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This article explores how preservice teachers can develop mentoring capacities (i.e., perspective taking, connection with students, and self-reflective opportunities on their roles as teachers) by participating in a historically-based online simulation game with middle school students. The arena for this exploration, the Jewish Court of All Time (JCAT), is a web-mediated learning platform that utilizes character play to enhance historical and cultural understanding. Through the description of three preservice teachers/mentors in JCAT, we illustrate how the preservice teachers/mentors work to support the learning of the middle school students while developing their teaching skill set. Our research explores the ways in which participation in the dual roles of character and mentor shapes the university students' development as preservice teachers. Findings revealed two major tensions in the mentor experiences: tensions related to preservice teachers/mentors' desire to stay in character while supporting middle school students' learning and tensions related to preservice teachers/mentors' focus on attending to the learning of middle school students while also attending to themselves as learners. Through this complex process of shifting perspective taking, preservice teachers/mentors had to strike a balance between these roles in order to be active members of an ever-changing community. Their energetic membership, in turn, supported the action of the simulation and the development of the middle school students. As such, this study offers teacher education programs a new model for helping preservice teachers learn the essential capacity of understanding multiple perspectives. Keywords: mentoring, teaching, technology, historical simulations, role, As mentoring has become an increasingly popular method for developing preservice teachers' skills, we must strengthen the ways in which preservice teachers bridge the gap between theory learned in university [...]

In 2010, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg (North Carolina) school district shuttered four of its eight middle schools, opting to serve students in elementary schools spanning kindergarten through grade 8. In so doing, [...]

A critical area for the application of computer technologies and instructional design strategies is mathematics teaching and learning. Several computer activities and classroom teaching methods have been used to improve student outcomes in mathematics. Results from cross-cultural assessments have indicated that students in Japan scored above international averages on mathematics achievement and a number of studies have been conducted to identify instructional practices that contribute to the achievement of Japanese students. The purpose of this study was to investigate relationships between mathematics lesson activities, beliefs about mathematics and computer activities, and algebra achievement of eighth-Erade students in the United States and Japan. Students included in these analyses were from the TIMSS 2007 Population 2 (eighth-grade) samples from the United States and Japan. Because of the complex sampling design of the TIMSS 2007 assessment, jackknife variance estimation procedures using replicate weights were employed for this study. Multiple regression procedures were used to examine the contributions of each variable toward the explanation of algebra test scores. There were several significant findings from this study. Students in both the United States and Japan who used computers at home and at school also showed high levels of algebra achievement. Students from both countries who reported positive appraisals of their mathematics abilities also earned high algebra test scores. Conversely, students who expressed negative comparisons of themselves to their classmates tended to show low levels of algebra achievement. Considering classroom lesson activities, students from the United States and Japan who reported that they frequently worked problems on their own and reviewed their homework during mathematics lessons also tended to earn high algebra test scores. These results emphasize the importance of considering student characteristics and instructional activities when examining factors associated with mathematics achievement outcomes., A critical area for the application of computer technologies and instructional design strategies is mathematics teaching and learning. Several computer activities and classroom teaching methods have been used to improve [...]

Research shows that students face challenges as they learn about genetic inheritance. The challenges could emanate from the fact that genetic inheritance involves unseen processes at different organizational levels. We explored students' understanding of heredity and related concepts such as cells and reproduction using a Web-based Science Inquiry Environment (WISE) curriculum unit that was developed to help middle school students learn about genetic inheritance. Our findings suggest that students made significant gains from pretest to posttest. However, despite overall gains, some students struggled to explain the importance of mitotic and meiotic divisions in transferring genetic information. Key Words: Genetics; biological inheritance; student learning; middle school science; technology education., Scientists and science education researchers agree that genetics is an extremely important topic in today's society, especially for understanding issues such as genomics and genetic modification (Lewis & Wood-Robinson, 2000; [...]

This article features Grade 7 students' oral and written responses to The Red Tree (Tan, 2001), one of the picturebooks used during two multifaceted, classroom-based research projects. As well as examining how the students responded to and interpreted texts with metafictive devices, the research explored how students transferred their knowledge and understanding of various literary and art elements in picturebooks and graphic novels when creating their own multimodal print texts. The discussion of one small group's transcript excerpts and written responses reveals how the students engaged in collaborative talk as they worked to interpret the artwork and text in Tan's picturebook, and how their exploratory talk affected their written work. The article concludes by exploring several factors that need to be considered when developing effective pedagogy for classroom talk., In a written response to Shaun Tan's (2001) The Red Tree, one of the Grade 7 students remarked that the picturebook 'really works your mind'. The Red Tree was one [...]

'Hey, Dr. Dennis, you know what I think? Just because I don't always understand what I read doesn't mean I'm stupid.'--Javaar, sixth-grade student Javaar (all student names are pseudonyms) made [...]

It is difficult to deny that many U.S. middle and high school students are in need of special literacy supports. * Approximately two thirds of 8th- and 12th-grade students read [...]

Microscopy Camp program is designed to introduce acceptable representations of crystalline particles and their atomic structure to twelve-year-old middle school students at a developmental and educational stage.

A qualitative study is conduction to explore the nature of reading comprehension processes while reading on the Internet. Results suggest that successful Internet reading experiences appeared to simultaneously require both similar and more complex applications of prior knowledge sources, inferential reasoning strategies, and self-regulated reading processes.

The National Science Foundation has begun funding K-12 mathematics curricular projects to design a college-level mathematics course that reflects ideas espoused by the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. An attempt is made to discuss the reason for using middle school mathematics curricular materials as the primary textbooks.

Abstract The present study linked family help and time spent on homework to homework attitudes and homework management strategies reported by 238 students in grades 7-8. Students who received family [...]

Abstract This study expands previous research on whether college students' examination scores are influenced by their use of self-regulatory strategies during test preparation and performance. Sixty-one high school chemistry students [...]

Students need to read more science texts and develop strategies for learning from these texts in order to become scientifically literate, but content-area teachers tend to focus more on covering content than on teaching students how to learn from texts. An account of how professors and doctoral students in the College of Education at the University of Florida in Gainesville initiated a research project aimed at helping science teachers infuse reading comprehension strategy instruction into the classroom, is presented.

The term 'multiple literacies', which refers to multiple ways to look at the world, impact how students make connections to and understand their world. Middle school students need to know that they have valuable and unique ways to understand academic and nonacademic text. Through the use of hidden literacies, educators can build students' authentic academic literacies and change the knowledge to transformative literacies to make a difference in their lives and the lives of others.

A study examining theoretical and methodological characteristics of effective school-based over-weight interventions, is presented. These interventions included healthy lifestyle education, dietary habits and physical activity amongst children aged four through fourteen.

An investigation was conducted to assess the effectiveness of a series of kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12) educational outreach activities related to civil engineering. In particular, a program called Soils Magic that contains a series of simple geotechnical engineering experiments was delivered in various formats to K-12 students. This paper provides an overview of the Soils Magic program and provides further details of selected experiments from the program. This paper highlights the experiences of various civil engineering professors bringing the program to school children to promote the excitement and accessibility of the engineering profession. Suggestions are provided for conducting successful educational outreach programs. The effectiveness of the program was evaluated using survey responses of the program participants. The need for outreach activities that promote science and engineering in an entertaining manner was established using survey responses of K-12 students. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE) 1052-3928(2006) 132:2(125) CE Database subject headings: Geotechnical engineering; Teaching methods; Engineering education; Schools.