Upper-elementary Students Research Articles

Teaching the problem-solving process in a progressive or in a simultaneous way: a question of making sense?

Over the past two decades, the perennial low success rates of elementary students in math problem-solving and the difficulties experienced by teachers in helping their students with this type of task has become quite a hot topic. In response, several instructional interventions aiming to develop an expert and reflexive approach to problem-solving have been designed. However, these interventions are based on two contrasting learning approaches, either teaching the components of the problem-solving process at the same time or teaching them one at the time. The two approaches have never been compared. Moreover, they have mainly been assessed in terms of cognitive outcomes. Yet, recent studies stress the importance of analyzing the cognitive, motivational and emotional processes involved in problem-solving learning together in order to gain a full understanding of the process. Addressing these limitations is essential to enhance our understanding of problem-solving learning and to design more effective interventions. This paper focuses on this issue by investigating whether it is preferable as regards cognitive, motivational and emotional outcomes, to teach the problem-solving process in all its complexity or one component at a time. This issue is handled both for novice and expert solvers. Data were gathered among 267 upper elementary students. Findings showed that both learning approaches support the short- and long-term acquisition of cognitive problem-solving strategies, regardless of the student’s profile. However, beneficial emotional and motivational outcomes occur only when the problem-solving process is taught in all its complexity, i.e., makes sense for the learner. Novice solvers made less use of the help seeking strategy and persisted more.

A validity argument to support the ACTFL Assessment of Performance Toward Proficiency in Languages (AAPPL)

AbstractThis article presents evidence for a validity argument on the ACTFL Assessment of Performance Toward Proficiency in Languages (AAPPL) tests (Interpersonal Listening/Speaking, Presentational Writing, Interpretive Listening, and Interpretive Reading) by summarizing an analysis of the 2014 test data from examinations administered in three languages (Chinese, French, and Spanish) to more than 10,000 students in grades 5 to 12. The specific stages the authors evaluated included the following: (1) the design of the instrument, (2) the effectiveness of the rating scale, (3) the reliability of the instrument, and (4) the extent to which ACTFL proficiency levels were generalizable across languages. As a complete test battery, there is validity evidence that the Assessment of Performance Toward Proficiency can be used to measure the performance of upper elementary, middle, and high school students as they develop increasingly sophisticated language proficiency. The strengths of the examinations are the productive skill areas, whereas the receptive skill areas have been targeted for continuing development.

Defining Tennis Content in Upper Elementary Physical Education

Tennis is a lifelong physical activity that is played from young childhood to adulthood. Tennis can be used to meet several of SHAPE America's National Standards and Grade-level Outcomes for K–12 Physical Education in elementary school. Specifically, tennis is tied to outcomes relative to “striking with a short implement” in the manipulative skills category in National Standard 1. While the learning outcomes in striking are not specific to tennis, tennis provides a context for their teaching. This article introduces an evidenced-based knowledge packet of 14 instructional tasks to teach tennis to upper elementary students. The focus of this packet is on beginning tennis, which would be taught to upper elementary grades students who are transitioning from learning discrete skills to learning to apply those skills in developmentally appropriate games. The tasks in the knowledge packet are underpinned by Rink's four stages of game development model and the concept of content development.

Executive functioning and bullying participant roles: Differences for boys and girls

ABSTRACTBullying is a process of direct (i.e., youth who bully and are victimized) and indirect (i.e., bystanders) social exchanges. Though researchers often examine social and emotional correlates of bullying role behaviors, it is important to also consider the underlying cognitive processes associated with different bullying roles such as socially oriented cognitive processes associated with executive functions. The goal of the current study was to examine executive functions associated with types of bullying role behavior (aggression, victimization, defending, assisting, and outsider behavior) and differences between boys and girls within a sample of 689 third- to eighth-grade students (51% male, 49% female). Victimization was significantly and negatively associated with each executive function. Defending was positively associated with emotion regulation for upper elementary school students, but not for middle school students. Outsider behavior was significantly and negatively associated with self-monitoring, flexibility, and initiation.

