Lack of motivation and of real-world relevance have been identified as reasons for low interest in science among children. Game-based learning and storytelling are prominent methods for generating intrinsic motivation in learning. Real-world relevance requires connecting abstract scientific concepts with the real world. This can be done by…

Studies have shown an association between argumentative discourse in science class, better understanding of science concepts, and improved academic performance. However, there is lack of research on how argumentation can increase student motivation. This mixed methods concurrent nested study uses Bandura's construct of motivation and concepts of…

The rapid progress of wireless communication, sensing, and mobile technologies has enabled students to learn in an environment that combines learning resources from both the real world and the digital world. It can be viewed as a new learning style which has been called context-aware ubiquitous learning. Most context-aware ubiquitous learning…

I will describe a program that I developed to motivate grade five elementary school learners of English in Singapore to put more time and effort into learning English by enhancing their vision of their Ideal second language (L2) self and making their goals for learning English more clear and specific. The Ideal L2 self is the representation of the…

The purpose of this study is to explore the influences of students' learning motivation on Web-based collaborative learning. This study conducted learning materials of Web pages about science and collaborative learning, a motivation questionnaire and interviews were used for data collection. Eighty Grade 5 students and a science teacher were…

Early exposure to science may have a lifelong effect on children's attitudes towards science and their motivation to learn science in later life. Out-of-class environments can play a significant role in creating favourable attitudes, while contributing to conceptual learning. Educational science theatre is one form of an out-of-class environment,…

This is a mix methods follow-up study in which we reconfirm the findings from an earlier study [Vedder-Weiss & Fortus [2011] "Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 48(2)", 199-216]. The findings indicate that adolescents' declining motivation to learn science, which was found in many previous studies [Galton [2009] "Moving to…

THE PROBLEM: This study investigated students' perceptions of the English Village Program at the Fong Shan Elementary School in Kaohsiung County, Taiwan. The main objectives of this research were to discover the fifth graders' motivation and attitudes toward (a) the simulated theme classrooms, (b) the native English-speaking teacher's instruction,…

The purpose of this study was to examine the positive impact of second language learners' cross-cultural awareness in the target language. More specifically, the pedagogical desired outcomes include: (1) exploring how students can increase their motivation in learning a foreign language by engaging in the cross-cultural activity "Sister…

The purpose of this research was to ascertain if the reading comprehension skills of English-speaking fifth grade students improve when they study a second language. The research was done in an inner-city elementary school in Rochester, New York. The researcher provided a weekly after-school workshop in foreign languages for a group of children…