An intervention program was implemented to reduce absences, stimulate responsibility for assignments, and increase participation in extracurricular activities among disengaged ninth-grade students (N=18). Older students served as role models and peer mentors as they sought to establish that freshmen could control their own success or failure in…

This final report summarizes the purpose, procedures, and results of a study, initiated in 1980, which investigated the interrelationships among motivational variables related to 423 fourth through sixth grade students' sense of efficacy in the classroom, or classroom motivation. Sense of efficacy was initially defined as a student's perception of…

A study was conducted to determine whether participation in a summer bridge program influenced students' locus of control and improved their performance in community college. A comparison was made between two groups of full-time student participants in a state-supported academic and financial aid program for disadvantaged students with incomes…

South Carolina requires that prospective teachers pass an Education Entrance Examination (EEE) consisting of three parts--writing, reading, and mathematics. Minorities are having difficulty passing the mathematics portion of this test. This study investigated the effects of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) on basic skills mathematics…

A series of studies underway at the Audience Research Facility at MIT (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) are examining the influence of interactive video on learning and entertainment television viewing. The first study compared the learning of spatial content from interactive (user controlled video games) versus observational…

Research has indicated that teachers with a humanistic orientation have fewer problems with classroom discipline and are less subject to stress than are those with an authoritarian approach. An investigation of teacher stress focused upon teachers' personality, ideology, gender, age, locus of control, and pupil control orientation. Participants in…

Personal and professional characteristics of student teachers and cooperating teachers and their relation to supervision were studied. Conferences between 20 student teachers and their cooperating teachers were analyzed. Participants self-administered five instruments at the beginning, middle, and end of the student teaching experience: the…

A summary is presented of the literature on motivation relating to achievement in the classroom. Special attention is given to how values, ideology, and various cultural patterns may serve to enhance motivation to achieve in the classroom. In considering what determines motivation and personal investment in educational pursuits, the following…

Our elementary secondary schools have hidden curricula which teach passivity, resistance to change, inflexibility, and submissive behavior in a world which is moving toward faster changes and heightened personal individuality. Class control with the teacher feeding information to the students like data to a computer can no longer be accepted as…

Several teacher motivation variables were examined for relationships to stategies teachers use for responding to problem students. During interviews, 98 elementary school teachers described general strategies to twelve types of problem students: (1) failure syndrome; (2) perfectionist; (3) underachiever; (4) low achiever; (5) hostile aggressive;…

Results are reported of an investigation of the relationship between preservice teachers' cognitive developmental level and their ability to teach effectively during student teaching. Other variables, including teacher locus of control, SAT verbal and math scores, and teaching effectiveness, were also examined. Elementary (N=22), middle school…

A sample of high school seniors was surveyed in spring 1972 to provide baseline data for the NCES National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972. The First-Followup Survey of this sample took place in fall 1973. This report describes how these young adults changed during this period of about 1-1/2 years with regard to their view of…

This study examined five student characteristics with the expectation that if interactive characteristics could be established, attitudes could be improved by assigning students to classrooms with the appropriate degree of openness. It was hypothesized that some pupils might be happier in a traditional, or structured, environment. Five variables…

Describes a study of sixth graders which was conducted to determine whether general ability or locus of control influences selection of instructional options in a computer-based lesson on four propaganda techniques used in advertisements, and whether the selection of options increases achievement on tests involving classification of new items.…

This brief paper suggests ways of involving students with learning disabilities and/or attention deficits in their own learning, with a systematic program intended to build self-understanding and a healthy internal locus of control. The program is based on the concept of multiple intelligences and the many different ways in which students and…