The Intrinsic Learning Goals of Elementary School Students, in Their Own Words

Applying intrinsic life goals and learning goals increases children’s autonomous motivation to learn and enjoyment of learning. A paucity of field-based intervention studies have focused on helping students set intrinsic life goals and learning goals. In particular, there is a need for qualitative studies that examine intrinsic learning goal content over the course of an intervention. This qualitative study examined the homework goals that 15 upper elementary school students wrote over the course of 5 weeks within the context of a 7-week parent autonomy support and student life goals intervention. Three themes were identified: (1) overtly healthy attitudes toward the learning process (e.g., focusing on enjoyment, interest, persistence, creativity, and taking on challenges); (2) expressing motivation for helping others, which is a key intrinsic life goal; and (3) deeper purposes for academic subjects (i.e., spelling, reading, math, and science), which students usually experience as more meaningful and satisfying than extrinsic goals. Whereas most previous studies assess goal orientation by having students fill out forced-choice questionnaires, future intrinsic life goals intervention studies may benefit from considering these themes and the way children describe their own intrinsic goals, because they could help with training students to set goals that support autonomous motivation.

Upper Elementary Students’ Motivation to Read Fiction and Nonfiction

AbstractThis research explores upper elementary students’ motivation to read fiction and nonfiction. Using expectancy-value theory, the researchers developed separate surveys to measure motivation to read fiction and nonfiction. Researchers administered surveys to 1,104 upper elementary students (grades 3–6) in multiple locations across the United States and found the instruments to be psychometrically sound. Results corroborate previous research demonstrating students’ declining motivation to read across grade levels; in particular, students’ value for reading was declining. This research also corroborates previous research findings that girls are more motivated than boys to read fiction. Researchers found insignificant gender differences between girls’ and boys’ motivations to read nonfiction, indicating a need to further investigate students’ motivation to read nonfiction. Implications for classroom application of survey results and the need to enhance students’ value for reading are discussed.

Upper elementary students’ character strengths: Relationships between teacher-student relationship and school adjustment

Upper elementary students’ character strengths: Relationships between teacher-student relationship and school adjustment

Group peer assessment of oral English performance in a Taiwanese elementary school

While studies of peer assessment (PA) of both written and oral performance are more common in higher education settings, particularly in first-language contexts, PA’s potential for familiarizing elementary-level students with assessment criteria, empowering them to gain ownership of their learning, and developing their motivation and collaborative skills is less well understood. This study investigated the implementation of group PA of oral performance in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) classes in Taiwan. A mixed methodology research design integrated analysis of teacher- and peer-assessment ratings for each presenting group, post-assessment survey data, and an instructor interview, documenting the perceptions of and attitudes toward PA of 130 upper elementary students (ages 10–12) and their instructor. The results show that the ratings by fifth and sixth graders, but not fourth graders, were significantly correlated with those of the instructor. Practical and research implications for future implementation of PA of oral performance are discussed.

Muddy Waters: His Life and Music

The author reviews Mahin and Turk’s children’s book Muddy: The Story of Blues Legend Muddy Waters. This biography of McKinley Morganfield describes his challenges and successes in music and life. Illustrations reflect African American culture using color palettes to highlight the places Waters lived and the music connected to those places including the Mississippi Delta blues and the electric Chicago blues style. The musical writing of Mahin expresses Muddy’s story in a lyrical fashion, borrowing elements from the jazz idiom. The author includes a selected discography and suggestions for additional instruction in the music of Muddy’s life using the artistic processes of listening, responding, and performing appropriate for upper elementary and middle school students in general music.

Is the spatial/math connection unique? Associations between mental rotation and elementary mathematics and English achievement

It is commonly thought that strong spatial ability enhances mathematics performance and that associations between spatial ability and mathematics may be in part responsible for the gender gap in math performance. We investigated whether this spatial/math link is unique by examining the associations between mental rotation and both math and English/Language Arts (ELA) achievement using three similar samples of upper elementary students and three different measures of mental rotation. In each study, we found that the association between mathematics and mental rotation is no different than the association between ELA and mental rotation. We discuss how additions of prior achievement measures modify these associations and examine gender moderators, for which we find little support.

