In this article, the author shares the story of her son, Joseph, who is a gifted child. She suggests that parents should allow and even encourage their children to ask questions and explore the different answers, give positive acknowledgment to what they do, and get excited about learning new things with them. Surrounding children with peers who are also excited about learning helps a lot. So, if there are programs in which children can participate with others who also get excited about...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Academically Gifted, Personal Narratives, Parent Responsibility, Parent Role, Child...
This paper discusses the functionalist perspective of stratification and institutional processes of values inculcation in schools and organizations. It is assumed that students' school-to-work transition entail certain differences in life and work expectations as the education system forms the basis of cultural reproduction and values formation. A quantitative study was conducted to investigate the variations in value priorities between managers, professionals and executives in a MNC in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Socialization, Values, Questionnaires, Surveys, Global Approach,...
Research indicates that affective attitudes such as liking of a subject and confidence in one's ability within a subject predict academic performance. Generally, immigrant minority students have positive attitudes and often have low academic performance. This study examines the self-efficacy and liking of subjects of New Zealand students and analyses the relationship of those attitudes towards academic performance in mathematics, writing, and reading by self-reported ethnicity. Data were...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Student Attitudes, Minority Groups, Self Efficacy, Academic...
This study investigated whether providing students with the choice of chat versus threaded discussion boards for online discourse is an effective instructional strategy in terms of student learning and satisfaction. The sample was teacher education students enrolled in face-to-face (FTF) and online sections of one undergraduate foundations course. Both sections required participation in online text-based discussion. Comparison groups included course format (FTF vs. online), discussion format...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Strategies, Computer Mediated Communication, Student Attitudes, Academic...
This paper reports on a pilot study that examined the use of a science and technology curriculum based on robotics to increase the achievement scores of youth ages 9-11 in an after school program. The study examined and compared the pretest and posttest scores of youth in the robotics intervention with youth in a control group. The results revealed that youth in the robotics intervention had a significant increase in mean scores on the posttest and that the control group had no significant...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Pretests Posttests, School Activities, Intervention, Scores, Robotics, Informal...
This study investigated differential effects of learning styles and learning orientation on sense of community and cognitive achievement in Web-based and lab-based university course formats. Students in the Web-based sections achieved higher scores at the "remember" and "understand" levels, but not at the "apply" or "analyze" levels. In terms of learning style, extrovert students outperformed introvert students in the lab-based sections, whereas...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Student Characteristics, Cognitive Style, Academic Achievement, Web Based...
A subcategory of computer-assisted instruction (CAI), games have additional attributes such as motivation, reward, interactivity, score, and challenge. This study used a quasi-experimental design to determine if previous findings generalize to non simulation-based game designs. Researchers observed significant improvement in the overall population for math skills in the non-game CAI control condition, but not in the game-based experimental condition. The study found no meaningful, significant...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teaching Methods, Mathematics Skills, Computer Simulation, Quasiexperimental Design,...
This review provides a comprehensive examination of the literature surrounding the current state of K-12 distance education. The growth in K-12 distance education follows in the footsteps of expanded learning opportunities at all levels of public education and training in corporate environments. Implementation has been accomplished with a limited research base, often drawing from studies in adult distance education and policies adapted from traditional learning environments. This review of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Elementary Secondary Education, Public Education, Distance Education, Literature...
Case study learning was integrated into a course designed to improve students' potential for academic success and increase student retention. Case studies related to self-regulation of behavior, motivation, and cognition for academic tasks were used to prompt students' critical thinking and facilitate deep learning of self-regulation topics, linking course theory with practice. This article explores the effectiveness of asynchronous computer-mediated collaborative case study learning as...
Topics: ERIC Archive, School Holding Power, Undergraduate Students, Case Studies, Thinking Skills, Critical...
The purpose of this study was to examine whether constructs drawn from invitational theory serve as additional sources of self-efficacy beliefs of students in Grade 6 (N = 468). The hypothesized sources and the invitational constructs each correlated with academic self-efficacy. Invitations, mastery experience, and physiological state predicted the self-efficacy beliefs of boys and of girls. Social persuasions also predicted girls' self-efficacy. Invitations, mastery experience, and social...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Grade 6, Epistemology, White Students, African American Students, Self Efficacy, Self...
