This article examines an important and thorny problem in interview research: How to assess whether what people say motivated their actions actually did so? We ask three questions: What specific challenges are at play? How have researchers addressed them? And how should those strategies be evaluated? We argue that such research faces at least five…

In this article we propose that in order to advance our understanding of motivation in collaborative learning we should move beyond the cognitive-situative epistemological divide and combine individual and social processes. Our claim is that although recent research has recognized the importance of social aspects in emerging and sustained…

In this paper we draw upon 14 semi-structured interviews with the participants in a teacher-researcher project on the theme of "ensuring African Caribbean attainment" with the aim of shedding light on the purposes, processes and lived experiences of teacher research in a difficult and contentious intellectual and practical domain. After…

This article presents the results of a pilot study of the research information needs, behaviour and source preferences of academic researchers at a regional university engaged in a public policy research project. In-depth interviews with three public policy oriented academic researchers undertaking interdisciplinary research projects at Charles…

Most academic science educators encourage teachers to provide their students with access to more authentic science activities. What can and do teachers say to increase students' interests in participating in opportunities to do real science? What are the discursive "resources" they draw on to introduce authentic science to students? The purpose of…

Collaborating closely with a 10th-grade science teacher, we designed a Web-based learning environment (Web-LE) to improve student motivation to learn science. Factors believed to enhance intrinsic motivation (challenge, control, curiosity, and fantasy) were integrated into the instructional design of the Web-based learning tool. The Web-LE was…

Compares second-, fifth- and eighth-graders' reasoning about their relative ability and that of another child (who applied more or less effort) with their reasoning about the relative ability of two others (who differed in effort). Responses to specific questions may be more sensitive to situationally induced motivational influences than responses…

Group of 20 scholars attributed 29.3 percent of 437 references they had cited to one of seven motives, while describing motives for majority (70.7 percent) of references as combinations. Clustering of citer motives showed three groupings: (1) persuasiveness, positive credit, currency, social consensus; (2) negative credit; (3) reader alert,…

Analysis of current models describing citer motivations identified seven most significant motivations for authors: currency scale, negative credit, operational information, persuasiveness, positive credit, reader alert, social consensus. Motivational background for more than 900 citational acts of 26 authors at University of Iowa were gathered and…

Reports research in which 66 Black inner city students in grades 3 to 6 were interviewed about their perceptions of themselves as math learners. Focuses on student responses to questions about the causes of problem difficulty and the effects of that difficulty on their inner speech, feelings, and motivation to learn. (CB)

A phenomenological interview process in two stages was employed to elicit the life stories of six academically gifted college students. Participants' stories were edited with themes identified and interpreted by the researcher. A sample life history of a high achieving female college senior is provided. Commentary by the researcher focuses on the…

Investigated were those long-term processes which contribute to high rates of attrition for women out of mathematics. It is based on the contention that university students drop out of mathematics as a consequence of prior socialization, educational career contingencies, and goal commitment and career aspirations, with the mix of these factors…

In the Connecticut School Effectiveness Project, data are collected on seven characteristics of effective schooling: safe and orderly environment, clear school mission, instructional leadership, high expectations, opportunity to learn and time on task, frequent monitoring of student progress, and home-school relations. These data are collected…

This report presents some results from various empirical research projects within nursing education carried out during the late 1960's and the early 1970's at Malmo School of Education, University of Lund (Sweden). It is noted that a wide range of methods has been used in dealing with the following issues: curriculum analysis; construction of…

This paper maintains that learning for the purpose of understanding is central to classes that are oriented towards learning. Such classes, which can be said to have a "learning orientation," can be differentiated from classes where an emphasis on performance or doing work increases the likelihood of rote or short-term learning. Four…