Academic achievement matters to students' opportunities and well-being. Although previous research has shown the relation between achievement and student engagement, the role played by students' developmental needs demands further deepening. In this context, the aim of the present study is to analyse the mediating role of psychosocial development…

The purpose of this study is to develop understanding of the relation between instructional practices and students' reading amount. As part of a larger mixed-methods study of reading practices across the curriculum in Swedish compulsory school, a selection of 14 classes from Grades 6 and 9 were observed over a total of 59 lessons. The data…

Studies of both professional science practice and children's science learning show that care is not merely ancillary to disciplinary work but a core and generative constituent of science practice. In science education research, however, students' care is often overlooked. In this paper, we describe the expression of care across two STEM classrooms…

As students enter the middle grades, many lose academic momentum and thus reach ninth grade unprepared. This lack of preparedness snowballs: It leads students to disengage from their studies, causing them to miss opportunities to get back on track in high school and thrive in the years beyond. Sixth grade is a particularly critical juncture.…

Involvement in out-of-school activities, such as sports and clubs, is linked to greater intrinsic motivation and positive mood in children and adolescents, as well as opportunities for social skill development. However, the impact of out-of-school time (OST) activities varies with youths' perceptions of their quality, and few studies have examined…

STEM education has become an economic factor in the United States, developing countries and in other established economies such as Europe and Australia. There is, however, a lack of consensus on how STEM curricula are enacted across K-12 learning environments in general and with particular interest in the middle grades - the phase of schooling…

The search for alternative indicators of school quality has ignored a powerful data point that most schools already collect--a student's grade point average. Might it also be used to evaluate schools? To find out, we asked the University of Maryland's Jing Liu and co-authors Seth Gershenson (American University) and Max Anthenelli (UMD) to conduct…

The present study investigated child depression symptoms, social skills, and mother-child conflict from mid-childhood to mid-adolescence. Bidirectional effects involving all three constructs were anticipated, as were differential effects for child gender. Participants included 893 families from the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development…

Math problem solving frequently involves choices among alternative strategies. Strategy choices, and effects of problem features on strategy choices, both vary among individuals. We propose that individual differences in strategy choices can be well characterized in terms of parametric variation in three types of influence: global bias, relevant…

Non-cognitive factors, such as motivation, have shown to play a significant role in adolescences science learning. However, there is little longitudinal research investigating students' intrinsic motivation in science learning over school years. Based on self-determination theory, this study examines the change in, and associations between,…

This study examined how adolescents' emotions in mathematics develop over time. Growth curve modeling was applied to longitudinal data collected annually from 2002 to 2006 (Grades 5-9; N = 3425 German adolescents; M[subscript age] = 11.7, 15.6 years at the first and last waves, respectively; 50.0% female). Results indicated that enjoyment and…

School grades are among the most common measurements used to analyze equality of outcome in education. Large or increasing 'gaps' in school grades between boys and girls and between students with different migration background are considered strong indicators of inequality. Based on students' school grades, several studies have shown that equality…

"Assessing Students with Poetry Writing Across Content Areas" reimagines formative assessment by advocating for a dynamic, poetic approach that delves into students' meaning-making processes. It is a guide for teachers seeking innovative approaches to formative assessment, promoting a holistic, creative, reflective, and collaborative…

The psychological state of interest depends, among other factors, on the individual's prior interest as well as on the situationally perceived need satisfaction for relatedness, competence, and autonomy. Regarding out-of-school learning in biology education, the extent to which this is equally true remains unclear. Therefore, we aimed to…

To investigate students' interest in physics, this study explores the impact of a brief teaching intervention on the increase of interest. The intervention focused on modern physics, specifically exploring Einstein's theory of gravity and the dual nature of light. A total of 325 Greek students participated in the survey, comprising 83 students in…