As classrooms become more diverse, not only in North America, but in most Western Countries, calls for more culturally relevant pedagogies that centre the lived experiences of diverse students have taken on greater importance and significance. This is in response to the need for increased engagement and educational success for all learners. I…

The purpose of this study was to examine individual, family, peer, and community risk and protective factors associated with past-30-days alcohol and marijuana use among African-American adolescents living in rural and urban communities. This study used data collected from 907 tenth- and twelfth-grade African-American students who completed the…

The aim of this study is to investigate the strategies employed by advanced high school and university students working on six tasks concerning comparison and conservation of area. Special care has been taken in the test design so that the problems could be dealt with using a variety of solution methods. Written responses and in-depth interviews…

Contemporary instructional approaches expect students to be active producers of knowledge. This leads to the need for creation of instructional tools and tasks that can offer students opportunities for active learning. This study examines the effect of a computational experiment as an instructional tool-for Grade 12 students, using a computer…

The National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), working with several other groups, launched a project to develop a "common core" of standards that, if adopted by the states, would give a set of national standards in reading and mathematics with other subjects to come later. The author says…

There is increasing recognition of temperamental influences on risk for psychopathology. Whereas the link between the broad temperament construct of negative affectivity (NA) and problems associated with anxiety and depression is now well-established, the mechanisms through which this link operate are not well understood. One possibility involves…

In a developing nation like Turkey, the English language plays a significant role in educational and socioeconomic mobility. English is acquired and taught as a foreign language (EFL) primarily in the classrooms. However, the ways in which English language is represented in classroom instruction have been hardly examined and understood. With that,…

In recent years, as schools have shifted more attention to English language arts and mathematics, several groups have made a plea for renewed attention to civic education for all students. One such group is the Spencer Foundation, which promotes research to improve students' civics knowledge and skills and their dispositions for responsible…

There are several factors that have prompted the call for reform in mathematics education (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics [NCTM], 2007). National and international assessments have produced evidence that, on average, students in the United States lack mathematical knowledge and skills (U.S. Department of Education, 2008, n.d.). In…

The rise of state-mandated standards in public education have allowed legislators to answer the question of what constitutes a proper civic education, a debate that has existed in the United States since the turn of the twentieth century. Through the content they employ in their standards, states may indirectly influence the type of citizenship…

This paper outlines the analysis of subject English in a report written for the Commonwealth government entitled "Year 12 Curriculum Content and Achievement Standards" (CCAS). This report could not find "a core of common content (either topics or skills) in senior English (including Literature)". In the light of the diversity…

A common line of past learning environment research has involved associations between the learning environment and student outcomes (i.e. the effects of learning environment). It is one thing to advocate that teachers establish outcomes-focused learning environments, but it is important to know whether the creation of such learning environments…

Differentiated instruction, standards-based curriculum, and end of course assessments (ECAs) are not mandated in most high schools across the United States. As such, classroom grades do not accurately reflect district report cards. In particular, grades at the study site, a suburban high school, do not show the specific standards and benchmarks…

The 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) U.S. history assessment measures how well fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-graders are learning American history, and whether they can evaluate historical evidence and understand change and continuity over time. Comparing the results from the 2010 assessment to results from previous years…

Thirteen percent of the 2008-2009 senior class in one southeastern state did not pass the science portion of the state's high school graduation test. Another 5% failed to pass the math portion of the graduation test, leaving these students unable to obtain a high school diploma. The purpose of this nonexperimental quantitative research study was…