For over 20 years, educators and administrators across North America have heatedly debated the value of large-scale student assessment. Throughout the history of schooling in British Columbia, large-scale student assessment outcomes have traditionally served to inform broader societal goals. Realistically, "assessment of" group learning (as opposed to classroom-based "assessment for" individual learning) will continue as the government's key focus. We also raise several...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Student Evaluation, Measurement, Academic Achievement, Testing,...
This study uses Partial Credit Rasch analysis to study a complex data set of student responses to survey items relating to chance and data. The items were administered in the classroom and collected from 1993 to 2003 in the Australian state of Tasmania. Data were collected from a total of 5514 individual students across Grades 3 to 11 over the decade and of these students 896 provided at least one repeated measure. As students completed a core of common items, Rasch analysis could be performed...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Elementary Secondary Education, Foreign Countries, Longitudinal Studies, Mathematics...
Meeting the requirement for highly qualified teachers as outlined in the No Child Left Behind Act has left school districts in a quandary, especially those that serve a population of students deemed "at-risk" and where attracting and retaining highly qualified teachers is difficult. One professional development program based on recognized strategies for exemplary teaching--the National Board for Professional Teaching Standard's five core propositions--is being tested in one school...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Federal Legislation, National Standards, Program Effectiveness, School Districts,...
State and national accountability initiatives are forcing educational administrators to seek curricular interventions that will yield the greatest improvement in students' academic performance in the least amount of time. Though volumes of documentation regarding the value of the arts in education line the shelves of professional libraries and support for the arts as part of a comprehensive educational program is the subject of articles, speeches, and symposia, when push comes to shove, when...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Role of Education, Academic Achievement, Intelligence, Music Education, Dance...
Multiple measures administered in repeated waves within a nonequivalent dependent variables quasi-experimental design were used to test the effects of a reform-oriented instructional method called Enhanced Anchored Instruction (EAI) on the math achievement of 128 middle school students, including students with learning disabilities (LD). EAI problems are presented in multimedia and hands-on formats, a potential benefit for students with low skills in both reading and math. Overall, students of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teaching Methods, Quasiexperimental Design, Effect Size, Ability, Learning...
Teaching multicultural education has been a consistent theme in teacher education programs across the United States (Miller, Strosnider, & Dooley, 2000), yet most institutions of higher education have struggled to incorporate standards for implementing this coursework into their certification and/or endorsement programs. Evans, Torrey, and Newton (1997) found that 82% of states require some level of multicultural or diversity training for teacher preparation programs. However, only 37% of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Preservice Teacher Education, Educational Change, Teacher Education Programs, Teacher...
Effective exploration of spatially referenced educational achievement data can help educational researchers and policy analysts accelerate interpretation of datasets to gain valuable insights. This paper illustrates the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to analyze educational achievement gaps in Arkansas. It introduces the Geographic Academic Policy Series (GAPS) and presents one example of GAPS as a case study using GIS in the education policy analysis. The Geographic Academic Policy...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Program Effectiveness, Maps, Policy Analysis, Information Systems, Academic...
Education accompanied by social mobility is the cornerstone of the American dream. Yet, each year scores of children, especially those from the underprivileged class, fail to meet even the most modest academic expectations and subsequently never reach their academic potential. This research rejects earlier explanations of academic failure and suggests that Modality theory, the idea that students differ in their ability to learn new and difficult material depending on the manner in which it is...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Grade 6, Teaching Methods, Academic Failure, Social Mobility, Academic Achievement,...
The "achievement gap" is a well-documented problem in schools. Evidence of an academic performance problem requires that educators respond quickly and differently to signs of academic failure. As the lessons of the achievement gap suggest that historical decisions about when to intervene with performance support are flawed, performance support interventions must be provided much sooner than they have been considered in the past. Recent educational innovations, such as differentiated...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Academic Failure, Academic Achievement, Educational Innovation, Appropriate...
Today, school administrators face many challenges. These include pressures to increase all students' achievement in core content areas and to prepare students to be technology literate. In addition to these academic needs, principals are concerned for the security and safety of their students and ultimately seek to provide a positive school climate conducive to learning. Administrators in Michigan have pulled together in a statewide effort to meet these challenges with the help of technology....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Academic Achievement, Leadership, Accountability, Educational Improvement,...
