In this analysis, socioeconomic barriers to talent development are explored from the vantage points of major thinkers and recent research findings in context-sensitive disciplines such as economics, sociology, and ethical philosophy. Insights drawn from these perspectives provide the basis for recommendations for educators of the gifted. (Contains…

A study compared motivational determinants of 22 students at-risk for language difficulties (in reading and spelling) and students with high language skills. The at-risk students exhibited significantly lower perceptions of goal importance, intention to achieve, belief strength, outcome evaluation, and normative beliefs, and eventually scored…

This article discusses a survey of administrators at an Alabama community college regarding faculty responsibilities and rewards. Respondents indicated that academic advising constituted the most important responsibility for faculty members. Professional organization conference planning and journal publications were among the least significant.…

Interviews Michelle Winslow, a fourth-grade teacher, and Pat Previte, a sixth-grade teacher in Massachusetts. Explains that the two teachers have a common vision for all students: one of engaged, strategic readers who can apply reading skills across all areas of the curriculum. Notes that the pair has transformed their reading instruction by…

Examined a model in which perceptions of autonomy support and informative feedback from teachers sustain generalized feelings of autonomy and competence in language learning Followed up on an earlier study by examining how integrative orientation relates to intrinsic and extrinsic orientations, which in turn support feelings of intrinsic…

Describes essential concepts related to the root of defining the child's motivation and the process of Montessori education. Emphasizes the "horme" (inner urge), normalization, the prepared environment, the Four Planes of Development, cosmic education, and the cosmic task in both natural and human context, and the new potential of the adolescent…

Reports on a study of 86 undergraduate students working in dyads in five sections of elementary education. States that students felt more pride when they perceived their ability as higher than their partner's, and had higher expectations for future success when they perceived their partner as more able. (Contains four tables and seven references.)…

Drawing on theories of educational motivation, this study investigated how perceptions of the school psychological environment predict change over time in educational expectations among low-income adolescent mothers. Findings indicated that teenage mothers' perceptions that teachers devalued them intellectually by underestimating their abilities…

Three experiments explored the conditions under which inductive inferences about people were made by children and adults. Results indicated that children often predicted that people would behave differently in the future than they did in the past. Younger children limited predictions of consistency to non-psychological events. Older children…

Surveyed the make-up of a sample of first- and second-year university-level Spanish learners at a major postsecondary institution in a city with a growing umber of monolingual and bilingual Spanish speakers. Results were used to address questions about learner preparation prior to entering a 4-year university course of study, preferred activities…

This study investigated the relationship between temperament and cognitive modifiability with 92 academically successful but disadvantaged Black South African adolescents. The Task Orientation and Personal-Social Flexibility temperament dimensions were directly related to learning, academic performance, and cognitive change. (Author/DB)

This approach to motivating at-risk students in elementary, middle, and secondary grades calls for direct involvement of students by relating quality literature to their frequently chaotic lives. The approach applies cognitive, affective, and psychomotoric higher order skills to reading and writing instruction. (Author/JDD)

Reviews issues raised in an earlier article that claimed that instructional media do not influence learning achievement or motivation. Topics discussed include differences between media and instructional methods; instructional technology; delivery technology; problems with meta analyses; thinking skills; cognitive processing; and research…

Discusses the following factors influencing learning: (1) environment; (2) emotional makeup; (3) persistence; (4) timing of learning; (5) teaching method; (6) cognitive style; (7) food intake; and (8) psychological factors, including the difference between analytical and global thinking. Discusses how to get a sense of one's personal learning…

Describes how junior high school students in Arizona combine what they have learned in ceramic history class with ceramic production skills to create their own personal ceramic heads in their images. (KM)