Components of Place Value Understanding: Targeting Mathematical Difficulties When Providing Interventions

Place value understanding requires the same activity that students use when developing fractional and algebraic reasoning, making this understanding foundational to mathematics learning. However, many students engage successfully in mathematics classrooms without having a conceptual understanding of place value, preventing them from accessing mathematics that is more sophisticated later. The purpose of this exploratory study is to investigate how upper elementary students' unit coordination related to difficulties they experience when engaging in place value tasks. Understanding place value requires that students coordinate units recursively to construct multi‐digit numbers from their single‐digit number understandings through forms of unit development and strategic counting. Findings suggest that students identified as low‐achieving were capable of only one or two levels of unit coordination. Furthermore, these students relied on inaccurate procedures to solve problems with millennial numbers. These findings indicate that upper elementary students identified as low‐achieving are not to yet able to (de)compose numbers effectively, regroup tens and hundreds when operating on numbers, and transition between millennial numbers. Implications of this study suggest that curricula designers and statewide standards should adopt nuances in unit coordination when developing tasks that promote or assess students' place value understanding.

Ideas for using GeoGebra and Origami in Teaching Regular Polyhedrons Lessons

The approach of combining GeoGebra and origami is well accepted among students in the school Petro Kuzmjak where it is used to teach geometry lessons. This article elaborates on how to introduce students (upper elementary and high school students, age 14-18) to Platonic solids and their properties through combination of GeoGebra and origami activities. Some of the important mathematical concepts related to these well-known geometrical solids can be explained to students applying hands-on activities along with educational software.

Online Writing Processes in Translating Cognition into Language and Transcribing Written Language by Stylus and Keyboard in Upper Elementary and Middle School Students With Persisting Dysgraphia or Dyslexia.

Participants in this study completed an on-line experiment in which they wrote essays by stylus or keyboard. Three translation measures (length of language burst, length of pauses, and rate of pausing) and four transcription measures (total words, total time, words/minute, and percent spelling errors) for composition were analyzed for two research aims. Research Aim 1 addressed whether upper elementary and middle school students with carefully diagnosed transcription disabilities (dysgraphia with impaired handwriting, n=18, or dyslexia with impaired spelling, n=20) showed significant differences from pretest to posttest, across modes of transcription (stylus or keyboard), and between diagnostic groups. Results showed significant (a) change after intervention (18 computerized lessons with learning activities in letter formation/selection, spelling, and composing) in length of pauses, total time, and words per minute; (b) mode effects (fewer words and less time by stylus; fewer pauses per minute by keyboard); and (c) interactions with diagnostic group in response to intervention on some measures. Research Aim 2 addressed whether following intervention each of the diagnostic groups performed comparably to a typical control group (n=15) in the same on-line experiment. Results showed (a) comparable performance of the dysgraphia and control groups on all keyboarding tasks but differences on two stylus measures; and (b) lack of comparable performance of the dyslexia and control groups on two stylus measures (total words and percent spelling errors) and the four keyboarding tasks related to transcription. Implications for assistive technology and writing instruction for dysgraphia and dyslexia are discussed.

Effects of a strategy-focused instructional program on the writing quality of upper elementary students in the Netherlands.

In this study, the authors tested the effects of Tekster [Texter], a comprehensive strategy-focused writing instruction program, using a switching replication design with three measurement occassions. The program was implemented by fourth, fifth, and sixth grade teachers (N = 76) in 60 general education classrooms in the Netherlands. Students (n = 688) and teachers (n = 31) in Group 1 worked with Tekster during the first 8-week period, between the first and second measurement occasion. Students (n = 732) and teachers (n = 45) in Group 2 implemented Tekster during the second 8-week period, between the second and third measurement occasion. The intervention led to statistically significant improvements in the quality of students’ writing. The effect size for the full sample was 0.32 and 0.40 for students who students who completed all 16 Tekster lessons. Gains shown by students in Group 1 were maintained after 8 weeks. Because writing quality was assessed in 3 genres, the findings are generalizable across students, classes, and writing tasks. Taken together, the results of this study demonstrate that a strategy-focused writing instruction program, such as Tekster, can be an effective way to improve upper-elementary students’ written language skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)

