Browsing by Subject "Middle school students"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

Interpersonal contact and intergroup relations: the impact of interracial friendship and group identity on intergroup relationships among middle school students
(2003) Wilson, Kimberly Dawn; Carlson, Cindy I.
Using a survey of middle schools students from four ethnically diverse schools, this study examined whether intergroup attitudes and behavior were influenced by interpersonal contact. Based on the contact theory, it was predicted that casual contact, as defined by racial proportions within the school, and true interpersonal contact, as defined by close friendships, would positively influence perceptions of and actions toward other ethnic groups. It was suggested that this relationship would indicate that contact had generalized the meaning of an interpersonal interaction to one of meaning for the larger group. It was further hypothesized, based on social identity theory and an intergroup process model proposed by Brewer and Miller (1984), that this relationship would be influenced by identity group salience, or the strength of a student's identity coupled with the degree to which the student perceived negative group attention in the environment. If identity group salience was strong, then this relationship would be weak. Results of this study indicate that having close cross race friendships is related to positive intergroup attitudes and behavior. In addition, group identity salience did not moderate the relationship between interpersonal contact and intergroup relations, but influenced positive intergroup behavior more than did cross race close friendships. These findings are discussed in terms of ways to structure cross-race interactions in schools to positively influence intergroup relations, and how future research might focus on the intergroup experience of multiple races.
The self-efficacy of sixth grade students to resist smoking
(1995) Chammah, Lorraine Guzzio; Conrad, Barbara, Ph. D.
The purpose of this study is to identify which predictors of adolescent cigarette smoking are also associated with low self-efficacy to resist smoking. One hundred and forty-eight sixth grade students from two middle schools in Central Texas completed a smoking self-efficacy questionnaire and answered questions related to significant antecedents of adolescent smoking. Four stepwise regression analyses were conducted on subscale and total self-efficacy scale scores. Fifteen predictors served as the independent variables. Three variables were found to be significant predictors of early adolescent self-efficacy to resist smoking: 1) how many friends smoked, 2) perception that smoking stinks and 3) smoking status (self-reported smoking activity)
Students as choice makers : integrating the visual arts with student issues
(2007-05) Fowles, Courtney Susannah, 1973-; Bolin, Paul Erik, 1954-
This study examined how seventh-grade and eight-grade Art I students could make integrated connections between the visual arts and a topic of personal significance to them. Additionally, the study focused on how integrating art and a personally selected topic affects students' understandings and attitudes toward the topic and the visual arts. Students first wrote about and researched a personally relevant topic, then made connections between their topics and the visual arts, and finally created an artwork based on their interdisciplinary investigations. The findings of this study support the ideas presented by prominent researchers and art educators who claim that students become more engaged in their learning when they actively construct knowledge derived from real-world problems.
Teaching fractions to middle-school students struggling in mathematics : an exploratory study
(2011-05) Misquitta, Radhika Maria Peter; Rieth, Herbert J.; Garcia, Shernaz B.; Bryant, Diane P.; Dodd, Barbara G.; O'Reilly, Mark F.
Fractions are an essential skill for students to master, and one students struggling in mathematics face particular difficulty with (National Mathematics Advisory Panel, 2008; Mazzocco & Devlin, 2008). This study employed the multi-probe multiple baseline design to examine the effectiveness of the concrete-representational-abstract (CRA) approach and explicit teaching practices to teach fraction equivalence to students struggling in mathematics. The study was conducted across four students, and replicated simultaneously across four more. The CRA approach included concrete aids such as fraction circles and fraction strips, representations such as pictures of fraction circles and polygons, and algorithms. Explicit teaching involved following a model-lead-test sequence and included an advanced organizer, corrective feedback and cumulative reviews. Results of this study indicated that the intervention program was effective to improve students‟ performances in fraction equivalence tasks. In particular, the use of vii representations was seen to impact performance and concrete aids alone may not be sufficient to improve performance. With regards types of representational and concrete aids employed, results of this study tended to favor the use of linear versus circular aids. Results indicated that students whose performances tend to vary may not benefit to the same extent as those who have stable profiles. Students who demonstrate variable profiles may require additional practice to master skills being taught. This study also examined transfer of skills to word problems and, results demonstrated that the CRA and explicit teaching approaches were beneficial in helping aiding transfer. Several aspects of the program may have contributed to aiding transfer including, minimal exposure to word problems during intervention, drawing connections between representations and abstract information, and incorporating the fair sharing understanding or quotient interpretation of fractions. This program concluded that students were able to maintain performances over time, and that representations in particular appeared to aid conceptual understanding and promote maintenance of skills.