Middle School Pupils Research Articles

Impact of different types of knowledge on two preservice teachers' ability to learn and deliver the Sport Education model

Background: Teachers' and pupils' responses to the Sport Education (SE) model have been very positive. Pupils clearly enjoy SE and the model created lasting changes in teachers' beliefs and perspectives on teaching. While much research has been done on the impact of SE on teachers and students, there has been relatively little research on how both inservice and preservice teachers (PTs) learn to use the model. Purpose: To discover the relative importance of different knowledge types in PTs' teaching of SE and the ways in which they acquired and developed this knowledge. Participants and setting: Participants were two PTs who each taught SE seasons to middle school pupils (grades six to eight) during their culminating student teaching internship. The SE seasons were ultimate Frisbee, tennis, flag football, and basketball. Research design: This is a qualitative study that uses Shulman's set of seven knowledge types as its theoretical framework. Data collection: During the seven-week internship, 14 non-participant observations were completed; each PT was videotaped twice; three formal, numerous informal, and two stimulated interviews were conducted with each PT; weekly significant incident and journal reports were submitted via email; and the teaching portfolio was reviewed. Data analysis: All data were entered into the computer program QSR. Data which indicated how PTs interpreted and delivered SE or were concerned with any type of teacher knowledge were identified. Knowledge data were then categorized by each of Shulman's knowledge types both within and across PTs. Finally, each category of knowledge was broken down into subcategories and themes by using the techniques of analytic induction and constant comparison. Findings: Both PTs implemented the full version of SE, interpreting the model in congruence with the spirit of its original authors and including all of its features. A hierarchy existed in terms of the importance and contribution of each of Shulman's knowledge types to the PTs' teaching of SE. Of prime importance was curricular knowledge. General pedagogical knowledge, content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and knowledge of learners also made a significant contribution to the PTs' success. Knowledge of educational contexts and knowledge of educational ends, purposes, and values appeared to have a lesser impact on the PTs' teaching. Moreover, the study indicated that physical education teacher education (PETE) was the major medium through which PTs acquired and developed their knowledge. Conclusions: The study suggested that it was not necessary for PTs to have high levels of content and pedagogical content knowledge in order to use SE effectively, providing they had a good understanding of the model, general pedagogical knowledge, and their pupils. The study also reveals that giving PTs early exposure to SE and having them teach within the model often during a series of early field experiences enables them to gain a solid understanding of its workings.

The thin border between light and shadow

We propose a simple, direct estimate of the Sun’s diameter based on penumbra observationand measurement in a two-level approach, the first for middle-school pupils and making useof simple geometrical arguments, the second more appropriate to high-school students andbased on a slightly more sophisticated approach.

Influence of a physical education teacher’s disability on middle school pupils’ learning and perceptions of teacher competence

Limited research has investigated the problems encountered by physical education teachers who have disabilities and instruct able-bodied pupils. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of a physical education teacher’s disability on middle school pupils’ perceptions of the teacher’s competence and their learning. Participants were 201 7th and 8th grade pupils (age range 12 to 16 years). They were randomly assigned to watch one of two videotaped swimming lessons. These lessons were identical except that in the first lesson the teacher taught from a wheelchair (WCL) while in the second she was able-bodied (ABL). Immediately following the watching of their assigned lesson, pupils completed a questionnaire asking them about their perceptions of the teacher’s competence and an examination over lesson content. Inferential statistical tests revealed that there were no significant differences in the perception and examination scores of those pupils who viewed the WCL and the ABL. These results provide further support for a sociological explanation of how and why pupils of different ages respond to and learn from physical education teachers with a disability.

Color Concepts and Their Organization in the Case of Blind Children

The relation between color cognition and color terms is a popular issue in the domain of language cognition. Until now, three theories have emerged: (1) the general evaluation theory of color terms, which asserts that color terms and color cognition are independent; (2) the hypothesis of linguistic reality, which declares that color terms affect color cognition; and (3) a compromised view, which integrates the previous two views. Almost all earlier studies have been conducted on sighted subjects. The dearth of studies on blind people could possibly be explained by people's belief that the blind cannot see colors. Using the methods of testing of color concepts and classification of color words, this study investigated the understanding and organization of the color words of blind children. The materials were 11 basic Chinese color terms: black, white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, palm, grey, and pink. The color terms were printed on cards, using Braille. The subjects were 85 blind children, out of which 63 were born blind and 22 were turned blind after birth. Further, 55 of the subjects were primary school pupils, and 30 were middle school pupils. The experiment involved two stages: In the first stage, the subjects were asked to name colors by touching the cards on which the Braille color words were printed and to provide some examples with regard to that color from their daily life; in the second stage, they were asked to sort the color cards into groups according to their own standards. The results were as follows. First, the order of the color concepts that the blind children got through in the test were similar to the order of the color naming by the sighted children; however there also existed differences. Second, in the semantic spaces of the color words, both the blind and sighted children manifested "colorness/colorlessness" dimensions; while the sighted children manifested the "cold color/warm color" dimension, the blind children manifested the "things' color/setting color" dimension. Third, the organization of the blind children's color concepts was characterized by thematic associations and slot-filler associations, these kinds of relations being based on the individuals' knowledge and experience, thereby emphasizing the functions of things, contexts, and the relations of events. The findings of the study were as follows: (1) there were similarities as well as differences between the order of the color concepts that the blind children got through in the test and the order of the color naming by the sighted children, and (2) the blind children manifested the "colorness/colorlessness" and "things' color/setting color" dimensions in their semantic space of color words, and the organization of the color concepts of blind children was characterized by thematic associations and slot-filler associations.

