Learning strategies and affective factors could have a profound impact on student standardized mathematics performance. This study investigated gender differences in affective factors, learning strategies, and preferred learning situations, and how these variables affect math achievement of 15 year olds in the United States and Hong Kong on the…

This study explores opportunity costs of postsecondary education in the U.S. in the past three decades. Based on human capital theory, data from the U.S. Census, along with parameters for high education achievement (involving bachelors and advanced degrees), were fed into a forecasting model developed for this purpose. Beyond descriptive…

Since the passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the time spent talking about, preparing for, and taking tests has increased exponentially in schools. The authors contend that all this testing has done little to increase achievement or close achievement gaps, but has had unintended negative consequences. "The tests," they write,…

Background/Context: Student motivation typically has been studied as it relates to extrinsic (e.g., reinforcement) and intrinsic (e.g., choice) sources of influence. Our observation of Grades 3-5 classrooms engaged in Comprehensive School Reform (CSR), however, unexpectedly indicated that opportunities for both rewards and choice were scarce. This…

Although studies on self-efficacy and attribution have independently contributed to the motivation literature, these two constructs have rarely been considered together in the domain of foreign language learning. Here, 500 undergraduates in Spanish, German, and French courses were asked to report whether test scores represented a successful or…

In order to adapt current subjects to the ECTS credits system, it is necessary to estimate how much time a student has to invest in learning a subject. The Polytechnic Engineering School of the University of the Basque Country has made an initial study to investigate this matter in several subjects. A weekly questionnaire design was used for all…

Background: Many studies have revealed that there is a significant decrease over time in high-school students' attitudes towards mathematics learning. Some authors conclude that motivation in mathematics stabilizes or improves around grade 9; others propose that the decline is continuous. It is unclear if girls or boys are more affected by this…

Does the use of rewards to motivate children to learn or to follow classroom rules run counter to fostering a true desire for mastery? This column, which consists of two separate articles, provides the opposing opinions of the authors regarding the appropriateness of giving rewards in an early childhood classroom. In "Using Rewards in the Early…

This article reports that educators are still searching for the right blend of academic and developmental strategies for middle school students. More than a decade after a prominent group of middle-grades reformers set out to infuse higher academic standards into what critics deemed the touchy-feely world of middle schools, many teachers are still…

Does motivating students to study harder with the promise of cash sound like innovation--or bribery? That's a question educators and researchers have been debating, amid concerns that money-for-achievement programs actually decrease students' intrinsic motivation to learn and send mixed messages about studying. But the idea is catching on, with…

The front handspring is an important gymnastics skill that serves as a transition from beginner-level rolling and static balances to more advanced tumbling. It is, therefore, a skill highly desired by beginners. Early learning requires a great deal of effort during which students experience many failed attempts. Unless they are highly motivated,…

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between college EFL students' autonomous learning capacity and motivation in using web-based Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in China. This study included three questionnaires: the student background questionnaire, the questionnaire on student autonomous learning capacity, and…

Although cultural stereotypes of Asian students as being prone to rote learning, passive and teacher-dependent have been under criticism, the issue of the extent to which Asian heritage culture impacts on Asian students' learning attitudes and behaviour warrants further investigation. This paper reports on an empirical study which compares…

The study aimed at investigating the relationships among career development, learning motivation, and learning satisfaction of adult learners in master's programs at S University. Questionnaires were distributed with 211 valid returns (71%). The results indicated that some of the demographics are factors affecting both of the learners' learning…

Previous research has devoted a great deal of attention to describing the long-term patterns and relationships among trait-level or situation-specific variables. The present discussion extracts kernels of wisdom, based on the literatures on language anxiety and language learning motivation, that are used to frame the argument that choosing to…