Based on survey responses from 187 parents of students who attended the Saturday Enrichment Program (SEP) at the Center for Talent Development (CTD) of Northwestern University, this study showed that overall, parents perceived favorable effects of the program on their children's talent development, especially academic talent development. As a…

The present study investigated the perceptions of both pupils and staff at a pupil referral unit (PRU) towards the reward system currently in use. The main aims were to establish whether teachers and pupils perceived the same rewards as effective, to determine whether staff and pupils perceived that rewards changed behaviour, and finally whether…

Research on the links between bilingualism and emotion suggests that when a second language is learned postpuberty or in adulthood, the two languages of an individual may differ in their emotional impact. The works of bilingual writer Nancy Huston offer unique insight into the process of ascribing differential emotional value to first and second…

The emergence of numerous learning style models over the past 25 years has brought increasing attention to the idea that students learn in diverse ways and that one approach to teaching does not work for every student or even most students. We have reviewed five learning style instruments (the Kolb Learning Style Indicator, the Gregorc Style…

In the field of SLA, there have been various attempts to define second language learning motivation and to discover relationships between motivation and gender. Using two well-known motivational models: Expectancy-value theory, and Gardner's Socio-educational model, the present study sought to (1) first define foreign language learning motivation…

This paper reports results of intensive field work in urban high school mathematics and science classrooms based on research with students attending eight high schools located in large, disparate urban sites across the U.S. During the course of our observations and interviews we recorded students' activities as well as their impressions of…

Proposes a theoretical psychological model for strategy instruction. Describes the complexity of the profile of a competent strategy user. Comments on important strategy instruction. (DE)

Examines the reliability and validity of the scores of the Assessment of Academic Self-Concept and Motivation Scale (AASCM), a new instrument developed according to motivational systems theory. The AASCM was administered to African American, European American, and Hispanic participants (N=492). Presents evidence of the measurement's strong…

This research attempted to discover the degree to which performance on assessments that have no direct consequences for individual students can be attributed to students' motivational states in addition to their underlying achievement in the domains measured. If such findings were reliable, it would allow us to correct underestimates of domain…

This paper reports the effect of continuous summative assessment on the behaviour and learning environment of students. Assessing the performance of students is considered to be the most important thing a teacher can do for their students and it can have a profound effect on their learning. Continuous summative assessment was introduced as a form…

This study investigated students' conceptions of constructivist learning activities in a problem-based learning (PBL) and a traditional curriculum. We examined whether students who have chosen for a problem-based curriculum have different conceptions of constructivist assumptions compared to students who have chosen to be enrolled in a…

This study examines out-of-school use of Irish and motivation to learn Irish among final year post-primary students from three different instructional backgrounds: mainstream students studying ordinary and higher level Irish as a subject only and immersion students. Information on motivation and use is linked to student proficiency in Irish.…

This study investigated ego developmental differences in adolescent academic orientations and academic achievement. A sample of 142 male and female high school students completed the Washington University Sentence Completion Test and self-report measures assessing academic locus of control, learning orientation (LO), and grade orientation (GO).…

There is concern among second language educators in Canada that male students are losing interest in studying French as a second language (FSL). In response, in the fall of 2003, a study was conducted to investigate gender differences in second language (L2) motivation among Grade 9 core French students. Building upon the traditional model of L2…

A general framework is presented to help understand the relationship between motivation and self-regulated learning. According to the framework, self-regulated learning can be facilitated by the adoption of mastery and relative ability goals and hindered by the adoption of extrinsic goals. In addition, positive self-efficacy and task value beliefs…