Characteristics of learning computer-controlled mechanisms by teachers and students in a common laboratory environment

Growing popularity of robotics education motivates developing its didactics and studying it in teacher training programs. This paper presents a study conducted in the Department of Education in Technology and Science, Technion, in which university students and school pupils cope with robotics challenges of designing, building and operating computer-controlled mechanisms. The university students were involved in developing robot prototypes and related instructional materials, and assisted in teaching robotics and guiding projects to middle school and high school pupils. The study focused on behaviors of the two groups of learners and aimed to elicit and analyze typical characteristics of learning in the developed robotics environment. We collected qualitative data on learning through robot design and experimentation activities and, by means of the ground theory method, elicited and analyzed typical behavioral characteristics of students’ and pupils’ learning: self-confidence, help, collaboration, interest, seriousness, self-dependence, learning effort, responsibility, coping with learning pressure, learning through observation, and perseverance. As found, the behavior characteristics evolve in the course of robotics studies and their evolution can give indication on the development of the desired competences.

Adding Value to Public Schools

This research investigated the value added to middle school public education by pedagogically trained college students. An experimental design was employed in which 680 middle school pupils were randomly assigned to instructional groups. University arts and sciences students were put into two groups on the basis of those with formal teacher training and those without. Each student taught four lessons to his or her instructional group. Pupils were administered pre- and posttest measures on the content delivered in the four lessons and a reflection scale on lesson difficulty. Teachers' behaviors were recorded and scored independently by two trained observers. Results indicated that pupils' achievement was influenced by their perceptions of task difficulty and that teaching behaviors had a statistically significant influence on adjusted pupil achievement outcomes among students with formal pedagogical training. These results support the contention that pedagogical preparation of teachers adds value to middle school public education when measured in terms of pupil academic learning.

The paradigms of Romanian language and literature curricula in the second half of the 19th century and the 20th century

This article is the synthesis of research focused on the history of the Romanian mother tongue language and literature curricula of the second half of the 19th century and the 20th century. The curricula I analysed comprise a history with complex syncopated rhythms, periods of re-constitution and recrystallisation alternating with periods of deconstruction and repression. The changes of rhythm are the result of the dialogue between the institutional policies of the Ministry of Education and the language, literature and education sciences. This dialogue was a positive and constructive one in the periods of socio-cultural and economic evolution of the country and absent or extremely tense during the communist period. The article presents a history of the curricular projects for the study of the Romanian mother tongue language and literature by middle and secondary school pupils.

A questionnaire study on knowledge of and attitudes toward epilepsy in schoolchildren and university students in Rome, Italy

To estimate the knowledge of and attitudes toward epilepsy in schoolchildren and university students in Rome. We administered a custom-designed questionnaire in Italian on general knowledge, specific knowledge and social impact of epilepsy to a random sample of upper-middle class pupils and university undergraduate students in Rome. The young people we studied have a reasonable knowledge of epilepsy: as many as 91% claimed to know something about the disease. Yet only 16% correctly stated the prevalence as being about 1 in 100. Middle-school pupils and university graduates consider epilepsy as an illness from which patients rarely recover and one that creates problems in finding employment. The largest number of correct answers for nearly all the questionnaire items came from university students. These findings suggest that apart from an encouragingly large number of the subjects we studied claim to know something about epilepsy (91% today versus 73% 22 years ago), Italian students still know little about epilepsy. These preliminary data should provide a starting point for a future in-depth population-based survey and information campaigns at schools in the Rome metropolitan area.

