This review focuses on recent research illustrating how performance goals show positive effects, similar to those of mastery goals. Many studies on students achievement goals and motivation have relied on two goal structures: mastery and performance. The mastery goal approach had the distinction of being preferred for its adaptive qualities while…

Considers the nature of motivation and its place in the development of reading comprehension. Uses A. Maslow's hierarchy of motivation as a heuristic for examining the motivational quality of several teaching methods commonly proposed for comprehension instruction. (FL)

Notes that contemporary poets are writing sensitive and imaginative poetry that offers children insights into life and fun. (FL)

Suggests that there is a paradox in the fact that schools remain aloof, rigid, and unchanging in the midst of a global communications revolution. Explains how teachers can relate out-of-school learning to in-school goals. (DB)

Examines the degree to which children's achievement-related beliefs could be predicted from their friends' beliefs. Friends showed consistent, albeit modest similarities with regards to their self-perception of competence, academic standards, and importance of meeting standards, and preference for challenge. Friends appeared influential with…

This article reviews the research suggesting gifted girls are motivationally disadvantaged as well as research on the task, social, and motivational conditions that may explain these differences. A feminist critique of the gender differences research suggests some research strategies that can address and redress some of the problems in research…

The article reviews theories of learning (e.g., stimulus-response, trial and error, operant conditioning, cognitive), considers the role of motivation, and summarizes nine research-supported rules of effective learning. Suggestions are applied to teaching learning strategies to learning-disabled students. (DB)

The trends in college student attitudes and activism in the 1980s are explored, focusing on patterns of attitudes, issues that motivate students, and the campuses on which activism appears to flourish. (MSE)

Entertainment is a valid instructional strategy to which students respond. Both traditional and high-tech methods of task engagement can motivate students without sacrificing rigor. Interesting topics can be taught by interesting instructors in interesting ways. (SK)

In Hong Kong secondary schools, students in the senior forms take competitive examinations to proceed to the next level, whereas those in the junior forms attend school regardless of their ability and motivation. To determine if this produces different classroom climates, 602 Chinese secondary school students were administered the Classroom…

The purpose of this article is to define formative assessment, outline what is known about the prevalence of formative assessment implementation in the classroom, establish the importance of formative assessment with regards to student motivation and achievement, and present the results of a content analysis of current educational psychology…

The purpose of this article is to chart improvement in student achievement by use of a new teaching strategy. An additional goal is to discover if an increase in student achievement might also increase students' interest, motivation, and sense of value in learning the subject (in this case, secondary social studies education). A third goal is to…

This article reviews research on the achievement outcomes of three types of approaches to improving elementary mathematics: Mathematics curricula, computer-assisted instruction (CAI), and instructional process programs. Study inclusion requirements included use of a randomized or matched control group, a study duration of 12 weeks, and achievement…

This review of the evidence regarding the motivational, pedagogical, and social factors which influence the effectiveness of new communications technology for distance education discusses the importance of new communications technology and the current directions of research in that area; motivational factors that are important in distance…

The types of teacher expectation effects found in the classroom are discussed, with emphasis on research involving teachers' expectations for and interactions with students believed to be of high or low potential. A model for use in understanding the dynamics of expectation communication to students is presented. (Author/MT)