One purpose of this study was to determine whether any differences in immediate achievement or retention existed between students using manipulatives and students not using manipulatives. Also addressed in this study is whether or not the use of manipulatives is more beneficial for girls than boys and whether the use of manipulatives is more beneficial for low-ability students than for high-ability students. Students selected for this study were from a large suburban school district in Texas. The students were from eight intact classes, four of which were designated as the experimental group and the other four as the control group. The sample consisted of one hundred eighty-seven students. All students were tested with a test developed by the researcher. This same test was administered as a pretest, posttest, and retention test. The following supplemental data were also gathered on the students: mathematics scores from the California Test of Basic Skills and scores from the mathematics section of the Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills test. Analysis of the data revealed no statistical difference in the mean scores of students instructed with or without manipulatives when the test was administered immediately after instruction. Nor was there any statistical difference in the …

The purpose of this study was to describe factors affecting the use of instructional ideas by secondary teachers in the academic year following a series of staff development sessions designed to present information on effective teaching practices. The research questions addressed the characteristics of information selected for use in classroom practice and the characteristics and relative degree of influence of salient factors affecting the use of ideas. Ten teachers from a large suburban school district in North Texas were selected for this study. Qualitative techniques were used to collect data. Each teacher was interviewed three times and observed in the classroom setting. Documents such as lesson plans were analyzed as a third source of data. Several factors evolved from the data. In varying degrees, these factors predicted teacher use of new instructional practices. Some factors dealt with the teacher's level of understanding and internalization of the information. These factors were labeled as instrumentality, congruence, and analytical thinking. Two other factors which were fairly strong predictors were labeled cost and intrinsic motivation. Cost concerned the amount of time or effort required to implement new ideas versus the perceived benefit to either teacher or student. Intrinsic motivation concerned the personal desire a …

The problem of this study was to determine if study habits can be used to predict academic achievement. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationships between selected study skill habits and attitudes and achievement of secondary students in English, mathematics, and spelling. The sample for this study consisted of 82 secondary school students participating in Upward Bound programs at two universities in the north Texas area in a six week period during the summer of 1988. Eighteen different high schools were represented in the study. The sizes of the schools ranged from small to very large. Instruments used were the Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes, (SSHA) the Stanford Test of Academic Skills, (TASK), and the Otis-Lennon Mental Abilities Test (OLMAT). The statistical analysis indicated that the four subscores of the SSHA are not accurate predictors of academic achievement. However, some of the correlations among the subscores for the SSHA and the TASK were significant. Most noteable of these were work methods and mathematics, teacher acceptance and mathematics, and work methods and spelling. The recommendation is made that the SSHA should not be used to predict academic achievement in Upward Bound programs. Improving study habits and attitudes …

The purpose of this study was to determine if students who participated in language arts remediation which was infused with critical thinking activities and metacognition would make greater gains in skills and achievement than those students who were remediated with a regular language arts curriculum. The population for this study was a group of at risk students who were fourteen to sixteen years old and who were participants in the 1987 summer Youth Opportunities Unlimited project at the University of North Texas. Their progress was measured with California Achievement Test and Iowa Test of Basic Skills pretests and posttests. The organization of the study includes a statement of the problem, a review of the literature, the methods and procedures used to collect the data, the analysis of data, and a summary of the findings, conclusions, educational implications, and recommendations tor additional research. Data from the eight hypotheses were treated with an analysis of covariance. The analysis of data revealed the following: 1. The infusion of critical thinking activities and metacognition did not improve students' skills or achievement in the following areas: spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. 2. The infusion of critical thinking activities and metacognition did not improve students' skills in …