To live intelligently in our rapidly changing society, every member of our society needs to acquire knowledge and skills in the field of mathematics, not only in specialized fields, but in all areas of everyday living.

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Purpose . The purpose of this study was to examine student perceptions of the impact of grade-level retention on students who experienced retention the first time during 7 th or 8 th grade and who continued with their education into their 10 th -grade, 11 th -grade, or 12 th -grade year. Procedure . Ten high school students in grades ten, eleven, or twelve participated in this phenomenological study. Each of the participants experienced grade-level retention for the first time during their seventh or eighth grade year. At the time of the interviews, each student was earning the necessary credits to be on target to graduate from high school. Qualitative methods were employed to allow an in-depth exploration of each participant's experience. Tape-recorded interviews were conducted. Interview questions addressed five general areas: (a) student reflections regarding middle school; (b) student reflections on their high school experience; (c) student perceptions on the impact of their grade level retention; (d) student perceptions of the effectiveness of grade-level retention, especially at the middle school level; and (e) factors that contributed to each student's academic resilience. Standardized open-ended interview questions minimized variation in the questions posed to participants. Follow-up and probing questions allowed further exploration into each participant's descriptions and reflections. Findings . Participants in this study perceived that their academic success in high school stemmed from their grade-level retention experience. Students recognized a lack of maturity, poor attendance, and an inability to focus their attention on academics, rather than the social aspects of school, as factors that contributed to their retention. Evidence presented in this study suggests that students can experience academic resilience after experiencing grade retention. Self-determination was the single most obvious theme dominating student perceptions of factors that contributed to their academic resilience. Students perceived that they had some degree of control over their academic destiny; each student reflected that a lack of commitment to school, or laziness contributed to their failure. Thus, each student perceived an ability to overcome failure through a commitment to complete work, focus on school, and improved attendance.

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Previous research has shown that instruction followed by problem solving (I-PS) is an effective pedagogical approach in many procedural domains, but engaging students in problem solving before instruction (PS-I) can benefit conceptual learning and transfer. However, it is unclear which order of instruction is optimal for domains that rely heavily on both procedural and conceptual knowledge, such as symbolic modeling. This study investigates optimal order of instruction for learning modeling when instruction is based on incorrect examples. In an experiment with 97 eighth graders, we tested which order of instruction, I-PS or PS-I, was most beneficial for learning to create and evaluate mathematical models of rate-based situations, and for transferring learning to create models with different structures. The study also investigated whether optimal order of instruction depended on a student’s prior knowledge. Students in the I-PS condition performed better on model generation, regardless of prior knowledge, but no condition differences were found in model evaluation or transfer outcomes. Students in the PS-I condition reported more instances of confusion. Confusion negatively predicted transfer and showed a trend toward negatively predicting model evaluation. However, confusion did not mediate the relationship between condition and learning outcomes. This study extends the research on the role of instructional order in learning, and its impact on students’ affective experiences.

Although enrollment in advanced mathematics courses is a significant determinant of mathematics achievement, the majority of public school students are not enrolled in advanced mathematics courses in high school. Policy makers are interested in the dynamics of the math course selection process in the eighth grade because it is viewed as a pivotal transitional point when students are confronted with the decision to either enroll in algebra, the first course on the advanced math track, or in regular math. Approximately one third of eighth grade students enroll in algebra, in spite of general availability of the course. Enrollment patterns vary among the four major race/ethnic subgroups - Asian, Hispanic, Black and White. This study constructed and tested a structural equations model that examined the factors influencing math course choice and the course selection process in the eighth grade in public schools. There were three sources of influence in the model: 1) math achievement; 2) school policies and practices; and 3) parents. The model consisted of three exogenous and five endogenous variables. The model was tested five times. It was tested on a nationally representative sample of 7,648 eighth grade public school students. It was also tested separately on the four race/ethnic subgroups comprising the full sample. The study used data from student and parent files of the base year survey of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS 88), a major national study conducted under the auspices of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). For the full sample, the major school and parental factors influencing a student’s math course choice were math track placement, parents’ educational expectations and school-parent algebra push. Of the two achievement influences, standardized math test scores had the stronger influence on the outcome variable. Prior math grades influenced math course choice, but to a lesser extent and was influential largely due to an indirect effect. Although these factors were important for each of the subgroups, the influence of the factors varied among the subgroups. The model fitted the data fairly well for the full sample and the Asian and White subgroups, but less well for the Hispanic and Black subgroups. / Ph. D.

This study was designed to attain the following purposes: To determine the exploratory courses which were being offered in the eighth grade of the five-year high school programs. To determine the course content of these exploratory courses in homemaking. To determine the practices followed in organizing and conducting these courses. To determine the length of the exploratory course in homemaking. To determine what effect the eighth-grade exploratory homemaking course had on enrollment in the vocational course in homemaking. / Master of Science

The problem of this study is to determine, if possible, whether any significant difference in achievement existed when the eighth-grade social studies were taught by two methods; namely, the textual method and the textual method supplemented by audio-visual aids.

The major purpose of this study was to compare the progress made by a group of children taught by the experience method of teaching with a group taught by the old textbook method, to determine whether the experimental group would show as much gain in academic knowledge as the control group, and in turn gain the other desired traits of the present-day personal and social needs.

The problem in this study is to show the possible relationship between improved physical skills and the total adjustment of boys at the junior high school level. A limited number of boys selected from the seventh and eighth grades who were without adequate physical skills were given special assistance for improving such skills, and a record was kept of the procedure and possible results of this instructional program.