Middle School Students

Abstract Ratio-proportion is one of the topics that middle school students have difficulty in comprehending. This study aims to determine the learning difficulties that seventh-grade students face while learning about ratio-proportion. Three commonly used strategies to solve ratio-proportion problems are buildup, unit ratio and cross-multiplication. The study also investigated the effect of the envelope technique, which included these three strategies and was developed to improve comprehending and success of students. The study was designed as an experimental study and 34 seventh-grade students participated in the study. The Ratio-Proportion Achievement Test developed by the researcher used to collect the data. The results illustrated that students frequently have misconceptions while solving ratio-proportion problems by confusing the direction of the operation in reducing and expanding the numbers constituting the proportion. It was concluded that the envelope technique is a method that assists students in reaching a rapid, correct solution in ratio-proportion problems, subsequently increasing their mathematical achievements.

virilizing effects of AS to be socially unacceptable. The variability in AS user rates among the partic- ipating schools is somewhat expected (1% to 5%), yet it is surprising that all participating schools have AS users. This could indicate that AS use among middle school students in Massachusetts may be more wide- spread than previously suspected; however, the sur- vey was administered to four schools in a region with high sports participation. Although these data do not represent a randomized sample, the results of this study are of serious concern because one poten- tially permanent side effect of AS use in children and adolescents is the premature closure of the epiphy- seal growth plates, which may result in stunted growth. 17 The cost and availability of AS were not

times more likely to report sending a sext relative to youth who text less frequently. Perhaps excessive, unlim- ited, or unmonitored texting among middle school students enables sex- ting. Moreover, those who send $ 100 texts per day were also more likely to report being sexually active, control- ling for sexting behaviors. These data cannot disentangle these issues be- yond associations with the volume of texting, but these associations suggest a need for more detailed research on how middle school students are en- gaging with one another via text mes- saging, and how speci fi cally sexting behaviors relate to sexual behaviors. There are also a few demographic trends worth noting. Relative to Latino students, African American students were more likely to report receiving sexts, and boys were more likely to report sending a sext than their female peers. Similar to previous results in high school stu- dents, 8 sexual minority youth were

Previous evaluations of abstinence education programs indicate that teachers implementing the program are more effective if they believe that abstinence from sexual activity outside of marriage is reasonable and possible (DeGaston, Jensen, Weed, & Tanas, 1994). NWFS staff and peer leaders will be of this belief system and knowledgeable about practical ways of encouraging positive attitudes among youth about sexual abstinence. An interesting aspect of this project was the practical collaboration between public school health education teachers, whose training would have been in sex education with a focus on promoting the use of contraception based on the assumption that youth would not abstain, and abstinence education experts from a nonprofit agency in the community who trained high school peer leaders to assist in presenting the abstinence education lessons to middle school students. In this project the agency, NWFS, had well established relationships with schools, having offered a range of useful programs over the years (see http://www.nwfs.org/empowering-youth.html).

from January 2003 until June 2013. Random samples of reports means that reports do not have to be related to technology. Moreover, middle school students do not have to be suspect all the time. I believe that this way will be more efficient than looking only for the incidents that have a connection to the use of technology. Once I finish data collecting, I'm going to analyze these reports based on many factors. First, I need to know the type of incidents, especially those related to the use of technology. This is very important to indicate if there is any misunderstanding by the students about the regulations and laws. Thus, I can make a good judgment on the current efforts made by the schools in regards to the schools regulations. Second, I need to know if students are suspects or victims in order to concentrate on what type of education they need. Third, finding the relationship of the use of technology to the incidents is very important to indicate how much the use of technology negatively affects the students. Finally, indicating whether or not school staff and parents are related to these incidents is also important. A lot of research and Internet safety educational programs involve parents and school staff in the teaching process. Therefore, it is essential to examine parents and school staff to know whether or not they are qualified to teach.

There is little research on the language barriers of middle school students while learning English in Turkey as well as in different countries. Most of the relevant research is conducted on undergraduate or secondary school students. A number of factors have been asserted to affect the success of learning English in various contexts. Soner (2007) claimed that “limited number of teachers, teachers’ inadequate foreign language knowledge and methods, teachers’ using old fashioned language approaches, students’ not giving importance because of the heavy burdens of other courses in school, insufficient language equipments in schools, students' lack of motivation and interest about foreign language, and students' not having a chance of using the language outside the class”(p.236) are the main difficulties that bring out the failure in learning and teaching English (cited in Dinçer, et al., 2010). Ghrib (2004) found out that many of the difficulties that Tunisian secondary school students have encountered emerge due to their inefficacy on the linguistic features such as vocabulary, grammar and phonology knowledge. Akbari (2015) made a comprehensive analysis on existing research on junior high school students and regarded the lack of English speaking environment and heavy emphasis on grammar teaching as the most important barriers to use language successfully in Iran. The detailed literature for English learning barriers is classified as below.

