This textbook for the sixth grade seeks to help pupils take an interest in the quality of their English and speak more correctly, more effectively and more agreeably, and to write with due regard for the essentials of good form. Until the language lesson is understood to be distinctively a lesson in craftsmanship, it will contribute little or…

Science literacy leading to fuller and informed participation in the public debate about science, technology, society, and environmental (STSE) issues that produce justified decisions and sustainable actions is the shared and central goal of the Pacific CRYSTAL Project. There is broad agreement by science education researchers that learners need…

This study analyzed the processes used by students when engaged in modeling activities and examined how students' abilities to solve modeling problems changed over time. Two student populations, one experimental and one control group, participated in the study. To examine students' modeling processes, the experimental group participated in an…

Students with emotional and/or behavioral disorders (EBD) present considerable academic challenges along with emotional and/or behavioral problems. In terms of reading, these students typically perform one-to-two years below grade level (Kauffman, 2001). Given the strong correlation between reading failure and school failure and overall success…

Background: To date, few studies have been conducted to investigate the preparedness of health educators in Canadian school systems. Purpose: This study assessed practicing and pre-service teachers' self-perceptions of preparedness to teach health education in British Columbia K-12 classrooms. It also investigated factors related to their…

This case study measured the effectiveness of a writing strategy designed to enhance the organization and cohesion of paragraphs written by four students with writing difficulties who are currently enrolled in a resource program. The strategy steps were taught through a mnemonic in which steps beginning with each letter of UNITE provided an…

Traditional measures of teachers' competency have been widely criticized for their lack of authenticity and predictive validity. There is little evidence regarding the technical soundness of traditional teacher licensure tests and little research documenting the validity of such tests for identifying competent teachers or effective teaching.…

When the award-winning journalist Eric Schlosser's groundbreaking book "Fast Food Nation" was published for adults, many called for his insights and research to be shared with young readers. And, when "Fast Food Nation" gained popularity as a fictional, yet factual motion picture, the buzz continued. Children, after all, are the fast-food…

Motivation effort is one of the critical components that enable students to engage in the process of ill-structured problem solving. This article chronicles the development and evaluation of a motivation-supported problem-solving environment promoting learning goals. The environment was created by developing learning-goal oriented contexts that…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of teachers regarding the effects of a character education program on student behavior at a New Jersey public middle school for sixth graders. Specifically, the studied examined student behaviors in the areas of self-awareness, self-management, relationship management and social…

This report describes the findings of an analysis of a series of action research projects conducted by Goshen Community Schools at the middle school level. During the 2008-2009 school year, six teachers at Goshen Middle School participated in independent action research studies regarding the extent to which a six step approach to direct vocabulary…

This paper reports on Year 1 of a two-year study of implementing new literacies strategies into social studies and English/language arts content areas in two low-performing middle schools (grades 6-8). Situated within a New Literacies Studies framework, the study addressed three overarching questions: (1) What are teachers' and students'…

"Relentless" is the word that staff members at Stelle Claughton Middle School in Houston, Texas use to describe how they operate: "We don't give up on our students, their families, or our own commitment. We recognize that our own attitudes, choices, and behaviors toward our students and about their learning have the greatest impact…

This study focused on differences between teacher-centred and learner-centred experiments in soil ecology. After a pilot study, we selected three experiments simple enough to be carried out by pupils even with little experience in self-determined learning and hands-on practice. The sample comprised 123 fifth and sixth graders from a middle school…

This paper addresses the controversial issues of improving the reading skills of young learners through technology-assisted reading programmes. On reporting the results of primary school learners from grade 2 to grade 7 who participated in a computer-based reading programme for seven months, we try to answer the critical questions of whether…