This article reports on a small-scale qualitative study that investigates how intrapersonal and environmental factors shape the beliefs and experiences of four talented Hong Kong sportsperons. Research questions focus on how their talents were identified and developed, obstacles they encountered, and the major influences on their development.…

The objective of the study is to determine the suitability of the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) in assessing Malaysian form one students' intrinsic motivation gained through the tasks engagement in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) literacy class. 236 students completed the IMI in Bahasa Malaysia version. The reliability value…

The paper measures the soft skills needs of companies and industry to technical oriented academic graduates, especially coming from IT course programs like business informatics, computer science, or information management. Therefore, between March and September 2010, two groups of researchers at the University of Applied Sciences (UAS) Technikum…

The study reported on here sought to better understand the development of writing talent from the perspectives of a group of gifted adolescent female writers. Recent shifts in how giftedness and talent are conceptualized has led to an increased focus on domain-specific abilities and the importance of understanding how specific talents can be…

The need related behavioral dynamics that are revealed in self-determination and academic motivation research control factors which pinpoint and examine settings that facilitate self-motivation and well-being. This study examined differences in motivational and self-determination behaviors among three ethnic groups of Nigerian university students…

In the present research, a 3 x 2 model of achievement goals is proposed and tested. The model is rooted in the definition and valence components of competence, and encompasses 6 goal constructs: task-approach, task-avoidance, self-approach, self-avoidance, other-approach, and other-avoidance. The results from 2 studies provided strong support for…

The aim of this paper is to decipher the essence of the joy of learning and the ways to enhance it at school. In the field of educational psychology, research on feelings is lacking, and the little that does exist has focused more on negative rather than positive feelings. The present paper is based on ethnographic and observational research of a…

The number of students from the under-graduate level who have successfully completed their studies is on the increase every year. In the selection process for the best employee-candidate, employers have to take into consideration several factors other than academic excellence, including values that depict EQ or emotional intelligence. This study…

Against the background of vast changes in doctoral education and the emergence of non-traditional doctoral programmes, this paper investigates the habitus of non-traditional PhD students at a South African university. Bourdieu's conceptual tool of habitus informed the study. In-depth and open-ended interviews were conducted with 10 non-traditional…

This article addresses what factors best motivate individuals to work toward shared goals. We propose that when individuals do not identify highly with a group, their contributions will mimic others': An emphasis on things done will increase their contributions toward achieving a goal, because such emphasis suggests the goal is worth pursuing.…

This study explores Chinese learners' metacognition in EFL pronunciation learning as well as the effectiveness of helping the learners to improve their English pronunciation by metacognitive instructions. By means of preliminary interviews and a questionnaire survey carried out in seven universities across mainland China, six factors of…

This paper describes a qualitative case study that investigated the aspirations and decision-making process of first-generation students concerning university education. The participants comprised of 16 first-generation students at a research university. Data were obtained through interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis method. The…

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…

This study draws on the perspectives of educators to explore the factors and processes underlying wisdom development. We interviewed 25 wise Taiwanese nominees and used a grounded theory method to analyze the qualitative data. The wise nominees mentioned eight facilitative factors, including work experiences, life experiences, social interactions,…

This paper explores incentives for students to engage with continuous learning outside the classroom, i.e. independent study. Two questionnaires were completed with undergraduate students, asking them quantitative and qualitative questions regarding their engagement (or lack thereof) with weekly readings which are non-assessed and non-monitored.…