The structure of incentives and disincentives for student effort in school, and how this structure may be modified by educational reform, were investigated using data from the High School and Beyond (HS&B) survey. A framework was designed which blends sociologists' focus on school organization and educational stratification with economists'…

The relationship of minority groups' social class membership, their development of mobility goals, and the role of school tracking was examined through a survey of 350 Black and Hispanic high school students. A model was posited embodying the hypothesis that, among minorities, successful cognitive experiences in school contribute to the variations…

The problems of the training departments of offshore drilling companies are to determine novel rewards for trainees and to use these rewards correctly. Rewards are motivators and real or apparent satisfiers of needs. For some instructional goals, computer-based training satisfies many needs and applies many motivators to hold the trainee's…

Adolescents' developing sense of competence is based on two domains, ability and intelligence. Intelligence testing generally presumes a conception of ability as current capacity that limits the extent to which effort can improve performance. Conceptions of intelligence, and other skills, involve implications about the nature of different forms of…

This booklet is designed for public school therapists engaged in the treatment of stuttering in the elementary school. Over 50 questions are posed, regarding treatment of young stutterers in the school, and answers are provided by a panel of 10 leading authorities in the speech therapy field. Topics covered include: (1) differences between…

Plateauing is an individual's conviction that continued progress is impossible. This conviction occurs as a consequence of long periods of occupational stability. When practitioners doubt the probability of promotion or the importance of their work and find their work to be boring and redundant, they are exhibiting symptoms of plateauing rather…

A teacher of writing in English as a second language shares techniques and exercises that have inspired students to revise the rhetoric, vocabulary, and grammar of their own writing. They include: having students write about an unfamiliar classmate and having the classmate check the description for accuracy; distributing a model essay (Bertrand…

An overview is provided of the principles of cognitive psychology that can be used to enhance the effectiveness of computer-assisted instruction (CAI). First, the paper looks at the features of classical and operant conditioning that provide the foundation for important parts of mastery learning and CAI programs. Next, findings from four areas of…

The bibliography contains 64 annotated references to journal articles and other sources of information about individual difference correlates of second language achievement. The journal articles appeared between 1984 and 1987. Where available, abstracts contained in the original articles are used; these are marked with asterisks. Entries are coded…

This paper discusses the role of perceived self-efficacy during self-regulated learning, the process whereby students' cognitions manifest themselves in behaviors systematically oriented toward the attainment of academic learning goals. The conceptual focus derives from A. Bandura's social cognitive learning theory. A model of cognitive skill…

Examined were the effects on children's learning and motivation of the embedding of instructional materials in various fantasy contexts. Students in the third grade worked with graphics commands from the LOGO programming language under one of three conditions. In a control condition, students were given a series of abstract problems characteristic…

This report presents the findings from a study to describe how Americans in transition study for college credit and to establish the extent of degree versus nondegree study. Introductory materials discuss why and how the study was made and the annual rate of adult credit study. Part I describes the demographic characteristics of the 1,000 adults…

Arrangements in educational institutions for voluntary early retirement programs are discussed. Retirement at any age can be a profound and stressful lifetime change; and it can also represent a welcome transition into newly satisfying and rewarding opportunities. The focus is on: mandatory retirement (exceptions and the new meaning of "early");…

A review and synthesis of the literature on factors influencing faculty decisions to leave an institution are presented. From this review, Lazarsfeld and Rosenberg's "empirical analysis of action" methodology was selected as the foundation for a survey of 37 Arts and Sciences faculty, for whom the response rate was 51%. Each received a…

Community colleges in the United States and Canada share common problems going into the 1990s, including funding constraints, aging personnel, underprepared students, low morale, burnout, collective bargaining, and declining enrollments. Satisfactory resolution of these critical issues and problems depends heavily on effective leadership at all…