Examined the relationships between individual psychological characteristic, social contextual levels of family and culture, and mathematics performance in young adolescents. Found that scholastic ability perception is associated with the mathematics performance of students and that, at different levels of the social context, young adolescents'…

Surveys of Access Course students and providers at British universities as well as those who inquired about them yielded 1,471 responses. Providers considered math an important qualification, but sizable numbers of students and inquirers saw math as a major barrier to their participation. (SK)

Presents anecdotal data from informal discussions with 12 secondary teachers about types of evidence of students' mathematics achievements that were used by the teachers. Discusses oral evidence, written work, observed actions, voluntary use of mathematics, knowledge of the child, teachers' views of mathematics, and behavior and body language.…

Describes a model of adaptable learning that takes into account the interaction between affective and cognitive variables in learning situations, introduces an instrument for measuring relevant aspects of this model, and presents initial results of the application of this instrument to (n=30) 6th-grade students. (53 references) (Author/MKR)

Presented is a parent's viewpoint that criticizes assessment methods that diminish appreciation for diverse ways of knowing, discourage discovery and project-based learning, diminish the natural problem-solving aspects of play, and perpetuate the single right answer form of assessment. Assessment that values the child, includes all interested…

Examines the consequences of assigning student grades using test-score averaging on course materials, tests, and learning. Proposes an alternative method of grading based on progressive improvement by the student that emphasizes the learning of concepts. (MDH)

The quite average performance of children in Canada and the United States on the International Assessment of Educational Progress is consistent with the foundations of school systems in both countries, which emphasize a sociocultural rather than academic purpose. Recent changes in Quebec stress education for academic reasons, with resulting…

Parents can help improve their children's math skills by being positive, playing games, avoiding stereotypes, choosing gifts that promote learning, providing information on career choices, reading books that use math, connecting math to the real world, encouraging problem solving, talking with teachers, and visiting museums, libraries, and other…

Presents an overview and discussion of some results of research on the use of graphing calculators organized into the following categories: (1) achievement studies, (2) conceptual understanding, (3) problem solving, (4) classroom dynamics, and (5) future research needed. (29 references) (MKR)

Forty-four male and 22 female students attending an early entrance to college program for talented students completed the Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale. Results indicate that these talented students are less mathematically anxious than typical college students. Females are more mathematically anxious than males, although the finding is not…

The Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement is a norm-referenced, individually administered measure of the school achievement of students in grades 1-12, focusing on the areas of reading decoding, reading comprehension, mathematics application, mathematics computation, and spelling. The test's administration, summation of data, standardization,…

The Multilevel Academic Survey Test is intended for students in grades 3-8 and older students who perform inadequately on K-8 reading and math content. It determines which students need special services and determines appropriate instruction according to specific curriculum objectives. This paper describes administration, data summation,…

A crossed random effects model is presented that applies to data with a nested structure to provide maximum likelihood estimates through the EM algorithm. The procedure is illustrated in studies of neighborhood and school effects on educational attainment in Scotland and classroom effects on mathematics learning in the United States. (SLD)

Develops a causal model that explains over 40% of the variance in matriculation mathematics achievement of mature internal and external students at the University of Papua New Guinea. Background variables seem more important in the learning of mathematics compared to mediating variables for external students than for internal students. (MDH)

This study assessed how specific cognitions and feelings, measured in actual learning, influence learning intention and achievement in mathematics for 80 male and 80 female Dutch eighth graders. Results support a hierarchical model of adaptable learning. Traitlike variables influence task appraisals, which determine willingness to invest effort…