Noise annoyance responses of middle school pupils and teachers

The present survey study had three aims: (1) to compare pupils’ and teachers’ annoyance responses to classroom noise, (2) to compare females and males responses and (3) to test annoyance models that fitted both pupils and teachers. The study included 207 pupils, aged 13–14 years, and 166 teachers, aged 21–65 years. Both pupils and teachers rated chatter as the most disturbing noise source in the classroom. In line with predictions, the teachers experienced themselves as more sensitive to noise, had poorer hearing status, and reported more intense stress symptoms than the pupils. Contrary to expectations, the teachers were more annoyed and they perceived the noise to be more unpredictable than the pupils did. The control items showed a mixed pattern. There were no overall differences between females and males annoyance responses, but females reported having more stress symptoms than males. A conceptual model was tested with structural equation models, where noise sensitivity mediated the relationship between hearing status and annoyance, which in turn affected stress symptoms. Control and predictability were tested as moderators of the relations between stress symptoms and annoyance. The data fit the conceptual model reasonable well when both samples were included in the same test.

Séquence d'enseignement de l'électricité construite à partir de données épistémologiques et didactiques : compte rendu d'innovation / Construction of a teaching sequence of electricity from epistemological and didactical data : report of innovation

This paper deals with a teaching sequence aiming to make uninformed middle school pupils appropriate a preliminary circulatory model of simple electric circuit. Using a hypothetico-deductive approach, we focused the attention on the consolidation of the empirical contradiction role, by optimizing the learners ‘implication degree in the conception phase of test experiment. For this purpose, we attributed a particular importance to the pupils’ reference frame in the choosing and in the use of the correspondent experimental device. A testing class has brought into evidence effects considered as probative concerning both the freeing of an initiative space for the pupils and the expected conceptual change.

A Quantitative Survey of Knowledge of Reproductive Health Issues of 12-14-year-old Girls of Different Ethnic and Religious Backgrounds in Iran: Implications for education

A quantitative research study was conducted to examine the knowledge of girls aged 12-14 years regarding reproductive health in five cities in Iran with different ethnic and cultural majorities. A cross-sectional study using a self-administrated questionnaire was conducted among guide school (middle school) pupils. Data analysis was based on 1,893 questionnaires. The internal consistency of the items was 0.80. Overall, knowledge level was unsatisfactory. An association between age and knowledge about reproductive health was found. Additionally, there was a statistically significant difference in the knowledge of reproductive health between cities. The findings suggest that reproductive health education initiatives that involve mothers may be most appro priate in terms of cultural and religious sensitivities, and be in keeping with the wishes of the girls themselves.

Nutrition status, education participation, and school achievement among Kenyan middle-school children

Objective The intervening effects of nutrition status on school attendance rates among Kenyan middle school pupils were assessed. The study also examined the effects of nutrition status on primary school achievement scores for the eighth-grade class of 1997. Methods Data were obtained on 851 pupils enrolled in the five indexed schools. Anthropometric measures included weight for age, height for age, and relative weight for height, and the values were derived from the raw data. Percentage of attendance rates derived from daily school attendance and raw scores on the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education were the measures of educational participation and achievement. Statistical analysis included descriptive statistics, analyses of variance, correlation, and linear regression analyses. Results Twenty-nine percent of the children fell below the 90% cutoff value for acceptable relative weight for height. The percentages of the population falling below −2 standard deviations on indices for height for age and weight for age were 16.64 and 3.78, respectively. Univariate analyses showed that anthropometric assessment varied by school and sex. School attendance rates varied by school and grade. Achievement scores on the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education varied by school and the interaction of sex by school. Regression analysis showed attendance rate to be the strongest predictor of achievement, followed by relative weight for height. Conclusion Prevalence of nutritional stress is a significant educational problem in this population. The association between attendance rate and nutrition status is a function of socioeconomic status. The predictive effect of nutrition status on educational achievement is more evident for girls with poor socioeconomic status.

Connaissance de soi et connaissance du travail dans la perspective d'une didactique de l'orientation scolaire : une approche par la co-analyse de l'activité des élèves

Concepts and methods derived from the field of work psychology can shea new light on pupils' activity in class. The constrained nature of its aims and organization becomes apparent. Co-analysis of class activity with middle-school pupils reveals that in carrying out the tasks prescribed to them, pupils bring into play intermediary structures - genres and instruments, which are more or less shared prerequisites of action already evidenced by clinical approaches of work activity. In attempting to ground a didactical approach to vocational guidance, this paper snows that beyond the purely representational aspects at stake, it is necessary to take into account pupils' activity, notably in school, and how they relate to it.

