The writer argues that there are significant gaps in the way in which academic literacy theory has been conceptualized in the South African context. Although there has been much research about the transition from school to university, school literacy has tended to be presented as self-evident and the implications of students studying in an…

The idea of engaging students in discussions of teaching and learning has not had as much attention in Greece as in some other countries. As a new high school teacher confronting the problem of motivating reluctant learners I drew on the research I had undertaken on pupil voice for my M.Phil. The research was concerned with features of pedagogy…

The purpose of this study was to determine the challenges that new business/marketing teachers face as well as the current support structures available to them and to determine experienced business/marketing teachers perceptions of the challenges faced by new teachers as well as the types of support that they were willing to provide to new…

In this article, the authors discuss why ranking has become so popular in schools. Those who promote ranking believe that it provides information to help parents and students choose a "good school"; that it puts pressure on the underperforming school to improve; and that it provides an opportunity for a school to be scrutinized through a…

Psychological availability to students defines immediacy, a concept traditionally measured using ratings of instructor behaviors. However, students' perceptions of their professor's attitude toward them may serve as a more parsimonious measure of psychological availability. In fact, ratings of a professor's attitude toward students are positively…

Using a literacy project as illustration, I make a case for action research as an approach for external innovators who seek to effect educational change. Collaboration between the innovator and those for whom the innovation is intended, rather than power, is the key ingredient in bringing about change. Clients must be actively involved at all…

The construct of emotional intelligence provides a framework for understanding emotional processes in students with reading disabilities. The components of emotional intelligence include the perception of emotions, emotional facilitation of thinking, emotional knowledge, and emotional regulation. This article examines underlying affective…

Interactivity in the classroom is reported to promote a more active learning environment, facilitate the building of learning communities, provide greater feedback for lecturers, and help student motivation. Various definitions of interactivity exist in the literature, alternately focusing on the participants, structure and technology. The "PLS…

Historically, conscientiousness-performance relationships have been modest, suggesting the need to examine theoretically-relevant moderating variables. Based on theory and empirical research suggesting that performance variance is maximally predicted in the presence of person and situation variables, we examined the moderating potential of work…

This study tested and extended Dweck's social-cognitive theory of motivation with adults who deliberately chose to face the challenge of returning to school. We examined the relationships among beliefs (implicit theories) on the nature of intelligence, goal orientation, cognitive engagement in learning, and achievement using path analyses.…

This study linked gender, family help, and grade level to 5 features of homework management reported by 238 rural middle school students. The 5 features studied were setting an appropriate work environment; managing time; and controlling attention, motivation, and potentially interfering emotions. No significant differences were found across grade…

Little is known about how successful students in Web-based courses self-regulate their learning. This descriptive case study used a social cognitive model of self-regulated learning (SRL) to investigate how six graduate students used and adapted traditional SRL strategies to complete tasks and cope with challenges in a Web-based technology course;…

This study investigated ego developmental differences in adolescent academic orientations and academic achievement. A sample of 142 male and female high school students completed the Washington University Sentence Completion Test and self-report measures assessing academic locus of control, learning orientation (LO), and grade orientation (GO).…

Examination of motivational dynamics in academic contexts within self-determination theory has centered primarily around both the motives (initially intrinsic vs. extrinsic, later autonomous vs. controlled) that regulate learners' study behavior and the contexts that promote or hinder these regulations. Less attention has been paid to the goal…

This study examined whether contextual and personal motivational variables, taken from self-determination theory, could predict student cognitive and affective experiences in school physical education (PE), as well as participation in optional PE in the following school year. Structural equation modeling analysis with a sample of 302 British…