cognitive processes. In order to handle this complexity, writers need to develop a writing strategy. The two most well-defined writing strategies that have been identified, are those of a…

This study examined the effectiveness of a Question Exploration Routine and associated graphic organizer for enhancing the performance of students of diverse abilities when assessed on knowledge and comprehension of content and quality of written responses. Participants were 36 students with and without learning disabilities (LD) in Grades 9…

To many, it seems obvious which schools are failing--schools whose students perform poorly on achievement tests. But since evaluating schools on achievement mixes the effects of school and nonschool influences, achievement-based evaluation likely underestimates the effectiveness of schools that serve disadvantaged populations. In this article, the…

This article describes a portion of a long-term action-research project investigating the teaching of the science of transportation to high school students using the case study or experiential method. Other aspects integrated with the project-oriented study are the use of Constructivist theory, the Socratic Method, and the incorporation of…

This study investigated the effectiveness of conceptual change texts in remediating high school students' alternative conceptions concerning chemical equilibrium. A quasi-experimental design was used in this study. The subjects for this study consisted of a total 78 tenth-grade students, 38 of them in the experimental group and 40 of them in the…

In this study, the authors conducted a mixed analysis of student perceptions of their best high school teachers. The sample of 257 preservice teachers from a College of Education in California described their best high school teacher. From their descriptions, qualitative analysis through the method of constant comparison yielded eight themes:…

Benchmarks and standards have become an important part of the teachers' instructional focus since the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. As educators they all recognize the importance of having high expectations of their students. Standards help schools articulate these expectations clearly to students, their parents, and the community. Yet, there…

Twenty-four tenth-grade students were randomly assigned to three groups as part of a study of the effects of teacher comments on student essays. Throughout the course, one group received comments to indicate faults, one group received comments correcting errors, and one group received comments designed to foster thinking. At the beginning and end…

The booklet presents the minimum material for which students are responsible on the Tenth Year Regents examination of the state of New York. The syllabus is an attempt to integrate plane geometry with arithmetic, algebra and numerical trigonometry brought about by: (1) greater use of fractions and percents in mensuration problems; (2) use of…

Describes a classroom experiment in which tenth grade students read and analyzed works of romantic fiction and then wrote their own romantic novel synopsis modeled on their readings. (DD)