This research examined if mothers' day-to-day praise of children's success in school plays a role in children's theory of intelligence and motivation. Participants were 120 children (mean age = 10.23 years) and their mothers who took part in a 2-wave study spanning 6 months. During the first wave, mothers completed a 10-day daily interview in…

The purpose of this case study was to determine the perceptions of students, faculty, and parents about the JostensRenaissance Program® (JRP) on overall school climate in a New Jersey middle school. The population for this research consisted of fifth through eighth grade students who participated in the JRP during the 2011-2012 school year, as…

The current study examined students' perceptions of the effects of different forms of instructional feedback on their performance, motivation, and emotion. Forty-nine students attending an eastern US university participated in focus group discussions. The groups explored students' reactions to grades, praise, and computer versus instructor…

Compares opinions of British teachers and students toward educational incentives and deterrents. Little change has occurred in the responses of teachers and students over the 24 years. Differences of opinion are evident between pupils and teachers, especially with regard to corporal punishment as a deterrent and adult approval as an incentive.…

An analysis of the concept of motivation in learning situations and of factors related to it is presented. Part I of the book focuses upon basic principles of motivation, which is defined as the extent to which stimuli effect the presence or absence of a given behavior. Other concepts discussed include competing behaviors, reinforcement, and…

This study was designed to ascertain whether reading achievement and attitude toward reading of students in grades two, four, and six can be improved through implementation of a token system within regular reading programs. Two schools were assigned to the experimental and two to the control treatment, with an equal number of classrooms from the…

Communications to college students about the value of their composition are better expressed in words than in letter grades. Research by Sweet and Seidman suggests that free-style, positive comment on student papers produces a markedly improved attitude toward writing. The author's own research reveals that in the presence of positive, free…

For decades, educators have been concerned with the problem of truancy. Accordingly, this report focuses on an absentee improvement program at a rural, lower-middle class, predominantly white elementary school with 722 students that had a history of high truancy, as verified by teachers, the administration, the school counselor, staff, and…

Development of cognitive competence and constructive patterns of motivation and behavior in the disadvantaged child are the topics of this paper. Five subjects are explored: (1) the potency of models, (2) social reinforcement, (3) intensive relationships, (4) group forces, and (5) superordinate goals. The first two subjects cover basic processes…

This report discusses several motivational concepts and their relevance to racial differences in intellectual achievement in the United States. One theoretical model of achievement motivation suggests that for Negroes in predominantly white intellectual-academic situations, the value of success is high while the expectancy of success is low,…

The nature and function of language fairs are explored in this article. Seen as a source of student motivation toward second language learning and as a means of improving public relations with the community, the language fair is described as being a miniature carnival in the planning and operation of which students, parents, and teachers…

A return to basic inductive research methods is recommended. Specifically, the scientific method of "strong inference" ought to be applied in attempts to prove hypotheses concerning the relationship that may exist between attitude variables and the learning of a second or foreign language. These hypotheses, drawn from the literature and discussed…

The report is a study of the utility of social reinforcement for improving Air Force training. It was conducted through a field evaluation of social incentive instructional systems which would serve to improve student motivation, classroom performance, and attitudes. The participants included a total of 300 trainees from two Air Force bases; 25…