Time is an important but complex area of learning for students in the primary years. This study sought to develop a tool which would provide a clear picture of students' understanding of what constitutes time and how time is related to clock and calendar use. Four major components of time, Awareness of time, Succession, Duration, and Measurement…

This study examines how third-graders' conceptions about the origin of species are affected by formal instruction and whether children can learn not only about evolution but also about natural selection. We interviewed the same group of third-grade children (8-9 years old) twice, before and after following a curriculum about these topics.…

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships among students' conceptions of knowledge building, approaches to knowledge building, knowledge-building behaviors and learning outcomes. A total of 48 primary school students (from grades 3 and 4) who had experienced knowledge-building activities participated in the present study. After…

The article presents the results of experimental work aimed at studying personal and social adjustment of a child with disabilities. Analysis of domestic and foreign psychological and educational literature allowed us to determine the key concept of the study, namely "social and personal orientation", as a trait of a human's personality,…

Engineering, when integrated into K-12 education, may offer a number of potential student learning and future success benefits. In a 5-year study, four cohorts of elementary teachers of grades 2 to 4 in a single US school district were provided with teacher professional development with engineering education. Teachers were prepared to teach…

The aim of the present study is to examine the morphological knowledge of readers with developmental dyslexia compared to chronological age and reading-level matched controls. The study also analyzes the errors dyslexics make and their metamorphological awareness compared to controls. Participants included 31 seventh-grade dyslexic children and…

Teaching argumentation with appropriate activities and strategies would support a wide range of goals in science education. Though science labs have been suggested and employed for argumentation activities, such educational expenditures are likely to be beyond the means of most schools in under-resourced areas. Due to the lack of appropriate…

Executive function (EF) is becoming a more widely used term to explain student behaviors, yet research on EF in education is limited. This qualitative study addressed a gap in literature by examining teacher perceptions of students with EF deficits, as well as teacher preparedness and desire to learn more about EF. Perceptions of third grade,…

Experimentation skills are a central component of scientific thinking, and many studies have investigated whether and when primary-school children develop adequate experimentation strategies. However, the answers to these questions vary substantially depending on the type of task that is used: while discovery tasks, which require children to…

This study examines the effect varying models have on student understanding of fractions. The study addressed the question of what students know and understand about fractional concepts through the use of discrete and continuous models. A sample of 54 students in kindergarten and 3rd grade were given an interview pretest, participated in…

This study explored third-grade elementary students' conceptions of nature of science (NOS) over the course of an entire school year as they participated in explicit-reflective science instruction. The "Views of" NOS-D (VNOS-D) was administered pre instruction, during mid-school year, and at the end of the school year to track…

In this article, I present an initial analysis of an empirical study that was undertaken in an attempt to elicit what subject-matter knowledge, pedagogic content knowledge and curriculum knowledge teachers bring to bear on decisions for teaching. The analysis is based on interview data with 46 Grade 3 teachers, who were presented with two…

This paper explores how robotics can be used as a new educational tool in a Montessori early education classroom. It presents a case study of one early educator's experience of designing and implementing a robotics curriculum integrated with a social science unit in her mixed-age classroom. This teacher had no prior experience using robotics in…

As evidenced by the poor mathematics performance in American schools, specifically in the school district in the current study, providing identical educational opportunities for diverse students does not necessarily increase academic achievement for everyone. Differentiation is an instructional method that has been found to be successful in…

This study investigated elementary students' explanations for the daily patterns of apparent motion of the Sun, Moon, and stars. Third-grade students were chosen for this study because this age level is at the lower end of when many US standards documents suggest students should learn to use the Earth's rotation to explain daily celestial motion.…