The purpose of this study was to examine whether teacher candidates with mastery- and performance-approach orientations would perceived their education courses as depicting a goal structure consistent with their personal orientations, use of self-regulatory strategies, and motivation for learning. A latent class analysis procedure was used to…

Background: There are two approaches to the differential examination of school motivation. The first is to examine motivation towards specific school subjects (between school subject differentiation). The second is to examine school motivation as a multidimensional concept that varies in terms of not only intensity but also quality (within school…

Guided by Green-Demers, Leagult, Pelletier, and Pelletier's (2008) assumption that amotivation (absence of motivation) is a multidimensional construct, we designed this study to investigate the influence of inadequate teacher-to-student social support on amotivation of high-school physical education students. Five hundred and sixty-six ninth…

Energy education has been conducted to equip learners with relevant energy conservation knowledge for many years. However, learners seldom put the knowledge into practice and even have few ideas about how to reduce energy consumption. To this end, there is a need to address this issue to improve the efficiency of energy education. One of the…

A risk associated with the use of games in training and education is that players "game the game," instead of focusing on their learning goals. The term "gamer mode" is proposed to describe this attitude. A player with a gamer-mode attitude strives to achieve goals that are optimal for winning the game, but suboptimal with…

The author wrote a piece called "What Our Children Should Learn about 9/11." In that piece, the author made just four simple points. These include: (1) children should know the facts; (2) once they had a grounding in the facts, the children should not abjure moral judgment; (3) children should learn to make both analytical and moral…

Drama in Education (DIE), as an artistic and educational experience, is sufficiently evidenced in the literature as a dialogical, liberating practice of education. This article discusses a practitioner research project in a second chance adult education school in Greece, where the use of a DIE teaching and learning approach was explored in an…

This study used a mixed-method approach to investigate the effectiveness of Readers Theater (RT) in promoting English as a foreign language children's reading and writing proficiency after a participation period of one semester. In addition, the researcher recorded and analyzed children's learning motivation and feedback toward RT. The…

This study explored the differences between eight-year elementary school pupils (before the curriculum reform) and nine-year elementary school pupils (soon after the curriculum reform) in Slovenia, as regards specific chemistry knowledge and motivation to learn chemistry. Altogether, 191 elementary school pupils participated in the study. The…

This essay outlines the key lessons I re-learned about teaching adults when I decided to earn my private pilot license. I faced a steep learning curve and needed to conquer my fear of falling from the sky when learning required flight maneuvers. The lessons are not about adult development or learning theories or instructional techniques. The…

This study compares student preconceptions and expectations of Japanese language learning from studies conducted in 1989 and 2004. Over the years, student interests and pedagogical approaches have changed. However, the changes do not reflect on the student preconceptions and expectations. They still believe in traditional approaches to language…

In the past few decades a growing research interest in internal and external factors that contribute to a student's motivation to learn has yielded numerous models and theories. Despite their similarities, these theories have tended to be developed and tested independently of each other, although some connections have been made between them. The…

Current findings in talent identification and development research have acknowledged that potential for future performance cannot be identified from single evaluations of performance or anthropometric factors (e.g. Abbott and Collins 2004). Recognising the role of psychological characteristics at elite levels, it is pertinent to consider the role…

International and national mathematics studies have revealed the poor mathematics skills of South African learners. An essential tool that can be used to improve learners' mathematical skills is for educators to use effective feedback. Our purpose in this study was to elicit learners' understanding and expectations of teacher assessment feedback.…

Engineering is a complex field of study. Declining enrollment in engineering programs in the United States is of concern and understanding the various factors that contribute to this decline is in order. Fostering a higher level of student engagement with the content may foster passion towards engineering which could increase academic competency…