Leadership for Effective Middle School Practice

Many trends, including lack of understanding by state leaders, hamper efforts to implement high-quality middle schools, Mr. Elmore points out. But the ideals summarized in Turning Points are as valid today as they were in 1989. SUBSTANTIVE improvement in teaching and learning can be difficult under the best of circumstances. As the stories in this special section reveal, the chances for sustainable change increase dramatically when strong, visionary leadership exists. Effective leaders help everyone overcome difficult challenges to achieve excellence for all students. Today, myriad challenges face middle-level educators attempting to implement best practices. The issue of education has become increasingly politicized - a fact evident in the campaign season that recently ended. Some stakeholders, seeking an educational advantage, press aggressively for vouchers and tracking. The standards/accountability movement is exerting extraordinary pressure to raise test scores. School populations are growing increasingly diverse, and problems related to poverty are persistent. The stream of reforms with which educators must contend can seem overwhelming. Frequently, the litany of criticism and proposed changes emanates from sources far from the classroom. Suggested improvements come from national panels formed by professional organizations or created by foundations, from the media, and from politicians, who are advised by representatives of business and industry. Occasionally, teachers are invited to the conversation. In recent years, the standards movement has focused attention on the need to raise the test scores of middle school pupils. Some observers have suggested that middle school educators misinterpreted the recommendations of Turning Points, emphasizing social and emotional development and equity issues over academic achievement. In the decade after this report was issued, I visited many middle schools and did not find this to be true. Instead, I observed teachers and administrators working very hard, under difficult conditions, to emphasize academic achievement in caring ways. While test scores may not be as high as many would like them to be, it is difficult to blame an excessive emphasis on social and personal development and equity for that. In the mid- to late Eighties and in the Nineties, accountability pressure was relentless. To address that pressure, middle school educators clearly stressed the basic subjects. Schedules were departmentalized, and bells rang every 50 minutes. Most middle schools more closely resembled junior highs than true middle schools. Often the only evidence that one was in a middle school was the sign in the school yard. If the middle school concept was on the rise in the Seventies and early Eighties, the movement now struggles to maintain earlier gains. In Georgia - an early leader in the middle school movement, as discussed in my introduction to this special section - support for middle schools has been lost. The state school superintendent has repeatedly sought to dismantle middle schools through the removal of special funding. Studies were undertaken by the state department of education, presumably to demonstrate the failure of middle schools. …

Intensive language work as a catalyst for classroom learning and an antidote for “vocabulary dormancy”

This article is based on research into vocabulary development during an intensive French language period with middle-school pupils at an outdoor centre. In addition to pupils learning new vocabulary the research suggests that some elements of their vocabulary only partially known through classroom learning become activated by intensive work, which is seen as a catalyst for such “dormant vocabulary”.

Correspondence Training as a Means of Improving Study Skills

This study was an attempt to encourage middle school pupils to use time spent on topic (project) work to better effect. They were taught some elements of correspondence training which required them to think ahead, to plan carefully what they were going to do in a certain time period and to make a forecast. At the end of each working session, they were required to look back at what they had achieved and to discuss the outcomes with a partner in terms of their success at forecasting and in achievement. Especially among the more able pupils, there were marked improvements in both quantity and quality of work produced

Bullies and victims in schools in central and southern Italy

Anonymous questionnaires assessing the amount and nature of bullying/victimization were given to 1379 primary and middle school pupils (8–11; 11–14yrs) in two towns of Central and Southern Italy, Florence and Cosenza. The questionnaire closely followed the design of Olweus (1991) and Whitney and Smith (1993). Results were analysed in terms of percentages of bullying others and being bullied, types of bullying behaviour, where it occurred and who were the perpretators. Bullying was reported in both Italian areas at a more substantial level than found in other countries, including Norway, England, Spain and Japan, although it presented similar structural features to those reported elsewhere: being bullied decreased in older pupils, bullying others was most likely to be admitted by boys, the perpetretators were in the same class as the victims. Considering direct and indirect forms of bullying, year and gender differences are discussed for the two Italian areas and in cross-national perspective.

Gender Related Learning Style Patterns of Middle School Pupils

Women's development has emerged as a fairly recent area of research. The learning style model has been tested extensively in the areas of teaching and learning. Yet empirical studies in the area of gender related preferences are limited and contradictory. The focus of the present study was to investigate learning style differences which may be a function of gender characteristics. Of the 211 subjects in the present study, which used the middle school as its context, 108 were males and 103 were females. Subjects were administered the Learning Style Inventory and discriminant analysis was conducted to determine if there were significant between-group differences in learning style. Six of the twenty-two variables significantly discriminated between the male and female group. Implications of the study were discussed.

Appliotion of Multimedia Educational System to Middle School Pupils with School Refusal Tendency.

Appliotion of Multimedia Educational System to Middle School Pupils with School Refusal Tendency.

Belief in Paranormal Phenomena and Personality

Neither extraversion nor neuroricism was related to belief in paranormal phenomena in a sample of 66 middle-school pupils.