Cuyama, CA, and Guadalupe, CA, which are rural regions with small population sizes. Instructors reported difficulty in identifying and recruiting new students to participate in their second and third cohorts. Many students were welcomed to participate in more than one PDC cohort, due to the limited number of middle school students in these areas. However, the utilization of survey information from returning students was a potential source of error, because repeated exposure to new foods is associated with increased preferences and intake of those foods (Caton et al., 2014; Holley, Farrow, & Haycraft, 2017). To ensure analyses reflected one exposure to PDC curriculum, only data from the students’ initial pre- and post-surveys were included in the final analysis. Instructors reported that allowing students to return to the program was a positive experience for new students, who benefitted from peer-to-peer leadership.

It is necessary to study students’ conceptual understandings about earthquake in order to teach scientific understanding of earthquakes [19]. If students learn what earthquakes are and how they occur as well as how they protect themselves from the damage of earthquakes, it is possible to build earthquake literate society [5, 19, 23]. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to investigate middle school students’ conceptual understandings in terms of not only what earthquakes are, how they occur but also how they protect themselves from the damage of earthquakes. The current study also consisted of a large sample size of middle school students studying at different grade levels in Istanbul and was conducted by a mixed research methodology including quantitative and qualitative data collection. As a result, it is expected to add significant contribution to the literature. The following research questions were designed;

Taken together, the evidence suggests that there are compelling reasons to associate at least some of the child and adolescent risk for suicidal thoughts and actions to school bullying. However, only a few studies have focused on the specific relationship be- tween suicide and school bullying. Furthermore, the generalizability of the findings to date is limited, largely because of methodologic and analytic short- falls. One important methods problem is the use of the same informants to identify bullying and suicidal behaviors (ie, shared method variance). In this in- stance, self-reports of bullying are based on the in- dividual’s own perception of the social circum- stances, a situation in which it is possible that psychopathologic characteristics of the reporter can lead to misinterpretation of otherwise normal social events. This can result in a confounded relationship between suicide and bullying. However, by using a peer nomination technique to identify the bullying and self-reports for suicidal thoughts and behaviors, a study can use separate informants to identify the separate problems, and then the proper relationships between the 2 events can be examined. In the present study, this technique was used for exactly that pur- pose: to investigate whether the risks of suicidal ideation and attempts are increased in victims, per- petrators, and victim-perpetrators of school bullying, compared with students who were not involved with school bullying. This was done in a community sam- ple of Korean middle school students.

students’ school climate perceptions, were a low level corresponds to a more negative perception, while the high level refers to a positive perception about the aspect studied. In this matter, the findings indicate that for the low level, all the scales and subscales obtained scores higher than 10%, which is relevant considering that from the public health approach, percentages over 10% could be considered as a risk factor for the de- velopment of different problems in the population. So, from the epidemiological point of view, it would be possible to say that the Mexican middle school students might be at risk to develop future academic, psychologic or behavioral problems because of the negative perception of the school climate dimensions (Zullig, Collins, Ghani, Patton, Huebner, & Ajamie, 2014; Burdick, 2013; Esselmont, 2014).

SES questionnaire [7]. The participants reported their parents’ occupations and education level. In accordance with the relevant criteria for the occupational classification, father’s occupation and mother’s occupation were encoded and translated into the corresponding grades respectively. And finally the values of occupation level and education level were added. The total score was the index of family’s social economic status. Its distribution range was 4 - 22. This study referred to Gong’s study and SES was divided into high, middle and low grade [5]. Those with 18 points and above were high SES families, those with 12 (including 12 points) - 17 points (includ- ing 17 points) were the middle SES families, and those with 11 points and below were low SES families. Chi- nese Version of Simplified Parents Parenting Questionnaire (S-EMBU-C) [8]. For the questionnaire, children evaluated their parenting style. The questionnaire is divided into father version and mother version, including 21 items with the same content. There are three dimensions, which are Emotional Warmth, Rejection and Over Protection. The questionnaire uses four-point score from “never” to “always”. The higher the score is, the more parents’ emotional warmth is felt, and the more parents’ rejection and over protection degree is felt. This study showed that the internal consistency coefficient of father’s emotional warmth, mother’s emotional warmth, fa- ther’s rejection, mother’s rejection, father’s over protection, mother’s over protection was 0.81, 0.72, 0.75, 0.74, 0.80 and 0.73 respectively. Middle School Students’ Psychological Suzhi Questionnaire [9]. The questionnaire includes cognition, personality and adaptability. There are 34 questions, and 5-point scale is used from “strongly disagree” to “totally agree”. Among them, Question 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 23 and 29 have reverse score. The higher the score is, the better psychological suzhi is. In this study, the total points and internal consistency coefficient of cognition, personality and adaptability of middle school students’ psychological suzhi questionnaire was 0.88, 0.86, 0.84 and 0.80, respectively.