Teachers all over the world are aware that students struggle with fractional concepts and with elementary algebra. Support for this assertion can be found in a variety of research reports. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a United States report, indicates that students have recurrently demonstrated a lack of proficiency in these areas over the past twenty years (NCES, 2000). An analysis of the 1990 NAEP in mathematics achievement found that only 46 percent of all high...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mathematics Achievement, Academic Achievement, Error Patterns, National Competency...
Many students of Mexican descent must learn how to be successful students. This study describes 5 students of Mexican descent from situationally marginalized lives who were a part of a support and retention scholarship program (College Assistance Migrant Program--CAMP). These case studies document how they perceived their learning and how they changed as students after their first college experience and involvement in CAMP. Through her involvement in CAMP, Laura, a high school dropout without a...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mexican American Education, Mexican Americans, Dropouts, Success, Academic...
Self-regulated learners engage in self-generated thoughts, actions, and feelings while pursuing academic goals. The most successful learners use appropriate learning strategies and maintain high levels of motivation. Few studies on the self-regulation of learning have examined individual differences such as gender and ethnicity among college students. The study examined gender and ethnic differences in the relationships between academic performance, self-regulation, motivation, and delay of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, College Students, Delay of Gratification, Self Efficacy, Academic Achievement,...
This study examined the trend of identification and achievement patterns of performance task-identified students over a span of 6 years (2000-2005), in comparison to profiles of students who were identified exclusively through traditional ability and achievement tests. The study findings suggested that the performance-based protocols were consistent across time in locating a higher percentage of low-income and minority students, as well as female students for gifted programs; a higher...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Gifted, Academic Achievement, Identification, Achievement Tests, Program...
The topic of perfectionism is bound to surface when discussing the social and emotional development of gifted children and adolescents. The author has observed gifted and talented fourth graders who have exhibited perfectionism in a myriad of unhealthy ways. She was able to document and categorize the manifestations of perfectionism. In this article, she presents case studies that represent the different types of unhealthy manifestations of perfectionism in these children. The case studies are...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Academically Gifted, Grade 4, Case Studies, Emotional Development, Psychological...
Many school leaders today, not to mention many teachers, view "accountability" as a loathsome political monster. Looming over educators, insensitive to the many problems they face, it wields the carrot of rewards in one hand and the club of sanctions in the other. Some educators even blame accountability for perverting their noble purposes, twisting their sensibilities, and corrupting their integrity. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) accountability system seeks to improve all...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Instructional Leadership, Accountability, Federal Legislation, Educational...
In this essay, the authors discuss what it might take to develop knowledge that can help education policymakers and schools attain their goals. In reading both the research and the current policy environment, the authors identify several fundamental reasons why it is so difficult to develop the knowledge needed to inform policies that might enable standards-based reform to succeed. First is an inadequate conception of the goal of the system and how proficiency should be measured. Second,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Policy, Educational Research, Academic Standards, Educational Objectives,...
It is generally observed in the literature of school effectiveness research that there are two broadly categorized factors influencing pupil achievement. However, the results of the studies based on empirically collected data vary from country to country and from time to time. Premised on this inconsistency of results and gaps in knowledge of this field in Cambodian education, this study was conducted in order to examine the effect of pupil factor on their mathematics achievement. The data were...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Mathematics Tests, Student Interests, Mathematics Achievement,...
This study introduces three growth modeling techniques: latent growth modeling (LGM), hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), and longitudinal profile analysis via multidimensional scaling (LPAMS). It compares the multilevel growth parameter estimates and potential predictor effects obtained using LGM, HLM, and LPAMS. The purpose of this multilevel growth analysis is to alert applied researchers to selected analytical issues that are required for consideration in decisions to apply one of these...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Multidimensional Scaling, Academic Achievement, Structural Equation Models, Causal...
When a teacher plans instruction, he has in mind some prototypical students or group: someone like himself or some group similar to his in ability. With this conception of the prototypical students or group, he teaches only one-third of students to reach a level of achievement. At the end of semester, most teachers give their grades, generally reflecting students' IQ scores, according to a normal distribution curve. There are good learners and poor learners, faster learners and slow learners in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teaching Methods, Outcomes of Education, Educational Change, Educational Objectives,...
