Educators commonly believe that praising students' intelligence builds their confidence and motivation to learn and that students' inherent intelligence is the major cause of their school achievement. The author's research shows that, on the contrary, praising students' intelligence can be problematic. Praise is intricately connected to how…

Examines the factor structure of the Academic Motivation Scale with a United States student population. There was some support for a 7-factor structure. Evidence of construct validity examining the relationship with academic self concept and academic achievement is mixed. Discusses ethnic and gender differences in motivation. (Contains 37…

Academic enablers have been defined as attitudes and behaviors that facilitate students' participation in, and benefit from, academic instruction in the classroom (J.C. DiPerna & S.N. Elliott, 2000). The purpose of this article is to provide practitioners with an overview of specific academic enablers (motivation, study skills, engagement, and…

Background: Self-handicapping is an attribution-related process whereby individuals create performance impediments/excuses to protect self-worth in socially evaluative environments. Thus, the prevailing motivational climate would appear to be an important factor when attempting to understand the situational self-handicapping process within school…

This study involving ninth-grade algebra students investigated whether learning in environments identified in previous research as effective (i.e., exhibiting high levels of learner involvement) elicit significantly higher levels of relevant achievement than do ineffective learning environments. (Author)

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of teaching students the use of specific learning and motivation strategies and substrategies to meet the cognitive and motivational demands of college. Findings indicate that training in learning and motivation strategy use contributed to GPA improvement. (Contains 17 references.) (GCP)

This study explored the impact of individual versus two-person group testing on graduate students' achievement and motivation to learn while enrolled in a 16-lesson educational research methods course. Students in two sections of the course were exposed to the same content and instructional methods, with one exception: students in one section took…

This study explored the impact of performance assessment versus traditional paper-and-pencil assessment on graduate students' achievement and motivation to learn while enrolled in a 16-lesson course on program evaluation methods. Students in two sections of the course were exposed to the same content and instructional methods, with one exception:…

Given that student retention is now one of the leading challenges faced by colleges and universities, research seeking to understand students' reasons for attrition is of critical importance. Two factors influence students' underachievement and subsequent dropping-out of college: self-efficacy and goal orientation. Self-efficacy refers to peoples'…

Student wellbeing can be considered a major output indicator of quality of education. A positive classroom climate can contribute to a higher sense of wellbeing. Interpersonal relationships between teachers and students are an important aspect of the classroom climate. This study investigated how student wellbeing was predicted by student…

This publication features a series of reports on how selected colleges and universities foster and assess student learning in twelve liberal education outcome areas, including writing, quantitative literacy, critical thinking, ethics, intercultural knowledge, and information literacy. Moving from goals to experiences, assessments, and improvements…

Taking into consideration President Bush's recent initiative that encourages Americans/students to learn "critical-need languages," this study explores the attitudes, perceptions, and motivation of American and international students regarding the teaching/learning of Arabic, one of the languages identified in the President's plan. The primarily…

What constitutes effective parenting? An international consensus has evolved that effective parenting makes important contributions to children's achievement. But the fundamental question is what constitutes effective parenting. Most of the research that has been done in answering this question has been done within existing school frameworks…

Among many studies focusing on the effect of learner and instructional variables on learning outcomes, few studies have investigated the learners' study habits and the mediating mechanisms among the learner and instruction variables in their influence on learning satisfaction and outcomes. This study examined differences in learning satisfaction…