Self-efficacy holds a very important role in daily life, someone will be able to use the potential itself optimally in self-efficacy supports it. One of the aspects of life that are influenced by the self-efficacy in career. Career impact on the happiness of human life as a whole. The study examines the depiction of self-efficacy in a career of students seen from school background, gender, background and parental Decisions choosing a career started when individuals are in adolescence. According to Santrock (2003), adolescence is the time when decision-making increased.[1] Most decisions are made by teenagers who are experiencing changes that make it difficult and useless. Often teens only know that they want something but not knowing what is needed, then the necessary guidance to direct his desire. With regard to the expected career that teens are coveted in accordance with certain conditions, the environment and everything that needs to be done in her accomplishments.[2] Career is a sequence of activities that relate to the work of the behaviors, values, and aspirations of the individual during the life span of the individual (Simamora, 2004). Self-efficacy in career-decision making is the belief of the individual against the ability of himself that he can successfully complete tasks related to career decision making. Self-efficacy influences the choice of activity, purpose, and effort as well as the persistence of such teens.[3] In other words, self-efficacy also affects learning and academic achievement (Ormrod, 2009). In General, Ormrod (2009) states that teenage self-efficacy assessment as a teenager about his own ability to perform a particular behavior or achieve certain goals. Several studies that the decision making and self-efficacy is related.[4] The inability of the individual in making decisions can be influenced by the in career decision making (Osipow, 1987: Betz et al, 1997).[5][6] Low self-efficacy with respect to career decision making processes related to uncertainty in career decision-making, problems in developing a clear identity of the Polytechnic, and the uncertainty in determining selection shown with individual changing jobs frequently.[7] Low self-efficacy can hinder the individual to manifest its interest against a career because it felt it did not have the skills that are important to her career. They are also less able to compete to get the job, less experienced, and not knowing what they should do to

The practice of test validation is operationalized through an argument framework (Kane, 2013). Based on Toulmin’s model of inference (Toulmin, Rieke, & Janik, 1979), a series of claims are specified and linked together. Claims may focus on the integrity of how student responses are translated into a numeric judgment, how fair a test is in terms of providing equitable opportunity across different categories of students, the extent to which an underlying construct has been well represented, or how predictive a student’s test score will be of future behaviors of interest, to name a few examples. In general, stated claims are oriented toward the interpretations one can draw from the outcome of a test and appropriate uses of that outcome.

The increase can occur because the model adopted is in accordance with the character and needs of students at the junior high school level. The increase in learning outcomes on the subject is an indicator of success in each of the stages in the Borg and Gall step. The researcher conducts the stages in detail and includes empirical data for a more extensive assessment. Volleyball learning is normally done in several stages, because in it there is motor adaptation in controlling new movements that were not previously recorded by the brain (Setyosari, 2010). Robert (2009) in his research explained that to master a new technique in a movement can be done with systematic learning, done repeatedly and carried out in several stages. This is in accordance with the adoption of the model made by researchers that emphasizes the systematic rules of items in learning from the easiest to the most difficult and from the simplest to the most complex. Other studies that support the effectiveness of the smash learning model are conducted (Fatirul, Hernawan & Hidayat, 2018) as quoted, "the training model for volleyball for beginners is effective to improve the ability to defense volleyball". In addition, systematic learning stages can have a positive influence on volleyball smash learning outcomes. Another statement supporting this is the quote made (Hernawan & Ridzqi, 2018) that, "there was a significant difference of the jump service ability between the group of barrier hops method and the group of box jump method who had low power of the muscle of the limbs ".

