Interpersonal interactions between teachers and students are a site where students may encounter negative experiences with mathematics; they are also a site where students can experience mathematics in empowering and positive ways. The aim of this study is to understand the work of communicating mathematics in ways that empower, rather than…

Growing evidence suggests that students' self-beliefs about altering their academic abilities can directly influence long-term achievement. These self-beliefs or mindsets can either be fixed (unchangeable) or growth oriented. Students with growth mindsets believe their academic abilities can change, which leads to higher grades and academic…

Creating explanations is an important process for students, not only to make connections between novel information and background knowledge, but also to be able to communicate their understanding of any given topic. This article explores students' explanations in the context of computational science and engineering, an important interdisciplinary…

The investigation of learning processes by assessing students' experience along with objective characteristics within a classroom context has a long tradition in empirical learning process research (e.g. Sembill, 1984 et passim; Wild & Krapp, 1996). However, most of the existing studies confine themselves to psychological variables that seem…

Errors bear the potential to improve knowledge acquisition, provided that learners are able to deal with them in an adaptive and reflexive manner. However, learners experience a host of different--often impeding or maladaptive--emotional and motivational states in the face of academic errors. Research has made few attempts to develop a theory that…

Based on a cognitive motivational process model of learning, the impact of studying behavior on learning outcome is investigated. First-year students (N = 488) participated in the study. Two research questions were addressed: (1) Can cognitive-motivational variables and objective study behavior predict individual learning? (2) Which factors drive…

Student-faculty interactions can be crucial in developing students' academic self-concept and enhancing their motivation and achievement. Although most interactions with faculty tend to occur within the formal classroom setting, students who experience informal interactions tend to be more motivated, engaged, and actively involved in the learning…

Instrumental Enrichment was compared with direct help in school subjects under field conditions in Israel. Effects favoring Instrumental Enrichment on intellective and nonintellective criteria and residential settings on some intellective measures were obtained. Results indicated that mediating basic deficiencies in problem solving produces better…