Used wisely, academic technology empowers students to take responsibility for their own learning. "In Leonardo's Laptop," Ben Shneiderman provides teachers with a powerful framework, "Collect-Relate-Create-Donate" (CRCD), for designing student-centered learning opportunities using computers. Shneiderman developed his model by…

During recent decades, the classical one-dimensional concept of achievement motivation has become less popular among motivation researchers. This study aims to revive the concept by demonstrating its predictive power using longitudinal data from two cohort samples, each with 20,000 Dutch secondary school students. Two measures of achievement…

Noting the growing consensus among researchers and policy makers that prevention of learning problems makes much more sense than remediation, this book reviews research into the effects of various early childhood interventions on the academic performance of young children, particularly those who are at risk for reading failure. The reviews…

Father-present and father-absent lower class Black kindergarteners were tested in school readiness, and two years later in academic achievement. Predictions of academic deficits due to early and continuing parental absence, as derived from Zajonc's and Markus's confluence model, were only partially supported. (Author/GDC)

In a social system that rewards participation instead of quality, student response to academic failure is based on two basic assumptions: (1) participation should guarantee passing, and (2) academic failure equals failure as a person. There are implications for schools, students, staff, and society as a whole. (SB)

Studies investigating intrinsic motivation and competition have supported the view that competition decreases intrinsic motivation. More recent studies suggest that the specific outcome of a competition (a win or a loss) differentially affects intrinsic motivation by highlighting the informational rather than the controlling aspect of the reward…

This paper examines the phenomenon of magazine success and failure as demonstrated by two regional magazines, "Southern Living" and "Southern Voices." The former, a combination of articles about food, travel, sports, and other positive aspects of southern life, was quickly accepted by its readers and advertisers and began…

A presentation of reasons why television has never been an integral part of instruction, and why it will not be in the future. (HB)

Urges the explicit recognition of boundary conditions in instructional development. (DAG)

Analyzes management styles of numerous leaders who failed. Presents these categories of styles not associated with success: dictator, blocker, withholder, brownnoser, butcher, non-delegator, worrier, troublemaker, malcontent, weakling, jealous executive, and no-conscience administrator. (Author/ABL)

Near-death experiences, profound subjective experiences occurring during a close brush with death and containing transcendental or mystical elements, have been reported to reduce suicidal ideation, despite their "romanticization" of death. Further studies are indicated in regard to the effect of those experiences on subsequent suicidal…

Research suggests that motivation of autistic children can be increased and that this may be a crucial variable in the acquisition, generalization, and maintenance of their treatment gains. Discussion focuses on effects of failure on motivation, learned helplessness, shared control and increased success, and strategies for increasing exposure to…

When people work together over time, certain key events stand out as having the potential to teach lasting lessons for the future. Leaders can use the Critical Reflections process to help their groups learn these lessons, whether the key event was a great success or a wretched failure. The goal is to affect future outcomes in similar situations:…

This article presents the history of a school's involvement in a curriculum founded on the principles of open education. The program as described, however laudable the intentions behind it, proved a resounding failure. (JA)

The focus of this statement from the computer industry is on types of failures and their causes. (MM)