Supplemental Material for Multiple Pathways to Success: An Examination of Integrative Motivational Profiles Among Upper Elementary and College Students

Supplemental Material for Multiple Pathways to Success: An Examination of Integrative Motivational Profiles Among Upper Elementary and College Students

Development and validity of the Rating Scales of Academic Skills for Reading Comprehension.

The development and psychometric qualities of a measure using teacher judgment to rate performance in reading comprehension for narrative text is described-the Rating Scales for Academic Skills-Reading Comprehension Narrative (RSAS-RCN). Sixty-five teachers from the third, fourth, and fifth grades of 8 elementary schools completed the measure on 177 students. Each teacher rated students who had been identified through school-based universal screening to be below the 25th percentile, between the 25th and 74th percentile, and at or above the 75th percentile on national normative standards. Results indicated the RSAS-RCN has strong to moderate evidence of (a) 1-week test-retest reliability, (b) concurrent validity with the Group Reading Assessment and Diagnostic Evaluation (GRADE) and end of year state assessment in reading, and (c) significant classification accuracy across student ability levels. Principal component analysis and item response theory (Rasch modeling) indicate the RSAS-RCN is comprised of a single general dimension. Overall, this examination of the RSAS-RCN suggests teacher judgment may be a potentially valuable tool in assessing reading comprehension among upper elementary school students. (PsycINFO Database Record

Early Evaluation Findings From the Instructional Conversation Study: Culturally Responsive Teaching Outcomes for Diverse Learners in Elementary School

This study explores preliminary results from a pedagogical intervention designed to improve instruction for all students, particularly emergent bilinguals in the United States (or English language learners). The study is part of a larger efficacy randomized controlled trial (RCT) of the Instructional Conversation (IC) pedagogy for improving the school achievement of upper elementary grade students. Standardized achievement student data were gathered from ( N = 74) randomized teachers’ classrooms. Preliminary ordinary least squares analyses of the intervention appear promising for English language arts in general. Limitations in baseline equivalency for students after teacher randomization are discussed along with strategies to overcome them and implications concerned with the education of all students, notably those whose parents speak languages other than English at home.

Mathematics Interventions for Upper Elementary and Secondary Students: A Meta-Analysis of Research

The purpose of this review was to conduct a meta-analysis of 25 years of mathematics interventions for students with mathematics difficulty or disability in Grades 4 through 12. A search of the literature yielded 25 studies that met the inclusion criteria. Studies were coded to extract important study information (e.g., participant information, research design, description of treatment, and comparison groups) and data needed to calculate Hedge’s g. We used robust variance estimation (RVE) to address dependence resulting from multiple outcomes per study. The RVE random-effects model estimated a treatment effect of 0.85. After adjusting for small-study effects, the final model estimated an underlying, moderate effect of 0.49 with a large amount of unexplained heterogeneity between studies. Studies with more than 15 hr of treatment and those focused on fraction content significantly moderated mathematics outcomes. Findings are limited by extreme variability across study estimates, the lack of standardized mathematics measures, and a limited number of studies across 25 years of research.

Adoption of the Six Traits Analytic Writing Model with a Low-Income Student Population

Common Core State Standards (CCSS) have renewed attention on writing instruction. This study investigates the impact of teachers’ use of the Six Traits Analytic Writing model on random stratified samples of upper elementary students from a low-income population. All students, on average, made significant gains in each of the six traits during the school year. However, students in the Six Traits group made significantly greater gains in the trait of voice. The Six Traits Model showed some promise in improving the writing achievement of a low-income population, a critical concern in the current context of CCSS implementation.

Relations of Basic Human Values to Motivation in Learning for Upper Elementary Students

Relations of Basic Human Values to Motivation in Learning for Upper Elementary Students