It is possible to promote career awareness among elementary and secondary children and adolescents by enabling them to visit work places and observing the types and process of jobs that workers do in work places [20]. In addition to visiting work places, mentoring can enable children and adolescents to broaden their awareness about job tasks, attitudes, and supports needed to work successfully in any occupation. By this way, children who live in rural areas with fewer opportunities may gain early awareness concerning certain specialized careers and can prepare themselves in middle school and high school for entry into high school and university department regarding specialized careers [21]. Moreover, computerized career guidance and information systems have been developed to aid the guidance function.

In today’s science classrooms students need to connect reasoning, and other forms of communication skills as they use technologies to collect real time measurements. However, there is little known yet about how discourse of both students and teacher, is used around technological tools, such as the computers in science classroom (Lemke, 1990). According to Vygotsky (1978) children use speech as well as gestures to solve problems. Language allows them to share what they know with their peers and teacher as they work to resolve problems. Vygotsky (1978) suggests social interactions are critical in order for students to be able to construct their own knowledge. An essential feature of learning is that it creates a zone of proximal development, a term coined by the Russian psychologist, which suggests that learning blends various developmental processes that operate only when individuals interact with people in their environment and in cooperation with their peers (Vygotsky, 1978). "Language is not just a device for verbal and written communication, but also a tool through which students come to share ideas and feelings" (Dewey, 1959, p. 27).

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The aim of this study is to develop a valid and reliable attitude scale that could measure secondary school students' attitudes towards the Science-Technology- Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). This study was conducted in 2017- 2018 academic year with 2500 secondary school students studying in the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades from fifteen (15) different secondary schools in ten different (10) provinces of seven (7) different regions of Turkey. The study is designed according to the scanning method which is a descriptive research method. When determining the sample of the research, stratified sampling method was taken into consideration. Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were performed to test the validity of the scale structure. KMO in EFA .919, and the Barlett’s test χ2 value was found as 26236,010 (p <.001). As a result of CFA to determine the model fit of the scale, chi-square fit value of the factor structure consisting of 33 items and 6 sub-factors (χ ² = 4083.21, Sd = 480, p = 00) was found to be significant and the following was found RMSEA: .0548, RMR: .0486, SRMR: .0486, GFI: .902, AGFI: .885, IFI: .902, NFI: .890, NNFI: .892 and CFI: .902. Since all fit values are within acceptable limits, it is concluded that the six-factor structure of scale is a usable, valid model. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability analyzes were performed to determine the reliability of the scale. As a result, the Cronbach Alpha (α) internal consistency reliability value of the scale was found as 0.887 and the test-retest reliability value was found as 0.804. Based on this, the scale can be said to be highly reliable. It is concluded that the scale consisting of 33 items and six factors is a valid and reliable tool which determines middle school students’ attitudes toward STEM.

1. This research showed depression, anxiety and stress situation of middle school students in Macau. Al- though the data showed that most students’ situation was normal, but a part of students’ mental health are still not so ideal, and needed to pay attention to. Nobody can avoid different kinds of stress. The stress itself is not a disease, and it can also become a kind of motivation force on development. When the stress is too much to in- fluence individual’s development, study, and social adjustment, it will arouse serious emotion problem. So par- ents and teachers should improve their sensitivity to students’ emotion, pay special attention to how they deal with stress on study, offer them better communication channels, and let the students have proper topics and chances to talk.

Results gained in this study from the context of normal situation reveal that primary school students showed higher conformity to leader in normal situation than high school and university students. Children in this age saw conforming to rules of the group they belong to as an obligation [43] and in order not to harm the group; they stated opinions in favour of leaders. In contrast, middle school, high school and university students did not display much conformity to leader in normal situation. Especially middle school students move away from the leader more than other students. The basis of leader - follower relationship, in general, is based on the achievement of a common goal. In normal situation, as the common goal hasn’t been constituted yet, it has been behaved generally free and conformity to the leader hasn’t been needed. In this sense, the leader's leadership behaviour hasn’t occurred by reason of the fact that s/he hasn’t inclined to satisfy the needs of followers. In this case, leader tends to satisfy lower need of leadership. Whether leadership is needed or not emerges when human efforts need to be combined and coordinated. Here, the need for leadership is low and the intervention of the leader is considered undesirable [21]. This situation also emphasizes that the followers shouldn’t be seen as passive entities [26]. Besides, when it is thought that leader is a person who reduces uncertainties about compulsive expectations [16], a compulsive expectation didn’t occur among students in normal situation, thus students did not display conformity behaviour to the leader. In other words, a suitable environment for leader to show leadership behaviour didn’t occur. If it is a kind of environment that is insecure or the person can’t show the