Working at the sixth grade level, the authors write about their effort to interest students in current events and their historical roots. This article outlines a series of learning experiences and assessments that the authors created for sixth grade students at Lockhart School in Massapequa, New York. These learning experiences culminated in a…

Examined whether autonomy-support would have a positive effect on self-motivation and well-being. U.S. and Russian high school students completed measures of perceived parental and teacher autonomy-support, academic motivation, and well-being. Russian students perceived parents and teachers as more controlling than did U.S. students. In both…

This study used a Vygotskian perspective to compare child rearing values and beliefs of parents, especially in regard to self-directed activities of children, in the United States, Russia, and Estonia. Participating were 60 families, evenly divided by society and social class (middle or working class), each with a child between 28 and 45 months…