Researchers have suggested that transformational leadership is an important aspect of effective schools; however, whether the effects vary across related studies and the robustness of the overall effect size remain unclear. A meta-analysis technique was used to synthesize the results of 28 independent studies and to investigate the overall relationship between transformational school leadership and three measures of school outcomes. The study found that, in terms of the mean effect sizes,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Instructional Leadership, School Effectiveness, Job Satisfaction,...
The middle years are a crucial stage of schooling where the range in student achievement widens and progress for some students slows significantly (Cairney, Buchanan, Sproats & Lowe 1998, Hill & Russell 1999). Despite moves towards middle school reform and improved literacy standards, there remains a gap in literacy provision for young adolescent learners, particularly those defined as "educationally disadvantaged" or "at risk" (DEETYA 1998, Masters & Forster...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Intervention, School Restructuring, Disadvantaged, Literacy,...
This study investigated the relationship between professionally and personally inviting behaviors of high school principals in the state of Mississippi and: (a) Teacher Job Satisfaction, (b) Principal Effectiveness, (c) Principal as an Agent of School Improvement, and (d) Principal's Invitational Quotient, and (e) The Computed Accreditation Performance Index of their respective school district. The foundation for this study evolved as an extension of earlier research (Asbill, 1994) that...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Change, Job Satisfaction, Principals, Administrator Effectiveness, School...
Critics of Invitational Education and other self-concept approaches to learning have long argued that there is a lack of empirical data to support the claims that approaches to student instruction based on self-concept theory are central to effective learning. Ellis (2001) examines a number of these analyses where self-concept, self-esteem, and self-efficacy are derided as antecedents to successful learning. However, by examining the empirical research on classroom management, all of the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Self Efficacy, Teacher Student Relationship, Classroom Techniques, Educational...
Math anxiety can begin as early as the fourth grade and peaks in middle school and high school. It can be caused by past classroom experiences, parental influences, and remembering poor past math performance. Math anxiety can cause students to avoid challenging math courses and may limit their career choices. It is important for teachers, parents and students to be aware of the effects of math anxiety so that if a student is affected, the student can receive the support necessary to lessen or...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Grade 4, Mathematics Anxiety, Mathematics Instruction, High School Students, Career...
In this paper, the author explores her experiences growing up of being defined as "different" due to her class background. The author uses the term "difference" to mean how the concept of the "other" is defined and understood in this society. The "other" in this instance are individuals or groups who have existed on the margins of the society; those whose concerns and perspectives have been shrouded in "silence," left out of the discourse of the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Family Life, Discourse Analysis, Early Childhood Education, Living Standards, Early...
Social mobility carries with it a sense of loss. To be socially mobile is to move from one place, economically, culturally, personally, to another. One consequence of that loss, sometimes, is immobility--a paralysis brought on by the violent, forceful, uncertain rush of social mobility itself. The immobility of fear, the feeling stuck, the not being sure what educational successes have been hard-won and what scholarly failures should have been easy to swallow: these have been an integral part...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Social Mobility, Working Class, Social Class, Personal Narratives, College Faculty,...
This article presents an excerpt of a declaration from the United States Department of Education's "Strategic Plan: 2002-2007." The declaration signifies in no uncertain terms that the battle waged by critics of alternative research methods continues, and is likely to intensify. The denigration of research methods which decline to adhere to the trappings of logical positivism may have begun with Rene Descartes, but the origins of the dispute between positivists and post-positivists...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Strategic Planning, Rhetorical Criticism, Public Education, Educational Research,...
This review of literature on progress monitoring was designed to examine the full array of curriculum-based measures (CBMs) in mathematics for students from preschool to secondary schools. We organized the article around two primary concerns: the approach used to develop the measures (curriculum sampling or robust indicators) and the type of research necessary to establish the viability of the tasks. Our review addressed the technical adequacy of the measures as indicators of performance and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teaching Methods, Predictive Validity, Curriculum Based Assessment, Academic...
This study examined the effects of a professional development program for teachers of social sciences for English learners. Results from pre- and post-measures of social sciences content indicated greater improvement in student achievement in these areas when scores from students from teachers who had gone through the training were compared with those that did not. There was also a correlation found between the level of use among the teachers with training and the level of achievement of their...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Limited English Speaking, Social Sciences, Faculty Development, English (Second...
