Some educators have suggested that compulsory attendance legislation should be eliminated or that the number of required years be reduced. They assert that some students cannot be successful in school and others lack the willingness to learn. This paper presents findings of a study that examined the effect of student attendance and grades. The…

Goal orientations in high school students may be grouped into learning (e.g., mastery) and performance (e.g., grades, competition) goals. Past research on students' goals is reviewed. Students' motivation for achievement is complex. Given the importance of fostering and strengthening learning goal orientations in high school as well as in college,…

Developing self-motivated, empowered middle school students is an ongoing struggle for teachers and administrators. This practicum was designed to address the problem teachers have in finding specific teaching strategies that would help students become empowered and self-motivated learners. This study focuses on directly integrating techniques…

Arguing that a thorough understanding of time and its use in school learning may help improve the schools the author reviews the research pertaining to models of school learning, mastery learning, and the parameter of time in the learning process. (JM)

In order to determine the extent to which Pass/Fail grading affects the learning process by altering student motivation, the author studied the grades of 61 Pass/Fail and 61 traditionally graded students who had enrolled in the "Introduction to Africa" course at York College (Pennsylvania) during the three semesters of 1973-74. All…

Studies were some problems of learning motivation and extrinsic reinforcement in a group of disadvantaged youngsters. Also tested was the hypothesis that learning would be facilitated for those children who received regular individual tutoring in addition to classroom instruction, regardless of conditions of reinforcement. Subjects were 60 Negro…

The purpose of this study is to examine and assess the expectations, needs and opinions of educationally deficient adults on their returning to school for academic upgrading. The hypothesis to be tested is that programs of academic up-grading for adults, which belong to a new field and suffer many of the uncertainties that pervade all fields of…

The early development of the Academic Motivations Inventory, a self-report measure of the academic motivations of college students, is described. Validation and reliability studies suggest that, at present, the instrument could be used to assess motivation of a group or class of students, but not yet as individuals. (Author/JKS)

One hundred and seventy-nine first to fourth graders who had experienced one or more of six health problems were judged by classroom teachers to have more serious school adjustment problems and fewer school competencies than a demographically matched peer group of 710 youngsters who had not experienced such problems. (Author)

The results of this issue's series of articles are summarized, and implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed. Initial academic achievement was the strongest predictor of student achievement. The impact of attentiveness, motivation, student background, sex, and time on task were also described. (GDC)

This study examined the factors that best predict which elementary school children will transfer out of a French immersion program. Learner characteristics, teacher and parent evaluations, and family background were examined. Analyses suggest that attitudinal and motivational factors are of primary importance to the continuation of second-language…

Examines the cognitive, academic, social psychological, and linguistic consequences of transferring poor achieving English-speaking students out of French immersion programs. Data suggest that the child's basic cognitive and affective characteristics rather than factors associated with language of instruction influence academic achievement, as…

This paper investigates the joint effects of intrinsic and extrinsic goals on college students' learning in an introductory psychology course, a biology course, and several social science courses. The study questioned whether higher levels of motivation lead to better student performance. College students were surveyed using the Intrinsic Goal…

The effects of students' sense of self-determination as a motivational force in art learning were investigated. Several hundred sixth graders participated in the study. All four outcome measures revealed differences favoring the student-choice condition. Both achievement and attitudes are improved when students' sense of self-determination is…