This 10th grade social studies lesson and language arts interdisciplinary curriculum unit asks students to examine the 19th century debate over U.S. foreign policy. Students engage in role playing and debate the expansionist policy versus the anti-imperialist policy. The unit includes an activity description, background information, questions to…

A total of 199 students from a school in Hong Kong responded to 25 items in a survey. Principal components analysis found four school motivation factors consistent with the Task, Effort, Competition and Praise scales of the McInerney, et al. (1997) Inventory of School Motivation, one education aspiration factor and one career aspiration factor.…

This article describes the development of a one-semester science seminar course for high school juniors and seniors in a suburban/rural Pennsylvania school district. It addresses scheduling considerations and planning activities, the role of the teacher in the seminar approach, use of community resources and guest speakers, standards and…

This study examined Chinese students' self-presentation bias and continuing motivation for difficult and easy tasks. Students read scenarios about characters who performed tasks, then answered questions about whether the characters and they themselves would do another similar task. Results revealed self-presentation bias among Chinese students…

Investigated mediating effect of sex role typing on relationship between gender and work preferences among 192 male and 292 female eleventh graders. Results showed that sex role typing mediated the relationship between gender and preference for socially oriented work values. (TE)

The invariance of a multidimensional, hierarchical self-concept structure for adolescent males and females was studied using 412 male and 420 female 11th and 12th graders. Significant gender differences were found in general, academic, English, and mathematics self-concepts. (TJH)

The Mantel-Haenszel approach for investigating differential item functioning (DIF) was applied to United States history items within the 1986 National Assessment of Educational Progress administered to 7,812 11th graders. DIF analyses were based on responses of 7,743 11th graders. Results concerning sex and racial differences and ethnicity are…

A previously proposed structural model of the theory of educational productivity of H. J. Walberg was tested for science achievement and attitude with a national probability sample of 2,535 tenth graders from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth. Results support a mediated effects representation of the productivity model. (SLD)

Utilizing student interviews, this study assessed fourth, eighth, and eleventh graders (n=105) in 11 Maine schools concerning their understanding of 4 natural and social science concepts related to pollution. The results hold direct implications for teaching strategies and curriculum design within the environmental and science education domains.…

Examines how maternal characteristics and work values are related to work values of adolescent children for 93 Israeli eleventh graders and their mothers. Results do not demonstrate that mothers' occupational characteristics affect the level of children's work values. Significant differences in work values are found for sons and daughters. (SLD)

Students' written responses to open-ended moral questions were studied by having 61 eighth graders, 73 eleventh graders, and 52 college sophomores respond to hypothetical dilemmas and describe their own moral reasoning. Mature moral reasoning is associated with noncontextual, nonemotional reasoning. Feminine moral concerns are important to all…

Thirty-seven elementary and secondary school teachers were surveyed about their knowledge of task-specific study strategies, and 10 were interviewed to validate and extend the survey data. Teachers seldom reported providing students with metacognitive components of strategy instruction. Implications for teacher instruction in study strategies are…

This study investigated return-to-task rates on hard and easy tasks that secondary students projected for scenario characters and for themselves. Data revealed significantly greater rates of return to easy tasks. Girls had significantly higher return-to-task rates. Evidence of self-presentation bias was present. (SM)

A sample of grade 11 and 12 Canadian students (n>2000) responded to a national survey concerning the epistemology of science. Results revealed preconceptions held by students involving the nature of science, scientific assumptions, values in science, conceptual inventions, the scientific method, consensus making in science, and characteristics…

Interviewed 25 high school juniors, 4 counselors, and 4 English teachers to determine their perceptions concerning guidance-language arts career unit. Findings suggest that all groups felt positively about unit. Students also felt positively about cooperative effort and what they gained from their involvement. (NB)