This research study presents the PGBE model for teaching and learning percentages with students of Grade 7 when their cognitive development enables the conceptual understanding of percentages as proportional statements, and offers the possibility for more effective matching of them with fractions and decimal numbers. The abbreviation PGBE presents…

Visual representations are a familiar element of daily life and particularly beneficial as illustrations in science textbooks. In this case, learners draw on human dimensions such as cognitive style (CS) and prior knowledge (PK) when engaging in visual thinking. This study aimed to compare and explore the relationships among the format aspect…

Standardized testing and accountability are currently unavoidable components of Texas Public Education. Through years of push-back, parents and educators have demanded that Texas consider alternative testing options that would reduce the high-stakes testing burden on students and schools. In 2015, the State of Texas passed legislation requiring…

Background: Density is difficult to learn and teach in middle schools. This study, hypothesizing that the density concept develops as part of a conceptual system, used a conceptual change approach to teaching density. The approach emphasized the use of multiple strategies to teach the density concept and the associated concepts in the conceptual…

Previous research has identified various factors that contribute to readers' comprehension of expository texts, including strategy expertise, language proficiency, prior knowledge, and more recently, readers' beliefs about knowledge. This study addresses the need to understand the relative contributions of these predictors to readers'…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how literature discussion affects middle school struggling readers. The focus was on 16 middle school struggling readers in a rural Title I school in the southeastern United States. Findings indicated that (a) literature discussion increased student enjoyment of reading, and (b) students…

This study investigated the extent to which new reading comprehension proficiencies may be required when adolescents read for information on the Internet. Seventh graders (N = 109) selected from a stratified random sample of diverse middle school students completed a survey of topic-specific prior knowledge and parallel scenario-based measures of…

The researchers wanted to continue in their university's previous study of nature awareness and science achievement, specifically examining the effects of nature in the achievement of seventh-grade students. This further study offered valuable insight to the inconclusive findings of previous researchers of nature awareness and science achievement.…