Describes a teacher-researcher's investigation into barriers to student adoption of an alternative referent for learning and its consequential learning strategies in an 11th-grade chemistry class. Suggests that various contextual factors influenced students' willingness to adopt the alternative referent, and that students' beliefs, trust of the…

Examines whether and to what extent differences exist between learners of French, German, and Spanish with respect to range of motivational or motivation-related factors and whether the factor time has any significant effect in this. Concentrates on general or institution-wide language programs in universities. (Author/VWL)

Data collected for this study (n=88) of fourth- and fifth-grade students targeted the status of relationships among sociocognitive factors (confidence in writing, metacognition, academic motivation, and self-efficacy) with selected group dynamic features of task structure preference and audience awareness. Study and discussion of results are…

The attitudes of 100 Israeli-Jewish students toward learning Arabic and coexistence with Arabs within Israel were investigated, as was their evaluation of characters they read about in familiar and unfamiliar texts. The students were found to possess low instrumental and low indoors integrative motivation, but their army service motivation and…

Investigated the potentiality that culture studies has to motivate Tawainese junior-high-school pupils to learn English, and tried to establish the relations between pupil interests in culture studies and their orientations, attitudes, and motivation toward learning English. Grade 1 and 2 students (n=480) from Taipei City and Taipei County…

Notes that motivation for learning declines during the middle-grade years and presents suggestions for reversing negative trends in learning, students' willingness to accept challenges, and their feelings of competence and autonomy. Provides instructional-support strategies to address in the mathematics curriculum adolescents' needs for challenge,…

Japanese university students had the choice of pair taping--a fluency practice in which learners record themselves speaking freely in pairs--for an equivalent amount of time as their once a week English class. Results from self reports showed that learners who chose pair taping (73) over remaining in class (n=28) reported increases in ease of…

Examines the relationship between engagement in high school math and science classes, later academic performance, and choice of college major. Quantitative analyses are complemented by case studies of college students who exhibited high or low engagement in high school. (Author)

Investigates the effects of reading mystery novels on Hong Kong adult learners studying English for the purposes of pleasure or career development. Results show that novel readers made substantial proficiency gains, and that there were important motivational benefits as well. (Author/VWL)

In a study of 696 learners, the authors found that stress associated with challenges in the learning environment had a positive relationship with learning performance and that stress associated with hindrances in the learning environment had a negative relationship with learning performance. They also found evidence suggesting that these…

As every early childhood teacher knows, providing children with activity and material choices, stimulating multi-sensory activities, and positive support and novel challenges can truly inspire children's love of learning. Now there is the additional support of brain research. Marian Diamonds of the University of California at Berkeley reports that…

Educational psychology has a tradition of considering learning and motivation in terms of the individual and individual functioning. Short-term intervention studies have been common and quantitative measurement of the causes and effects of variables has been the aim of much research. When a sociocultural approach forms the basis of research into…

In this article, the author discusses the teaching strategy of the mixed independent school where she works, in which they split the students into four or five ability sets. The sets are decided primarily either by pupil achievement in the entrance examinations prior to Y9 or by pupil performance in the prep school. The author also presents the…

Ensuring that learning takes place in physical education has been a challenge to physical educators for many years. "Busy, happy, and learning" is a variation of Judith Placek's (1983) landmark concept, defined in her article "Conceptions of success in teaching: Busy, happy and good?" In this article, Placek argues that many physical educators are…

A description is made of the first steps taken towards the development of a model of epistemic beliefs, which is conceptually based on the learning process. In two studies, which were conducted in the domains of mathematics and physics, a quest was made to secure the first evidence of the usefulness of the model. The most important results of the…