Demotivation can negatively influence the learner's attitudes and behaviors, degrade classroom group dynamics and teacher's motivation, and result in long-term and widespread negative learning outcomes. 900 university EFL learners were surveyed to investigate the demotivating factors in learning English as a foreign language (EFL) in Japan, and…

In this article, the author shares his experience while doing research in Beersheba, Israel. His experience has taught him some unexpected lessons. One lesson he learned, when venturing to another floor within the university while the sirens go off, is to locate the nearest bomb shelter (each floor of the building has its own shelter.) One should…

Successful team outcomes frequently--if not always--rely upon proven techniques for managing diverse styles and strengths. In this article, the authors describe the Diversity Card Game and the benefits it offers for students and instructors. Building teams using Diversity gives students the knowledge to manage clashes that might otherwise create…

This study examined collective efficacy, group cohesion, and group performance in 125 randomly assigned groups of older (mean age 13.45 years) and younger (mean age 11.41 years) early adolescents working on three cooperative tasks. Collective motivation significantly predicted performance, even after controlling for past performance and…

The ideas and examples in this book help teachers successfully collaborate to raise student achievement through the use of formative assessments. Here, Todd Stanley and Betsy Moore, educators with over 40 years of combined experience, offer proven formative assessment strategies to teachers in a professional learning community. Contents include:…

There is a growing predicament among second generation Vietnamese American young adults desiring to study and work in people-helping professions. Although this population wants to maintain a sense of belonging, loyalty, and duty toward their ethnic heritage, they are essentially breaking cultural norms by pursuing occupations that are not readily…

In today's knowledge economy, both high school and university educators must ensure that students are equipped with the proficiencies needed to transition from high school to college and, ultimately, from college to the workplace. As librarians at Arizona State University (ASU), the authors sought to develop a local program that would support this…

Dr. James R. Austin, Professor of Music Education and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, was the guest speaker for the 2011 Ohio Music Education Association (OMEA) Research Committee's Graduate Research Forum held in conjunction with the annual OMEA Professional Development Conference. During his…

Schools alone cannot reverse the high rates of school failure in the poorest communities in Europe; they need the contributions of the entire community. Coordination between families, the larger community, and the school has proven crucial to enhance student learning and achievement, especially for minority and disadvantaged families. However,…

Purpose: Employees' work in innovation processes generates ideas, but more often it serves to create conditions so that new products or services can be effectively produced or delivered. Self-organizational activities involve proactively handling new possibilities, unexpected situations, problems or tasks. The aim of this paper is to provide…

This study investigated the use of comics (Cary, 2004) in a guided writing experience in secondary school Italian language learning. The main focus of the peer group interaction task included the exploration of visual sequencing and visual integration (Bailey, O'Grady-Jones, & McGown, 1995) using image and text to create a comic strip narrative in…

A Web 2.0 environment that is coupled with emerging multimodal interaction tools can have considerable influence on team learning outcomes. Today, technologies supporting social networking, collective intelligence, emotional interaction, and virtual communication are introducing new forms of collaboration that are profoundly impacting education.…

This study examined the degree to which teacher behaviors established as predictors of achievement generalize to Hispanic students. Participants included 995 students (68% Hispanic) across Grades 3 through 5 and their teachers (N = 46) in an urban school district in the Midwest. Classroom dynamics were measured using the Classroom Assessment…

Informed by linguistic ecological theory and the notion of identity, this study investigates language uses and identity construction in interactions among students with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds in a multilingual university. Individual and focus-group interviews were conducted with two groups of students: Hong Kong (HK) and…

The increase in accountability on both preK-12 districts and institutes of higher education has heightened the demands for partnerships between the two. Such programs have the ability to provide contextually focused, meaningful experiences by combining the theory and research knowledge of university faculty with the practical experience of…