Student psychology--how the classroom looks and feels from the perspective of the student--can powerfully affect motivation and learning, and experiments are increasingly showing that even brief interventions to change psychology can boost achievement over months or years. When paired with other structural reforms, social-psychological…

An important dimension of teachers' professional judgments is connected to their educational values and ideals. Teachers' professional judgments are not only informed by instrumental considerations but also affected by what they consider to be educationally worthwhile, that is, what teachers consider to be in their pupils' best interest. This…

This review essay of "Producing Success: The Culture of Personal Advancement in an American High School" by Peter Demerath focuses on the theory of cultural dysfunction. It places the book within a theoretical tradition of social reproduction and status attainment using other ethnographies by Varenne and McDermott, Lareau, and Howard. It argues…

Students' adjustment to the university environment is an important factor in predicting university outcomes and is crucial to their future achievements. University support to students' transition to university life can be divided into three dimensions: academic adjustment, social adjustment and psychological adjustment. However, these…

Nationwide statistics show that English Learners in grades 6-12 are often among the lowest performing students in all academic areas and have some of the highest rates of dropout. Their academic deficiencies are usually attributed to their limited English language proficiency, often ignoring the social-emotional, behavioral, and cognitive problems…

This study examined the effects of instructor support and students' global academic motivation on students' course-specific intrinsic motivation. The authors hypothesized, based on self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000), that instructor support for students' psychological needs would enhance intrinsic motivation. Students reported their…

Adolescents' emotional engagement plays a critical role in promoting their academic performance as well as overall psychological wellbeing. As a part of a 3-year longitudinal study, this study drew upon self-determination theory to examine three psychological predictors of emotional engagement within specific learning contexts. Ninety-four, low…

Students learn in and out of a formal classroom, and instructors and academic advisors play key roles in academic motivation and learning. Therefore, through the lens of self-determination theory, we examined the ways perceived support from instructors and advisors relates to satisfaction of college students' basic psychological needs. Advisor and…

Self-determination theory (SDT) assumes that inherent in human nature is the propensity to be curious about one's environment and interested in learning and developing one's knowledge. All too often, however, educators introduce external controls into learning climates, which can undermine the sense of relatedness between teachers and students,…

This study examined the associations between symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and social and school adjustment (academic performance, peer relationships, school social problems) and the moderating roles of children's age and maternal parenting (affection and overprotection) in these associations. The sample consisted of…

Student success results from positive learning environments which strive to meet the basic psychological needs of students, foster self-determined forms of motivation, and cultivate learning outcomes such as knowledge transfer, meta-cognition, and engagement. Low first-year student retention rates lead many universities to assess factors…

According to traditional theories of identity development, exploration of one's potentials and commitment to a coherent set of values, goals, and behaviors are important to healthy identity development. In this article, I examine how the Self-determination Theory framework provides an understanding of motivational processes that influence these…

Introduction: This study examines the relationship between student basic need satisfaction (autonomy, competence, relatedness and belonging), their reporting of approaches to learning (deep and surface), their reporting of avoidance strategies (avoidance of effort and challenge, avoidance of help seeking and preference to avoid novelty) and…

Drawing on data from the Education Longitudinal Study 2002 (ELS:2002), this study examined psychological factors, student engagement and student achievement in relationship to the process of dropping out. Student engagement has been included in many theoretical models of the dropout process, but few empirical studies have investigated the role of…

This 17th edition of "Education Week's" annual "Quality Counts" report takes aim at an issue freighted with emotional as well as policy implications: the impact of a school's social and disciplinary environment on students' ability to learn and on the teachers and administrators tasked with guiding them. National initiatives to improve schools…