This study investigates a basic writing course within a freshman learning Community at Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW). Multiple layers of data, both qualitative and quantitative, provide a thick description of what occurred overall in that classroom over the course of one semester. My findings suggest that basic writing classes are more successful within a learning community in terms of student pass rates and increased engagement. Thus, further study of basic writing...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Basic Writing, College Freshmen, Developmental Studies Programs, School Holding...
This article describes the efforts of a combinatorial approach of Schools Around the World (SAW) and Understanding by Design (UbD) to create a foundation for lesson study efforts based on the Japanese model. UbD provides a framework for study units rich in essential content, assessment practices and well-crafted activities. SAW and lesson study provide strategy to determine if both student work and teacher assignment meet intended goals and standards. The author discusses staff selection and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Change, Science Process Skills, Lesson Plans, Science Education, Models,...
Issues facing schools abound from No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation. In science and mathematics teacher pre-service and in-service preparation, these issues are paramount for institutions of higher education, especially in terms of the definition of a "highly qualified" teacher. Within this paper, the authors discuss the science and mathematics issues facing the nation. Specifically, they examine the literature supporting the major/minor teaching certification (with a major...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mathematics Teachers, Secondary School Science, Science Teachers, Teacher...
Over the years, teachers and school leaders have engaged in some form of training beyond their formal preservice, university preparation programs. Whether referred to as in-service training, professional day, or staff or professional development, this activity normally had one purpose: to improve participant's knowledge or skills. With limited teacher time to attend in-service training and limited financial resources to pay for this training, districts are searching for training that provides...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Faculty Development, Student Improvement, School Effectiveness, Outcomes of...
The author explores current efforts by educators and policy makers to harness the power of educational technology for both assessment "of learning" and assessment "for learning" in K-12 classrooms. (Contains 1 figure.)
Topics: ERIC Archive, Elementary Secondary Education, Educational Technology, Academic Achievement,...
Diminishing "standards" and "alignment" to overused buzzwords or superficial checklists masks the dire need for truly systematic and operational standards-based alignment in science education. In this article, the authors report the findings of an ongoing collaborative effort between cognitive researchers and urban science teachers to align everyday teaching with standards, tests, and research-based pedagogy. They begin with an analysis of how the width vs. depth dilemma in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Science Instruction, Curriculum Development, Science Teachers, Science Achievement,...
Tiered instruction is grouping students for instruction based on their prior background knowledge in a given subject area. In this study, students were either in a control secondary science classroom or a classroom in which instruction was tiered. The tiered instruction was designed to match high, middle, or low levels of background knowledge on astronomy and Newtonian physics. The seven control classrooms received middle-level nontiered instruction, whereas the seven treatment classrooms...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teaching Methods, Science Curriculum, Prior Learning, Curriculum Development,...
Given that student retention is now one of the leading challenges faced by colleges and universities, research seeking to understand students' reasons for attrition is of critical importance. Two factors influence students' underachievement and subsequent dropping-out of college: self-efficacy and goal orientation. Self-efficacy refers to peoples' judgments about their abilities to complete a task. Goal orientations refer to the motives that students have for completing tasks, which may include...
Topics: ERIC Archive, School Holding Power, Guidance, College Students, Self Efficacy, Grade Point Average,...
The teaching of statistics at the elementary and secondary level is a relatively new expansion of the curriculum. Considering the many challenges faced by teachers of statistics in higher education, there is a continuing need to evaluate and monitor teaching and learning at this level. The purpose of this study was to survey elementary and secondary teachers to determine their attitudes about statistics, their perceptions related to student attitudes and achievement, and their attitudes about...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Statistics, Teacher Attitudes, Elementary Secondary Education, Elementary School...
In this article, the author answers the question: "Why do Americans love to reform the public schools?" His answer has three parts. First, there is an old and persistent cultural strain in American history, derived from many sources, that seeks human perfection and sees education and schooling as essential to that perfectibility. That goal is high enough to guarantee that most people will not reach it. This means that numerous citizens at any point bemoan the quality of the public...
Topics: ERIC Archive, United States History, Standardized Tests, Academic Achievement, Educational Change,...